Starting a new job is never easy, but Nick Bilton, the new executive producer of 60 Minutes, has had an extra rough first two weeks after firing veteran correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday. Lesley Stahl, Jon Wertheim and Bill Whitaker released a joint memo today condemning the firings but declaring their intention to remain in post.
CBS’s management has been accused of ignoring the demands of the (dwindling) core viewership and making top-down political changes to drag the station’s coverage to the right. In that spirit, Cockburn is offering Bilton some suggestions of feet to fill Pelley’s shoes.
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Olivia Reingold
The obvious choice, given the CBS leadership’s penchant for raiding new Ellison acquisition the Free Press for talent. Few people would do a better job of toeing the party line. She was widely and unfairly mocked for filming herself and not the wider room during the WHCD gunman debacle, but that’s because she knows she belongs in front of the camera, not behind it.
