A longtime face of one of America’s most respected news programs is pulling back the curtain — and what he’s revealing isn’t pretty.
Veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft is torching the iconic CBS show he helped define for three decades, calling it a ruthless “snake pit” where paranoia, backstabbing, and nonstop pressure ruled the newsroom.
In a jaw-dropping interview with Bill O’Reilly on the “We’ll Do It Live” podcast, the 80-year-old journalist didn’t sugarcoat his experience.
“No, I probably wouldn’t do it again… I hated it,” Kroft admitted bluntly.
What many viewers see as a dream job, Kroft says, was anything but behind the scenes. Instead, it was a relentless grind that consumed his life — a never-ending cycle of travel, writing, editing, and high-stakes deadlines.
“You may get a couple hours… then you’re on jets again… writing for days… then starting all over,” he said, describing a pace that never let up.
But it wasn’t just the workload — it was the culture that left the deepest scars.
Before he even joined “60 Minutes,” Kroft said he was warned by legendary anchor Dan Rather that the newsroom was filled with “big cats” ready to take each other down. According to Kroft, that warning turned out to be dead-on.
“There was no civility,” he said. “If there was, you better check your wallet.”
The environment, he claimed, was so cutthroat that landing a coveted role instantly turned colleagues into enemies.
“You’ve all of a sudden made a bunch of enemies,” Kroft said. “It’s just… a snake pit.”
Inside the newsroom, he described a constant sense of suspicion — journalists looking over their shoulders, worried someone was ready to sabotage them for airtime or status.
“They think somebody’s behind them… going to put a shiv in their back,” he said.
Despite the chaos, Kroft was at the center of some of the most explosive moments in modern political history — including his now-famous 1992 interview with Bill and Hillary Clinton at the height of the Gennifer Flowers scandal.
The high-stakes sit-down, which aired after the Super Bowl, nearly didn’t happen — coming together at the last minute after Clinton canceled another appearance. But once the cameras rolled, Kroft wasted no time diving straight into controversy.
“So tell me who is Gennifer Flowers and how do you know her?” he asked — a question that stunned the candidate and helped define the race.
Hillary Clinton later blasted the interview as unfair, but the moment cemented Kroft’s reputation as one of the toughest interviewers in the game.
Looking back, Kroft didn’t hold back on his assessment of the former president either, agreeing with O’Reilly’s claim that Clinton wasn’t truthful during the scandal.
“If he was going to stay in this, he had to lie,” Kroft said.
Kroft ultimately walked away from “60 Minutes” in 2019 — but his latest comments are landing at a volatile moment for CBS News.
Behind the scenes, the network is reportedly in turmoil as new leadership, led by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, prepares a major overhaul following the Paramount-Skydance merger. Insiders say tensions are already boiling over, with layoffs looming and a push to bring in younger talent shaking up the veteran ranks.
If Kroft’s explosive claims are any indication, the drama inside CBS may be far from over.
