The legendary stopwatch is under new management—and it’s about time.
In a blockbuster move to restore sanity to television’s most iconic news magazine, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has officially tapped tech guru and author Nick Bilton, 49, as the new executive producer of 60 Minutes. Bilton’s high-profile hiring comes as the network attempts to rebuild its credibility following years of accusations of left-leaning reporting and anti-Trump hit jobs.
“That is why Bari hired me,” Bilton told staff in an introductory memo. “Evolving or dying isn’t a threat. It’s simple math.”
It's the honor of my career to become the executive producer of 60 Minutes. I just shared the note below with the incredible staff and can't wait to get started. pic.twitter.com/4PHmHJF3Bj
— Nick Bilton (@nickbilton) May 28, 2026
Left-leaning media critics seized on Bilton’s lack of television news experience, with several framing the hire as evidence that Weiss is remaking CBS News in her own image.
“I’ve Had It” podcast co-host Jennifer Welch ripped the decision, disparaging David and Larry Ellison, who control Paramount Global and CBS News, while describing Weiss as a “prostitute” ordered to broadcast “effusive stories” on President Donald Trump.
“The Ellison family purchased her and said we want you to propagandize all day, every day,” she claimed.
Former CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta also claimed Weiss is beholden to the Trump administration.
“The wheels have come off over at CBS and Bari Weiss only has herself to blame,” he said.
Journalist Katie Couric, who has been accused of bias by conservatives for decades, said Weiss “is woefully unprepared for this job,” saying, “Part of the problem was that Bari Weiss has never run a network news division.”
For years, critics accused 60 Minutes of operating as a protection racket for the Democratic establishment, alienating half the country in the process. Tensions reached a boiling point during the fallout from the now-infamous Kamala Harris “word salad” interview scandal in 2024, when CBS was caught selectively editing Harris’s comments about Israel for a more polished clip from a completely different part of the discussion.
The ensuing outrage sparked a $10 billion fraud lawsuit from Donald Trump, which concluded in July 2025 with a defeat for CBS. The parent company, Paramount, was forced to fork over a massive $16 million settlement.
The legal beating triggered a major upheaval inside the newsroom. Longtime executive producer Bill Owens packed his bags in April 2025 amid mounting criticism over the program’s editorial direction.
Weiss stepped in by October 2025, immediately flexing her editorial muscles.
In December, she spiked a planned Sharyn Alfonsi segment that smeared the Trump administration’s deportation policies while burying critical context about violent Venezuelan gang members tied to the story.
It wasn’t the first time the show had faced such accusations. In 2021, 60 Minutes drew bipartisan condemnation—including from top Florida Democrats—after unleashing a segment on GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis. Critics accused the show of deceptively editing footage to push a fake “pay-to-play” conspiracy involving grocery giant Publix while omitting facts that destroyed their desired narrative.
Meanwhile, the show also faced scrutiny for routinely coddling foreign dictators, including a 2022 sit-down where Lesley Stahl failed to adequately challenge Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who openly engaged in Holocaust denial.
Enter Bilton. The former New York Times tech reporter, Vanity Fair investigator, and mastermind behind bestsellers like American Kingpin and Hatching Twitter is vowing that the old days of partisan arrogance are over. Pointing out that consumers are now “stalked by algorithms” that weaponize anger, Bilton declared his top priority is fixing the network’s broken bond with the public.
“My responsibility is not just technological transformation. It is also our trust with the public,” Bilton said. “Above all, that means a commitment to fairness—in story selection, in the edit room, and in the broadcast.”
Whether Bilton can overhaul one of America’s most entrenched liberal newsrooms remains to be seen. But according to staff reports, employees have been given 30 days to make their case before major changes begin.