Sara Fischer

I won't back down from Trump or the mass ICE agents who threaten our neighbors because D.C.

is worth fighting for.

Hi, thanks for having me.

I'm ready.

Well, I think that three major correspondents signaling that they're going to stay on, including Leslie Stahl and Bill Whitaker, means that this show won't ultimately die.

If they had chosen not to renew contracts, Scott, I think that 60 Minutes would have been done as we knew it and would have been replaced by a far different product.

Because they're staying, I think you can and should expect the mission of 60 Minutes to carry on, but with a caveat, which is that

One, I do think there's some audience trust that has been lost, given Scott Pelley coming forward and saying he felt pressure to change his journalism in response to management.

And then, two, I think there have been some chaotic and confusing moments for consumers that—

they're going to have to reckon with when they decide whether or not they want to continue watching.

In particular, pulling that episode about Seacott down and only to air it a few weeks later unchanged.

So 60 Minutes won't go away, but I think that the trust has been burned a little bit.

In terms of what could replace it moving forward, you know, on the broadcast side,

They're facing such heavy cost pressures in traditional television that I'm hard-pressed to believe that anything from traditional television replaced it.

On the new media side, there are some bright spots where I'm very optimistic.

Right now, we're seeing a lot of nice momentum at the local level, Scott.

You'd be surprised about that.

But...

We are seeing philanthropists shift a lot of their effort and energy and money into starting local news startups that are commercially nonprofit, meaning they're going to get continued backing to break news and do investigations without the pressure of necessarily minting money.

And then the other area where I feel increasingly optimistic is the public definitely recognizes the need for investigative journalism.