Scott Pelley Accuses CBS of ‘Collapse of Values’ After ’60 Minutes’ Firing

Journalist Scott Pelley accused CBS of weakening 60 Minutes “to curry favor with the Trump administration” after being fired from the long-running news program. Pelley, who joined 60 Minutes in 2004, added that “new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story” and that he was “told to include assertions that are unverified.”

Pelley was fired on Tuesday after a heated meeting on Monday between Pelley and Nick Bilton, the former tech journalist was recently who put in charge of 60 Minutes by CBS’ editorial chief Bari Weiss. His departure follows those of correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, making him the fourth 60 Minutes journalist to leave since February. Many of the show’s top producers have also been let go.

“Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause,” Pelley said in a statement released late Tuesday night. “Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.”

He continued, “For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.”

Pelley noted that “at 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon.” He wrote, “We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to ‘keep up the good fight.’ Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.”

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Pelley, who also has anchored CBS Evening News, concluded, “I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.”

News of the spat between Bilton and Pelley went public on social media. During the meeting, Pelley told Bilton that Weiss was destroying the network’s credibility. “She’s murdering 60 Minutes,” Pelley said. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.”

Bilton’s termination letter to Pelley also went public, which detailed why the journalist was being fired “for cause effective immediately.” “Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” Bilton wrote.

Weiss was installed at CBS in October after parent company Paramount Skydance bought her publication The Free Press. She has since interfered with editorial decisions, including at 60 Minutes, often to benefit Donald Trump and his administration.

60 Minutes recently wrapped its 58th season, which saw Anderson Cooper departing the show. With Pelley’s firing, the news program now only has three full-time correspondents: Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and L Jon Wertheim.
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In a message to staff, Bilton wrote, “What I regret most is that this situation interfered with the conversation I had hoped to have with you about Season 59 and the future of this show. I realize this is a great deal of change in a very short time, and I wouldn’t pretend otherwise. … What I will commit to is this: My unyielding support for each of you, the journalism that you do and what we will do together going forward.”

Pelley joined CBS News in 1989. During his time at the network, he served as chief White House correspondent. He later became the anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News from 2011 to 2017. He joined the 60 Minutes as a correspondent for the spin-off show 60 Minutes II in 1999, and has since become one of the most recognizable journalists on American television.