Tony Dokoupil used his Wednesday-night “CBS Evening News” segment to praise fired “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley as “a journalist who valued truth at all costs,” highlighting Pelley’s work on major CBS stories and the newsroom mission he embodied. The
Tony Dokoupil turned to Scott Pelley’s legacy on “CBS Evening News” Wednesday night, praising the fired “60 Minutes” correspondent as a man who “valued truth at all costs.”
Dokoupil began by recalling the moment Pelley arrived in his life at CBS. “When I started at CBS, Scott Pelley was in this very chair, and still doing a dozen stories a year for ’60 Minutes.’ And amid all of that, still meeting every new correspondent to share his view of the mission here,” he said.
He framed Pelley’s approach as uncompromising, quoting James Madison as Pelley’s touchstone for why the press matters. “He believed freedom of the press. to quote [James] Madison. was ‘the right that guaranteed all the others.’ And the stakes are always that high in that. if you’d made it to CBS News. you were among the best in the world. He worked every single day to live up to that standard.”.
As the segment shifted into a montage of Pelley’s most memorable moments, Dokoupil spotlighted his 9/11 coverage, his war reporting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Great Recession.
In a voiceover. Dokoupil added. “He was in some ways a man from another era. and that’s not a knock. He didn’t watch the competition, he said, because he knew who he was. A journalist who valued truth at all costs. And always kept alive the memory of colleagues killed in the field — a reminder that his chosen line of work could be a dangerous one.”.
Dokoupil also praised Pelley for changes he brought to his years as anchor of “CBS Evening News” from 2011 to 2017. “But Pelley also made one major break from the past,” Dokoupil noted. “He changed the signs around here. Under the CBS Evening News logo. where Scott Pelly’s own name would have been. he instead wrote. ‘The CBS Evening News with all of us.’ Well. Scott. from all of us. thank you.”.
The tribute landed a day after Pelley was terminated from “60 Minutes.” CBS News had described a Monday clash between Pelley and top leadership in which he accused editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the program.
In a letter sent to Pelley and reviewed by TheWrap. “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton wrote that Weiss and the show’s future had been discussed as Pelley questioned the direction of the program. Bilton told Pelley. “Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. ” and added. “And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately.”.
Bilton also accused Pelley of hijacking the meeting and staging what he called a “performative display of hostility.” Bilton said the behavior “demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show.” He later broke the news of Pelley’s exit to the “60 Minutes” team and voiced his “unyielding support” for the remaining employees.
Pelley responded with a lengthy statement after his firing. He suggested that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison was “casting aside” the news program to curry favor with Donald Trump. Pelley also reiterated accusations he made to The New York Times earlier on Tuesday. saying “new management [had] instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.” He alleged that politicians had been given “control over ’60 Minutes’ interviews.”.
Weiss defended the decision to fire Pelley on a Wednesday morning call with staffers. She said Pelley broke a foundation of “trust and mutual respect” after he railed against Weiss and new “60 Minutes” executive producer Bilton during the staff-wide meeting on Monday.
Pelley later claimed the account of the meeting was “not true.” In a new statement, he said, “No CBS executive, at any time, suggested ‘a way back.’ To say so now is disingenuous. And they know it.”
For Dokoupil, the story Wednesday night was not about the dispute—at least not directly. It was about the standards he said Pelley lived by: truth, the mission of the press, and the seriousness of a newsroom where the stakes can be deadly.
Tony Dokoupil Scott Pelley 60 Minutes CBS Evening News Bari Weiss Nick Bilton David Ellison Donald Trump CBS News journalism