Former '60 Minutes' producer says he was pressured to apologize over Harris interview

The former producer added, "The only thing I could do was professionally blow myself up to create a blast radius around 60 Minutes to get people's attention that this was happening."

Owens also said he faced pressure over "60 Minutes" reporting on Gaza, as well as with coverage of Trump. 

"The Trump stuff they were very concerned about," he said. "I remember at one point I got a phone call from someone that was trying to be an intermediary saying: 'Do you need to mention Trump's name that often?"

Owens said Shari Redstone, a former Paramount shareholder, didn't like "60 Minutes'" coverage of the war in Gaza. The program ran a segment on former Biden officials in the State Department who left their positions over the administration's handling of the war. 

"She didn't like the story," Owens said. He said he was discouraged to report on more stories on Gaza, but said Redstone never called him directly.

"When I said we were going to do another Gaza piece, that was like hitting a hornet's nest," he said, according to The Guardian. "This idea that we were doing stories that [lacked] balance, on the face of it - it's just wrong."

Trump sued CBS News and its parent company, Paramount Global, in October 2024 over an interview on "60 Minutes" with Harris. Trump accused the outlet of deceptive editing and election interference. 

CBS did not immediately return a request for comment from Fox News Digital.