60 Minutes mocked over putting guest in bizarre ‘disguise’

Viewers watching a very serious segment on 60 Minutes were distracted by one shockingly bad choice.

US current affairs program 60 Minutes has been mocked online over its choice of “disguise” for an FBI agent interviewed on camera.

In the latest episode of the long-running program, host Scott Pelley presents an investigation into “Havana Syndrome”, a mysterious medical condition reported by some US government officials and military personnel that is thought by some to be caused by malevolent outside forces.

One such alleged sufferer, a serving FBI agent, was prepared to go on camera to discuss her experience of the controversial condition.

“One of them is Carrie. We’re disguising her and not using her last name, because she’s still an FBI agent working in counterintelligence,” Pelley explains, as the camera shows Carrie in shadows, her “disguise” being applied by a make-up artist.

Carrie gets into disguise …

“She says in 2021 she was home in Florida when she was hit by a crippling force,” the voiceover continues.

The next shot shows Carrie being interviewed – and it turns out her entire “disguise” appears to be nothing more than a blonde wig:

Her friends and family will have no idea it’s her.

There appears to be none of the usual attempts to disguise an interviewee’s identity: Carrie sits in full lighting and her voice has not been altered.

By 60 Minutes’ own admission, the program hasn’t even given her an alias. It seems its efforts to disguise her began and ended with picking up a blonde fringed wig from Hot Dollar.

60 Minutes’ attempts to disguise the program’s lead interviewee rather pulled the focus from the issue it was trying to highlight, as clips from the interview circulated on social media.

60 Minutes’ wardrobe department had a $10 wig and a dream.

“60 Minutes did a great job disguising their source. Nobody is ever going to be able to identify this woman,” one person sarcastically tweeted, sharing a clip from the interview that’s now been viewed almost four million times.

“The make up artist was like ‘let’s got with the ageing lady Gaga look’,” was one person’s savage response.

“Costume department really thought they cooked with the Sia wig,” another joked.

“Why not just black her out or something?” asked another person, while someone else claimed “there hasn’t been that level of identity deception since Clark Kent’s glasses.”

Many, many others questioned whether the clip wasn’t in fact an April Fool’s Day prank.

It’s not – the entire, 27-minute segment is up on 60 Minutes’ YouTube channel, and wig aside, it’s very much serious.