CBS editor order tied to Good killing coverage

Bari Weiss – Scott Pelley says CBS’s new leadership pushed him to adjust coverage of the ICE officer who killed Renée Good in Minneapolis—including a request to portray protesters as “more violent” and to describe Good’s car as driving toward the officer. Pelley argues the

Scott Pelley had spent 37 years at CBS News before he was fired last week—after a fight that has now landed in public view, and with it a bitter dispute over how a highly charged story was supposed to be told.

In a New York Times sit-down interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro published Sunday, Pelley said Bari Weiss, the Free Press founder who took control of the network last October, personally interfered with CBS’s coverage of the ICE officer who killed Renée Good in Minneapolis.

Pelley told Garcia-Navarro that hours before a 60 Minutes episode on the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti was set to air. Weiss sent an email to his boss asking for changes to the segment. In Pelley’s telling. the message included a request to make protesters look “more violent.” He also said Weiss wanted Renée Good’s car described as “driving toward the officer.” Pelley told Garcia-Navarro he was paraphrasing the language because he did not have the quote.

The dispute turns on what CBS had shown on screen. Pelley pointed out that a video of Good’s final moments posted by CBS Evening News does not, in fact, show her driving toward an officer.

On June 3, Pelley had already taken the fight to social media, posting on Instagram that “New management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.” Now, in the interview, he framed the story as precisely the one involving the ICE agent who killed Renée Good.

A CBS spokesperson responded to the New York Times by saying Weiss’ comments “had no political motivation” and were proposed solely to make the piece “as strong, fair, and accurate as possible.”

Pelley offered a different picture of why the pressure mattered. “My impression at the time was that she was putting a thumb on the scale on behalf of the administration,” he said to Garcia-Navarro. He described a broader pattern as well: “Constantly looking out for the views of the president.”

But when pressed for what he saw as the most serious problem, Pelley shifted from politics to process. “The bigger problem, Lulu, frankly, is not any kind of political influence,” he said. “The problem was the incompetence. You don’t break a deadline. That episode came within 19 minutes of not making it to air.”.

The controversy also sits alongside earlier moves by CBS. The network has previously pulled 60 Minutes segments, including one in December that reported on the Trump administration deporting people to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

Weiss’ position at CBS has its own sharp edges. The Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison—described as a key ally of President Donald Trump—installed Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS shortly after buying her website, The Free Press, for a reported $150 million.

For Pelley. the meaning of all that power and timing is hard to separate: pressure on the edit. he says. came fast—so fast it risked the broadcast itself. CBS calls the requests nonpolitical and aimed at accuracy. The clash now leaves viewers with the same uncomfortable question Pelley raised in his June 3 post: whose story is being told. and who gets to decide what the cameras show?.

CBS News 60 Minutes Scott Pelley Bari Weiss Renée Good Alex Pretti ICE officer Minneapolis Lulu Garcia-Navarro David Ellison The Free Press