correspondent

While “60 Minutes” will soon have a new owner, the CBS newsmagazine’s next executive producer is coming from inside the family.

Tanya Simon, a 25-year veteran of the program, will take on the role vacated by Bill Owens in April. She has served as interim executive producer since his departure.

She is the daughter of the late Bob Simon, one of the best known correspondents during the program’s 57 year history.

Changes at the top of “60 Minutes” have been rare. Simon will be only the fourth executive producer in the program’s history and the first woman.

Simon’s appointment will be a relief to the program’s staff, where morale has been rocked by parent company Paramount Global’s battle with President Trump. The correspondents of the program signed a letter to company co-chairman George Cheeks urging him to give Simon the job.

Simon will have the backing of her colleagues who are thankful they won’t be dealing with an outsider who might not value the program’s editorial rigor and independence. But she will be faced with the challenge of navigating the operation after one of the most difficult periods in its history.

Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit against “60 Minutes” over the editing of an interview with his 2024 opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump claimed the interviews was deceptively edited to aid Harris in the election.

The case was labeled as frivolous by 1st Amendment experts and the settlement widely seen as a capitulation to Trump in order to clear a path for Paramount’s $8-billion merger with David Ellison’s Skydance Media.

While “60 Minutes” did not issue an apology or acknowledge any wrongdoing, the program is likely to face intense scrutiny going forward. Critics will be looking for signs of the program pulling its punches in reporting on Trump. In order to clear the Paramount Global deal with the FCC, Skydance has agreed to name a news division ombudsman that will report to the company’s president for at least the next two years.

“Tanya Simon understands what makes ’60 Minutes’ tick,” CBS News President Tom Cibrowski said in. a statement “She is an innovative leader, an exceptional producer, and someone who knows how to inspire people,” “

Simon got her start at CBS News in 1996 as a researcher for its other newsmagazine “48 Hours.” She joined “60 Minutes” in 2000, working with correspondent Ed Bradley on a variety of reports including the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. She went on to produce for nearly all of the program’s correspondents including her father.

Her work has earned virtually every major broadcast honor, including multiple Emmy Awards, the Peabody and the DuPont-Columbia Award.

Veteran ABC News correspondent Terry Moran was suspended Sunday after he posted a harsh criticism of the Trump White House on X.

Moran, 65, took aim Saturday at President Trump and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has been outspoken in his desire to see a step up in the deportation of undocumented migrants.

“Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater,” Moran wrote his post, which has been deleted. “You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.” He also described Miller as “vile.”

Moran went on to call Trump “a world class hater” adding, “but his hatred only a means to an end and that end is his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment.”

Moran, whose title is senior national correspondent, has been an ABC News journalist since 1999 and is not a commentator. He conducted an Oval Office interview with Trump in April to discuss the first 100 days of the president’s second term.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters Friday outside the White House.

(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)

In a statement, an ABC News representative said Moran’s statements violated the division’s policy.

“ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others,” the representative said. “The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards — as a result, Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt ripped Moran and called for action by ABC when the journalist’s post was raised during an interview Sunday on Fox News.

“This is unacceptable and unhinged rhetoric coming from someone who works at a major television network,” Leavitt said. “We have reached out to ABC, they have said they will be taking action, so we will see what they do. But I think this speaks to the distrust the American public have in the legacy media.”

The rapid suspension by ABC News demonstrates how networks are on edge over their news organizations antagonizing the Trump White House, which has shown a willingness to extract revenge on its critics.

Trump has asked Congress to cut off federal funding from public media outlets PBS and NPR, calling their programming “left wing propaganda.”

Trump is suing CBS News over a “60 Minutes” interview last October that he claims was deceptively edited to help his 2024 election opponent Vice President Kamala Harris. The suit — an obstacle to CBS parent Paramount Global’s deal to merge with Skydance Media — has gone to a mediator.

ABC News paid $15 million to settle a lawsuit Trump filed over statements by “Good Morning America” co-host George Stephanopoulos, who incorrectly said on air that the president had been liable of rape, when it was sexual abuse. Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger has asked that ABC’s “The View” spend less time talking about Trump, who typically leads the daytime talk show’s hot topics segment.

CNN’s chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt, whose 2021 story on a military contractor led to a defamation suit loss in court, announced Monday he is leaving the network.

“Tough to say goodbye but it’s been an honor to work among the very best in the business,” Marquardt wrote on X. “Profound thank you to my comrades on the National Security team & the phenomenal teammates I’ve worked with in the US and abroad.”

Earlier this year, a Florida jury awarded $5 million to former CIA operative Zachary Young after a jury found he was defamed in a November 2021 report by Marquardt on how Afghans were being charged thousands of dollars to be evacuated after the U.S. military withdrawal from their country.

After deliberations began on punitive damages, CNN attorneys reached an undisclosed settlement with Young.

A CNN representative declined to comment on Marquardt’s departure, calling it a personnel matter. One network insider who was not authorized to comment publicly said there was a feeling among many people at CNN that Marquardt had to go after the loss in court.

Marquardt has served as CNN’s chief national security correspondent since 2017. He was previously a foreign correspondent for ABC News.

Young lives in Vienna and has his business based in Florida. He was seeking $14,500 for getting people out of Afghanistan after the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal. He claimed his services were limited to corporate sponsors.

The business was described in Marqurdt’s report alongside interviews with Afghans who spoke about desperate efforts by people to escape, but they had no connection to Young.

Young’s suit said his inclusion in the story, which used the term “black market” in an on-screen banner, implied that his activity was criminal, even though Marquardt’s segment made no such charge. “Black market” was also used in the introduction of the report when it first ran on “The Lead With Jake Tapper,” other CNN programs and the network’s website and social media accounts.

CNN lawyers argued that the term “black market” was used to describe an unregulated activity, even though the dictionary definition describes it as illegal.

Young claimed the story destroyed his reputation and ability to earn a living — driving his annual income from $350,000 to zero — and caused severe emotional and psychological distress.