Scott Pelley Says ’60 Minutes’ Has Been Free From Corporate Interference Under New Paramount Owners

Most of the honorees at USC Annenberg’s Walter Cronkite Awards, handed out on Friday, were recognized for holding Donald Trump’s administration to account or highlighting the challenges to American democracy.

Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes, which found itself at the center of Skydance and Paramount‘s efforts to secure Trump administration approval of their merger, was honored for a segment from April, “Rule of Law,” that examined the Trump administration’s threats to major law firms, with many signing agreements to provide pro bono work.

“We are all experiencing trouble getting people to appear on our broadcast because of the fear that has spread across the country and yet, given that limitation, we are still on the air telling stories, no matter how difficult it is for us to do our job in the way that we like to do it,” Pelley told the crowd at the National Press Club.

As the previous owners of CBS-parent Paramount sought to settle Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against the network, over the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris, there was fallout in the news division.

Pelley noted the departure of Bill Owens as executive producer and Wendy McMahon as the president of the news division, calling them “not managers; these were leaders in our profession, the most outstanding leaders in journalism I have ever known in my career, and it was heartbreaking to lose them.”

Pelley added, “However, I will say that in that season, last season, all of our stories got on the air. We got them all on. We got them all on the air with an absolute minimum of interference, nothing that anyone in this room would have been alarmed by.”

Paramount settled the Trump lawsuit for $16 million and, weeks later, Skydance committed to establishing an ombudsman in the news division as it sought the FCC approval of the transaction.

Pelley said that with the new owners, “We were all concerned at 60 Minutes about what that meant. It’s early yet, but what I can tell you is we are doing to same kinds of stories with the same kind of rigor, and we have experienced no corporate interference of any kind.”

The concern was that 60 Minutes would somehow face pressure to avoid certain stories on the Trump administration, as Skydance and Paramount sought to be in the president’s good graces as they sought the regulatory green light. Such a scenario could be in the offing again, as Paramount has launched a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, with hopes of upending Netflix’s deal to buy WBD studio and streaming assets.

Trump has said that he will be part of the regulatory process in any transaction, while he has continued to rail against 60 Minutes and Paramount itself, most recently for the show’s airing of Lesley Stahl’s interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), now one of the president’s targets. Pelley himself has done segments this season on issues including Trump’s pardons and the administration’s deportation policy.

Honoree Rachel Maddow was honored for her show’s segment highlighting the early nationwide protests against the Trump administration. That included showing viewers a grid of different demonstrations across the country, underscoring the grassroots nature of the pushback on White House policies.

Maddow called the protests and demonstrations “the story of our age” and “the story of our democracy right now.”

“It is not a Washington story, and it is not easy to cover, but right now, it is the most important story in the world,” Maddow said. “So I want to say thank you to my colleagues here, who have learned a whole new way to do our jobs in order to cover the story. I want to encourage all of you to look to the response of the people, and not just the way they are victimized and affected by those in power, because it is the response of the people that will decide whether or not we’re here next year, doing awards like this again.”

NBC News’ Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander was recognized for his pressing Trump with questions even as the president has lashed out at him and NBC-parent Comcast. In one instance earlier this year, Trump lashed out at Alexander when the correspondent asked him about the gift of a Qatari 747-8 jet, which will be converted into an Air Force One and later be transferred to the Trump presidential library.

Alexander said, “In those moments when I have been called out, shouted down or verbally smacked around, viewers always ask me how do you just sit there and not respond? My answer is simple. Those moments reflect on the other person, not me. My job is the next question.”

Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz, anchors of PBS News Hour, were recognized for the “On Democracy” series, which have delved into questions such as whether the United States is in the midst of a constitutional crisis.

Nawaz said that the series came about as the NewsHour team brainstormed about how they “tackle the big things” amid an unrelenting flood of everyday news.” “How do we talk about democratic norms under threat, rule of law being reinterpreted, press freedom under attack? How do we make sure that we don’t miss the forest for the trees.”

Bennett said, “The public looks to us as journalists for clarity…to ask the hard questions and to hold power to account with fairness and rigor, and this ‘On Democracy’ series has given us the space to do exactly that.”

Noticias Telemundo’s Julio Vaquerio, recognized for a report on the first 100 days of the Trump administration, said that rather than treated the Trump deportation policy as a political story, “We wanted to tell the story through the people who were affected by these policies. For our audiences, the changes in immigration policies are really the differences between families staying together or forced to leave, the difference between living freely or living in fear, and it is really critically important to hear those voices.”

USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center and the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania sponsored the ceremony, with the Lear Center’s Martin Kaplan as emcee and the USC Annenberg School’s Judy Muller among the presenters.

Also honored were Spencer Humphrey of KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City, OK, for a piece that challenged ICE’s explanation of their raid on a family’s home, even though they were not suspects; and Daniella Rivera of KSL-TV Investigates: Truth Test, recognized for fact-checking of claims of the impact of the flow of drugs across the border on Salt Lake City. The latter was an award named for Brooks Jackson, co-founder of Factcheck.org, who was in attendance.

John Dickerson, who is departing CBS News later this month, was honored for his essays for CBS Evening News Plus, which was recently canceled amid corporate cutbacks. Dickerson sent a video message, while the show’s executive producer, Alturo Rhymes, who noted that topics from the 164 essays included the DOGE layoffs, Justice Department layoffs and homelessness, “with a delicate balance of history, of facts and context.” He praised Dickerson for his commitment “to the mission of making sure that the American public has the vital information that they need in order to keep democracy in tact, especially in this moment in history when we are being tested by political pressure and yes, corporate priorities.”

Jon Stewart and The Daily Show received the first Walter Cronkite Award for comedic news and commentary.

In a video message, Stewart said, “Now generally we try to accept these things in person, but obviously in D.C., as you know, my passport no longer works there.” Stewart actually could not attend because of the opening of his Broadway show, while producer Shawna Shepherd accepted.