The New Republic reports:

CBS News chief Bari Weiss has hacked up 60 Minutes to the point that even show staffers have lost faith in the famed magazine show.

Weiss’s recent shakeup at 60 Minutes has involved the exit of several of the show’s major personalities, including correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi (who criticized Weiss’s decision to delay her report on a notoriously brutal CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador), correspondent Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon, and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich. Correspondent Anderson Cooper left voluntarily.

To replace the top leadership, Weiss has installed former Vanity Fair writer Nick Bilton, who, like her, has next to no formal experience in broadcast journalism.

But 60 Minutes staffers don’t see Weiss’s aggressive restructuring as an optimistic new era for the program—instead, there’s a near-unanimous prediction that “it’s over.”

Status reported on the maelstrom behind the scenes, citing “more than half a dozen” staffers.

“They’re gutting us,” one 60 Minutes employee told Status. “It’s over. I don’t see how ‘60’ will be able to function after this.”

“Goodnight and good luck, motherfuckers,” they added.

Another senior staffer told Status that “everyone—100 percent thought Tanya and Draggan did exemplary jobs.” [Continue reading…]