Veteran news anchor Chris Wallace, who is the son of 60 Minutes legend Mike Wallace and stepson of former CBS News president Bill Leonard, is now working for one of the investors of CBS’s new parent company and has repeatedly spoken with the network’s new owner.
In an interview with The New York Times, Wallace revealed that he recently became a senior adviser for news and media investments at RedBird Capital Partners, one of the top investors of Skydance Media, the company that recently bought CBS parent Paramount in an $8 billion merger.
“Mr. Wallace’s role is on the business side of the company, and he reports to Gerry Cardinale, the founder of RedBird,” the Times reported. “He said in an interview that any direct input for CBS News “is T.B.D.,” and that he was as likely to advise on strategy for RedBird’s other media interests, including The Daily Telegraph of London and the digital site Front Office Sports, as he was on, say, ‘60 Minutes.’”
Wallace’s new role comes months after he parted ways with CNN following the expiration of his contract. At the time of his departure from CNN, which was precipitated by CNN canceling his two shows and asking him to take a massive pay cut, the 77-year-old broadcaster suggested he would move to podcasting and independent journalism.
Instead, as he told the Times, Wallace eventually decided that he was pretty much done with being in front of the camera and interviewing newsmakers. “I had spent literally half a century booking guests, researching guests and questioning guests, and it just didn’t hold any particular excitement for me,” Wallace said.
“At this point, that isn’t something that’s in the cards,” he added when asked if he’d consider going back in front of the camera. “But having said that — and to mix a metaphor — who knows when an old fire horse wants to answer the bell?”
Prior to his three-year run with CNN, Wallace had spent 18 years as the anchor of Fox News Sunday, where he also moderated two presidential debates. However, after decamping the conservative cable giant for CNN in late 2021, Wallace said Fox News’ hard-right opinion programming made it “unsustainable” for him to remain there. Prior to his time with Fox, Wallace served as the chief White House correspondent for NBC News.
Meanwhile, with speculation swirling around the direction of CBS News under new Paramount chief David Ellison, especially following the politically strained merger process that saw Paramount pay Donald Trump $16 million to settle a “meritless” lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview, Wallace maintained that Ellison was a straight shooter.
“I am absolutely convinced that any talk about the new owners wanting to move CBS News in a particular political direction is absolutely mistaken,” Wallace said, adding that Ellison “wants a news organization that lives up to the tradition of Cronkite and Murrow and my dad.”
Notably, after the Paramount merger was officially completed earlier this month, Ellison’s first symbolic stop was to the CBS News offices in New York, where staffers told The Independent that he said “all the right things.”
At the same time, Wallace declined to talk about the Trump settlement or Paramount handling of 60 Minutes amid the furor over the Kamala Harris interview that sparked Trump’s lawsuit. Amid the previous Paramount leadership’s settlement negotiations with the president, the executive producer of 60 Minutes and the CBS News chief both resigned in protest, claiming their employment became untenable due to corporate interference.
Though he wouldn’t speak about the circumstances surrounding the settlement, Wallace did offer a perspective to the Times when it came to oversight of the network’s flagship news magazine.
“My stepfather, Bill Leonard, helped invent ‘60 Minutes,’ and of course my father was one of the first two anchors. In the early years, and in fact for years thereafter, it was routine that executives of CBS News would screen pieces and comment on them and expect their comments to be acted on,” he said. “I’ve been a little surprised at this notion that somehow ‘60 Minutes’ is an independent entity that isn’t part of CBS News.”
Furthermore, Wallace stated that he has spoken directly to Ellison several times and told the company’s CEO that he wanted “to help him in any way I can.” Still, even as Wallace insists Ellison only has the news division’s best interests at heart, concerns continue to swirl within the network as Ellison has been in talks to purchase Bari Weiss’ “anti-woke” outlet The Free Press, and his father Larry is a well-known Trump ally and megadonor.
In fact, on Friday morning, Trump heaped praise on Ellison and seemingly indicated that he expected CBS News to give him favorable coverage moving forward.
“I think the news is getting better. They‘re learning that they have no credibility,” Trump gushed. “CBS was just sold to a great person that I know very well. A great man. He actually just bought CBS. And I think he‘s going to do the right thing with it.”
Earlier this week, House Democrats sent Ellison a letter demanding documents and correspondence surrounding the Trump administration’s approval of the merger, stating that they were launching an investigation into whether anti-bribery laws were violated.
In particular, the ranking members of the House Judiciary and Energy and Commerce committees are seeking answers to Trump’s boast that he reached a “side deal” with Ellison to air $20 million of pro-Trump advertisements on CBS as part of the lawsuit settlement, a claim that Ellison has yet to specifically address.
The lawmakers are also inquiring about Paramount’s decision to cancel the late-night show of outspoken Trump critic Stephen Colbert days before the merger was approved, as well as Skydance assuring the Federal Communications Commission that it will review “complaints of bias” at CBS News and eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion policies after it took over Paramount.
“Two wrongs do not make a right—illegitimate demands from the FCC or the Administration do not absolve your company from wrongdoing,” the Democrats' letter to Ellison stated.
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