’60 Minutes’ Boss Vows to ‘Pursue Stories Without Fear or Favor,’ While CBS Waits for Word of Whether Remaining Correspondents Will Stay

Maybe they will stay?

The new executive producer of “60 Minutes” vowed in a memo Thursday to uphold the CBS News property’s commitment to pursue stories “without fear or favor” and to not be “instructed by the ownership of the company” on sensitive reports, even as many at the Paramount Skydance news outlet continue to wonder if the show’s remaining correspondents — Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim — will stay with the program following a broad hollowing out of its senior ranks.

“The foundation of ’60 Minutes’ is its journalistic independence,” wrote Nick Bilton, who was named executive producer of the newsmagazine last week, adding: “We will always make the story the North Star — not relationships nor politics nor anything else.”

More to come…