This week, Scott Pelley was dramatically fired from 60 Minutes after he called BS on CBS News’ hard-right swing. Pelley had been with 60 Minutes for decades, doing amazing work like reporting from war zones and holding politicians to account. Last year, Bari Weiss was installed as CBS News’ editor-in-chief, and Nick Bilton was newly appointed as 60 Minutes’ executive producer. Bilton and Weiss are explicitly there to damage and destroy CBS News from within, and take down 60 Minutes completely. In a CBS News internal meeting, Pelley called out both Bilton and Weiss in front of staff, which started this poorly thought-out firing of a veteran journalist. On Wednesday, Weiss addressed staff, and what she said was immediately leaked to multiple outlets.
Bari Weiss, editor in chief of CBS News, on a staff call addressed the termination Scott Pelley, a longtime presence at the news outlet who was ousted from “60 Minutes” Tuesday after he engaged in a tenacious confrontation with the new executive producer of the newsmagazine.
Weiss is facing the risk of a full-scale revolt at “60 Minutes” after a series of dramatic shake-ups at the venerable program, including installing former tech journalist Nick Bilton as executive producer and ousting veterans including former EP Tanya Simon. CBS News fired Pelley late Tuesday after he engaged in heated argument a day earlier with Bilton at an internal meeting.
At the top of a conference call with CBS News staffers Wednesday morning, Weiss addressed the elephant in the room. Variety has confirmed the comments she made at the meeting.
“Before we get into it, I need to address what’s transpired in our newsroom over the past two days and what is making news,” she said. “I know I speak for myself, and I hope I speak for everyone here, when I say that I’m only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect….We cannot do our work without it. That foundation was broken on Monday, and 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.”
Immediately following the news of Weiss’s statements, Pelley once again issued a statement disputing her lies and speaking about what really happened:
“I’m saddened to see the transcript of the CBS News morning editorial meeting,” Pelley said in a statement. “Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true. 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. 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.”
Pelley alleged that in the June 2 meeting, Weiss and Tom Cibrowski, president and executive editor of CBS News, “were openly hostile from the start. ‘Firing’ was raised by Cibrowski in the first 15 seconds. No CBS executive, at any time, suggested ‘a way back.’ To say so now is disingenuous. And they know it. In fact, Weiss, Cibrowski and Nick Bilton refused to answer my questions.” According to Pelley, he asked Weiss a number of questions about “why she fired the entire senior staff” of “60 Minutes,” and that she would not provide answers.
“I am pained that the staff of CBS News was misled in the Wednesday morning conference call. These executives cannot gain the trust of the staff with lies,” Pelley said. “This is antithetical to everything we stand for and reveals contempt for what journalists do.”
As many have pointed out, as a veteran television journalist, Pelley was probably one of the best-paid journalists in America. He could have chosen to continue collecting his checks and toeing the new company line. But the thing about making so much money over his career is that he’s not worried about his retirement, and he can stand up for his principles and his journalistic integrity. He’s doing exactly what so many journalists SHOULD have been doing in the past decade – calling out these right-wing pieces of crap and holding people to account publicly. The fact that Bari Weiss LIED to a group of CBS News journalists about what happened in a meeting where she fired one of their most well-liked colleagues is a huge turning point and a huge scandal.
Pelley’s former colleague Robert Kroft is also using his privilege to call out what’s happening:
NEW: Former 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft calls the changes under Bari Weiss "disastrous." He adds: "This is journalistic interference. It makes no business sense whatsoever. It's the highest rated news program on television, and it has been that way for more than 50…
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) June 3, 2026
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- CBS Fall Schedule Celebration At Paramount Studios Featuring: Scott Pelley Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 02 May 2024 Credit: Faye’s Vision/Cover Images
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- CBS’ Fall Schedule Celebration at Paramount Studios. Featuring: Scott Pelley Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 02 May 2024 Credit: Ryan Hartford/INSTARimages.com
We’ve BEEN saying that these privileged white men need to stand up for those of us who are getting trampled left and right by this administration. Sadly, we only see them stand up when it starts to affect them directly. True, that he could’ve stayed and toed the line, but clearly, it was affecting HIM and how he wanted to conduct the program. He was perfectly fine with it, until it came for him.
