Veteran '60 Minutes' producer Henry Schuster exits program, takes verbal jab at Bari Weiss
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A veteran 60 Minutes producer has announced he is the latest CBS News employee to exit the longtime broadcast, taking a verbal jab at the network’s editor-in-chief Bari Weiss on his way out.
Henry Schuster, who was with the program for nearly two decades, wrote on social media this week that “it was time for a change” after accepting a buyout.
“It has been a great run at 60 MINUTES and what I got to do there was extraordinary,” Schuster wrote on his LinkedIn account on Monday . “But I have been thinking about leaving for a while now and when the opportunity presented itself in February, I took it. And finally, it is official.”
Exit ‘overshadowed by forced departures’
Schuster, who was hired in 2007 after working for CNN since the early 1980s, said his departure was not related to the recent upheaval inside the storied newsroom but had been “overshadowed by the forced departures of so many colleagues and friends at the broadcast.”
Skydance Media CEO David Ellison, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, bought the broadcaster’s parent company Paramount Global for $8 billion last year.
Weiss took over as editor-in-chief of CBS News last October following Paramount’s acquisition of her media company, The Free Press .
Weiss cleaned house
In May, Weiss gave pink slips to executive producer Tanya Simon, correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, senior executive producer Draggan Mihailovich, veteran producer Guy Campanile, and staffer Matthew Polevoy.
Veteran correspondent Scott Pelley was then fired after 37 years with the network following a confrontation with new 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton. Pelley was critical of Weiss’ handling of the newsroom shakeup, accusing her of “murdering” the news magazine by forcing the show’s editorial stance to be more conservative in tone.
The remaining correspondents — Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim — also criticized management’s handling of the forced departures but said they would stay on.
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Earlier in May, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said he was signing off from 60 Minutes after two decades after not renewing his contract in February, saying he wanted to spend more time with his children.
According to the New York Post , which cited a Guardian newspaper report, Schuster informed then-executive producer Simon earlier this year that he needed a break and was ready to move on.
‘Needed a break’
“When I went to Tanya [Simon] in February, I told her I was ready to go, that I needed a break,” Schuster wrote in a farewell message to colleagues.
“She could not have been more helpful, only asking if I would stay through the end of the season.”
Schuster said on LinkedIn that he was not retiring but will take a “bit of a break” before he decides what to do next, ruling out starting a podcast or a Substack.
“Maybe I will finally get my high school diploma, or see if I have another book in me. Or maybe something else….,” he wrote.