The famed American program "60 Minutes," broadcast by CBS News, has seen a sharp decline in viewership, coinciding with mounting disputes inside the network over media coverage of the war on the Gaza Strip and Israeli settler attacks in the West Bank.
Data from Nielsen, the firm specializing in measuring viewership, showed the program's audience fell from about 10.2 million to 6.06 million viewers in a single week, a loss exceeding 4 million viewers and a decline of nearly 41 percent.
According to an article published by investigative journalist Amjad Tadros on the Al Jazeera Net website, part of this decline is due to the previous episode benefiting from the audience of an American football game that preceded its broadcast, but the indicators reveal a broader decline in the program's popularity, as it is considered one of the most prominent investigative programs in the history of American television.
The data showed viewership of the fourth episode of the current season fell by 12 percent compared with the equivalent episode last year, recording the lowest level for fourth episodes across the program's seasons in at least a quarter of a century, while viewership of the season's opening episode fell by 21 percent compared with the previous season.
The decline in ratings coincided with American press reports of disputes inside CBS News over an investigative report on Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.
According to these reports, a dispute erupted between veteran correspondent Lesley Stahl and the network's new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss over editorial amendments to the investigation, amid claims that management interventions went beyond customary editorial review.
Some sources indicated that the dispute prompted Stahl to consider resigning, which the network strongly denied, confirming that the investigation underwent fewer amendments than most of the program's reports and that it aired at its scheduled time.
The disputes were not limited to coverage of West Bank events, as reports revealed other tensions inside the network over management's objection to including the numbers of Palestinian victims in the Gaza Strip in a report prepared by correspondent Holly Williams on the anniversary of October 7.
According to Tadros, the network's foreign news official, Shaindy Rice, warned during a meeting with staff against violating administrative instructions, considering that non-compliance with management decisions could be classified as disobedience warranting measures up to dismissal from work.
These developments raised questions about the independence of journalistic work within American media institutions and the limits of administrative interference in addressing sensitive political issues, foremost among them the Israeli war on Gaza.
These disputes come amid a notable shift in the positions of segments of American public opinion toward the Palestinian cause. A Gallup poll last February showed that 41 percent of Americans sympathize with the Palestinians, compared with 36 percent who sympathize with the Israelis, a striking shift that marked the first time sympathy with the Palestinians has advanced, although the difference falls within the statistical margin of error.
Tadros believes this shift may be one of the factors that pushed the network's management to broadcast the investigation related to settler attacks, despite the internal controversy over its content, for fear that blocking it would lead to greater repercussions for its credibility.
Tadros, who spent more than three decades working at "60 Minutes," affirms that the program's strength since its founding in 1968 was linked to the independence of its journalists and their ability to hold those in power accountable, not to submitting to management's political positions.
He warned that editorial interventions based on political considerations could threaten the trust the program has built over nearly six decades.
He noted that the decline in ratings over a single week does not constitute conclusive evidence that the audience is punishing the program because of its coverage or internal disputes, but he considered that the deeper crisis lies in the possibility of eroding viewers' trust in media institutions.
These developments highlight the challenges facing American media in covering the Palestinian cause, amid escalating debate over press freedom and the independence of newsrooms from political and administrative pressures.