This is not true about Scott Pelly or more generally 60 minutes which is why Trump targeted them specifically to begin with.
Agreed – they were still doing some good journalism or they wouldn’t have been targeted in the first place. I don’t think this is a case of Pelley being fine with everything until they came for him. They wouldn’t have come for him if that was true. I hope he finds a new platform soon. I remembered Terry Moran when the news about Pelley came out and found he has a Substack and signed up for it.
As a staff attorney who does labor law and reviews all termination letters, Bilton’s letter would never have been released if I had reviewed it. It was one of the most unprofessional, whiny letters I have ever seen and was all about Bilton’s hurt feelings instead of any actual policy violations. It also contained NONE of the legal information that should be in a termination letter. It does reference a second letter would be coming from HR, if that’s the case, Bilton’s letter should never have been written.
What’s clear is Weiss IS trying to destroy the news division and she is well suited for the task, given her lack of qualifications, lack of talent, lack of competence, and astounding lack of professionalism.
So true. The goal is destruction. As Kroft points out, it’s not a business decision.
May I add that Bari Weiss also lacks integrity, common sense, but above all the mental acuity that is needed to survive in a newsroom.
The Cult of MAGA is so destructive that it will take decades, and a huge amount of (financial) resources, to rebuild a healthy society which can argue passionately about things but won’t try to suppress different opinions, or actively seek to destroy its adversaries, people with other points of views.
Pelley is a terrific journalist so it bothers me a great deal that he is just now pushing back on all of the ‘destruction from within’ happening across all (?) American media. I guess it’s better late than never, but it astounds me that he had to be lied to and lied about before he would take a public stand against this craziness. Nothing has stopped Weiss yet, so let’s see if Pelley and the rest of 60 Min can do it.
Thank you! That’s what I was saying above and got piled up on.
I mean, it’s pretty obvious he WAS pushing back. He said he wasn’t including their requests (demands) in his show and was running it the way it should be run.
Just because you heard about it in the news now doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening. You’re not privy to the whole story, just the news.
60 minutes had been reporting honestly about magat extremism and mango’s corruption/lies. 60 minutes was not broadcasting magat baised NewsMax, NewsNation and FauxNews nonsense. That is why mango targeted 60 Minutes so specifically (and NPR/PBS). Pelley quit and joined the resistance when the Ellison’s lackeys started directly interfering with nonbiased reporting and unjustly firing staff/correspondents. He stayed long enough to prove the Ellison’s magat agenda and to get smoking gun proof about how completely idiotic and inept Weiss is. He deserves to be praised, especially when he puts together a comprehensive article/piece detailing this entire mess.
Why do you think he hasn’t been pushing back? You don’t know the whole story, just the dramatic ending that happened to be in the news.
You’re right — we don’t know what Pelley has done behind the scenes this whole time. It may have been a real battle at CBS and they fought it out in meetings and the newsroom and not at all a secret to the staff. I guess the begrudging credit is due to the (seeming) lack of public outcry from people who have the power to be heard. This is not a new issue as this admin targeted media the last time around. Anyway, I’ll give Pelley credit for making this wholly public and will remain hopeful that he and others like Steve Croft and Anderson Cooper continue the public flogging of Weiss and co.
You couldn’t pay me to watch CBS now.
Can any international posters please respond? 60 minutes in the USA provided some of the best, most unbiased reporting in our country (outside PBS/NPR). I have seen posts in the past indicating that 60 minutes is basically tabloid reporting in other counties (Australia?). Is that true? When Americans freak out over the fall of 60 minutes, we are not freaking out over Inside Edition or Entertainment Tonight crashing out. We are losing the last vestige of reliable, honest network reporting with this Magat madness.