Anderson Cooper paid an emotional farewell to CBS’s long-running investigative news program 60 Minutes Sunday, stressing the importance of editorial “independence” as a key virtue amid tensions at the network.
The remark appeared to be a swipe at the leadership of Bari Weiss, who was appointed as editor-in-chief of the network’s news division last year, and been accused of dragging its editorial stance to the right.
“I hope 60 Minutes remains 60 Minutes,” Cooper said in an interview for 60 Minutes Overtime to mark his departure after 20 years.
“There’s very few things that have been around for as long as 60 Minutes has and maintain the quality that it has, and things can always evolve and change, and I think that’s awesome, and things should evolve and change, but I hope the core of what 60 Minutes is always remains.
“I think the independence of 60 Minutes has been critical. I think also the variety of stories. When you see a 60 Minutes story and you’re like, ‘That was a really good story,’ it was a good story because it requires time, it requires patience, it requires money.”
Weiss took over CBS News in October 2025 – after Paramount Skydance acquired her media company, The Free Press, for a reported $150 million – but her tenure so far has been defined by controversy and upheaval, with top producers quitting on ideological grounds and reports of internal feuds as its ratings slide.
The discontent engulfed 60 Minutes in December when Weiss ordered the spiking of a segment alleging that “brutal and torturous conditions” prevailed at CECOT, the El Salvador mega-prison where the Trump administration has deported migrants.
The official verdict was that the piece “needed additional reporting” but the journalist involved, Sharyn Alfonsi, insisted that best practice had been followed throughout.
Anchor Scott Pelley advised Weiss to take her role “more seriously” and the report eventually aired with only minor changes on January 18.
The show has also been accused of sidelining veteran anchor Lesley Stahl since Weiss took over, with a recent high-profile interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu given to chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett instead.
It was recently reported that Weiss intends to further shake-up the program’s presenting roster by giving more airtime to the “MAGA-coded” Tony Dokoupil.
The latter began hosting CBS Evening News in January – introducing himself in a video in which he attacked “legacy media” for being too reliant on “academics or elites” – but has suffered a rocky start to his tenure, with the show mired in last place among the three major broadcast networks as critics accuse him of being too “Trump-friendly” in his coverage.
60 Minutes also came under attack prior to Weiss’s arrival during the 2024 election, when President Donald Trump accused the news program of editing an interview with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris to cast her answers in a more favorable light.
Trump’s lawsuit ended with Paramount settling in a $16 million payout and agreeing to release the complete transcripts of its interviews with presidential candidates in future.
In saying goodbye to CBS, Cooper – who is most often seen on CNN – explained that he wanted to spend more time with his children. He reflected that he himself had been “a weird little kid” who “liked watching news” and grew up revering the show’s legendary anchors like Mike Wallace, Harry Reasoner, Ed Bradley, and Bob Simon.
“60 Minutes has always been a place, at least for me, that you get to step into somebody else’s shoes,” he said. “You get to see things through their eyes and see what their struggles are and what they are facing, and you learn from that.”
Weiss has previously pushed back on criticism of her leadership, insisting that in order to survive CBS News must adapt.
“The majority of Americans say they do not trust the press; it isn’t because they’re crazy,” she wrote in a memo to staff, according to The New York Times. She has also said that 60 Minutes needs to be more “comprehensive and fair,” and called for more “viral” moments.