Longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl defended her decision to stay at the show under CBS News boss Bari Weiss — out of “fear” that the iconic news program would “vanish” if she and a handful of other veterans left.
Stahl said she has “been under attack” from angry viewers since re-upping her lucrative contract after a massive editorial purge that claimed multiple high-profile correspondents, including Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, along with a number of senior producers.
“I myself have been under attack on social media because of my decision to stay at ’60 Minutes’ under the new regime. It was not an easy decision,” Stahl said at a Thursday luncheon.
“It was one I made with my colleagues Bill Whitaker and John Wertheim. There was an urge to walk out and protest in solidarity with our colleagues who had been abruptly and cruelly fired,” she continued.
“But we decided to stay out of a fear, a fear that if we didn’t, ’60 Minutes’ would vanish.”
The veteran journo, who being honored at a “Power 100” luncheon hosted by Daily Beast honcho Joanna Coles, admitted that the program’s “ratings have taken a hit.”
The show’s ratings are down roughly 15% overall compared to last season.
“Many loyal viewers over the last 58 years have tuned us out, we presume, in protest,” Stahl said.
“To those who stopped watching, I’m asking you please to come back,” she implored.
Although Stahl did not call out top brass — such as Weiss, her lieutenants and the show’s newly crowned executive producer Nick Bilton — she said she, Wertheim and Whitaker are “doing our best to fend off interference.”
Notably absent from the event was Weiss, who was invited but declined to attend, according to a source close to the situation.
The person speculated that the CBS News editor-in-chief wasn’t keen on going to an event put on by The Daily Beast, which has dubbed her “MAGA curious” and “MAGA coded” as part of a steady drumbeat of criticism.
Attendees who came to support Stahl included “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King, ousted former “60 Minutes” executive producer Tanya Simon, current CBS News correspondent Susan Spencer, and PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff, a longtime friend of Stahl’s.
Weiss took the helm of CBS News over a year ago, with a mandate from the network’s new owner, Skydance CEO David Ellison, to bring greater balance to the network.
Since then, she’s seen a steady stream of controversy, in terms of handling both sensitive stories — like a “60 Minutes” piece on deportations to El Salvador’s CECOT prison — and personnel.