Longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft slammed the beloved CBS programming as a “snake pit,” and said he “hated” his time on the show.
Steve Kroft, who spent 30 years on 60 Minutes, told podcaster Bill O’Reilly in an episode of We’ll Do it Live! posted Thursday that if he were given the chance, he “probably wouldn’t do it again.”
“I hated it,” Kroft added.
The 80-year-old former correspondent noted he was never really sure if he would get to 60 Minutes, but what he thought might be a dream job turned out to be a more cut-throat and competitive environment.
Kroft said the relentless, 24-hour news cycle, along with the constant travel and writing needed for the job, left little to be desired. However, the toxic culture inside the famed newsroom drew his most scathing remarks.
“There was no civility at 60 Minutes,” Kroft said. “If there was civility … you better check your wallet,” he said, suggesting that friendliness often came with ulterior motives.
Kroft said his colleagues in the newsroom would keep their guard up, noting that everyone at the station “is so paranoid” and thinks “someone is behind them going to put a shiv in their back.”
"I can remember when I was tapped to go to 60 Minutes, I thought this was fantastic and I expected a lot of people would just come up and say, ‘That's really great, I'm really happy for you,'" Kroft said.
"And then you realize after a while that not everybody was happy that I got this job. There were other people that wanted it. And so then you've all of a sudden made a bunch of enemies… It's a snake pit,” he said.
When asked by O’Reilly if it was “any way to live” and if he would do it again, Kroft replied, “No, I probably wouldn’t do it again. I hated it.”
Kroft, who joined 60 Minutes in 1989, also touched on a career highlight — interviewing Hillary Clinton and then-future President Bill Clinton at the height of his 1992 campaign, amidst allegations of an extramarital affair.
When asked about the rumors, Hillary Clinton famously said, “I’m not sitting here some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette. I’m sitting here because I love him, and I respect him.”
Kroft retired from CBS in 2019 as the show’s longest tenured correspondent.
The network’s iconic 60 Minutes will reportedly see some major changes soon, under the leadership of CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
Weiss was named as the network’s top editor in October, to much criticism after CBS’s parent company, Paramount, acquired her “anti-woke” digital media outlet, The Free Press.
Under Weiss and Paramount boss David Ellison’s leadership, the network has already seen significant staffing changes. CBS News cut about 6 percent of its staff and shut down CBS Radio last month. This comes after Weiss told employees in January they should leave if they don’t believe she’s the “right leader” for the network.
Weiss shocked employees and drew backlash after she introduced herself to President Donald Trump and exchanged kisses on the cheek with him after his 60 Minutes interview in November.
A month later, Weiss canned a 60 Minutes segment about El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison just before it was about to air, a decision that sparked a “revolt” at the network.
Weiss defended the move at the time, telling The New York Times: “My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices — happens every day in every newsroom.”
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