Scott Pelley was fired from “60 Minutes” after a Tuesday night decision by the show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton. The move followed sharply worded comments from Pelley earlier in the week, including a claim that Bari Weiss was “murdering” “60 Minutes,
For Scott Pelley, Tuesday night ended the kind of newsroom standoff that can’t be walked back once it’s out in the open. Nick Bilton—new executive producer of “60 Minutes”—moved to fire the veteran correspondent after Pelley’s comments earlier in the week.
Bilton’s message to Pelley was blunt: the correspondent’s “antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear.” Bilton also wrote to Pelley that he had hoped for a different outcome—“Despite yesterday’s misconduct. I had hoped that in sitting down with you today we could find a path forward together.” In that same note. Bilton said Pelley made clear “that you are not interested in such a path.”.
Pelley, who had been with CBS for over three decades, had already made headlines for vocally challenging Nick Bilton, the new executive producer at “60 Minutes,” and calling out Weiss. The veteran correspondent reportedly said that Weiss was “murdering” “60 Minutes.”
After his dismissal, Pelley disputed the framing of what happened. In a statement following his removal, he said CBS leaders had directed him to “inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.”
The response from within CBS came just the next morning. Bari Weiss told staffers in a Wednesday morning meeting that CBS News “had to part ways” with Pelley after his comments earlier in the week. On the call. Weiss said. “Despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back. unfortunately. we weren’t able to do so. and so we had to part ways. We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose.”.
Pelley challenged that characterization too. In a statement to The New York Times, he said, “Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true.” He also argued that the internal meeting where he says he was effectively fired never included any real effort to reach a resolution.
In his statement. Pelley said. “In the meeting on Tuesday. in which I was effectively fired. there was no effort of any kind to ‘find a way back. ‘ as Weiss said in the editorial meeting.” He added: “At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution.”.
The clash leaves a stark picture inside the “60 Minutes” newsroom: Bilton framed Pelley’s attitude as a barrier to the show’s future. while Pelley framed CBS leadership as demanding content he believed was biased. Weiss. for her part. said attempts to engage failed—while Pelley says the meeting itself offered no real chance to repair what broke.
CBS 60 Minutes Scott Pelley Nick Bilton Bari Weiss firing correspondent CBS News executive producer newsroom dispute