In a striking blow to free speech, 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley has been fired by CBS Network.
This is only the latest in a string of events orchestrated by network big wigs in order to appease the Trump administration, the earlier of which being the cancelation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and temporary suspension of talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
Pelley reportedly had issues with the network’s newly installed news chief, Bari Weiss. Weiss fired a string of staff at the news program within the last week, including its longtime executive producer. Weiss then hired a new editor who has exhibited zero experience in the field of broadcast news.
At a staff meeting on Monday, Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering 60 Minutes,” BBC reported.
In a statement after his firing, Pelley writes, “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. 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.”
Pelley then accused the new CBS regime of instructing him to “inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.”
Pelley continues, “Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes is not how this is done.”
Pelley then went on to accuse the new management of “unprofessionalism” and “wreaking havoc.”
Weiss claims that she had made several attempts to “find a way back” with Pelley, but after her attempts proved to be unsuccessful, “We had to part ways.
“That unfortunate outcome does not discount from the amazing contributions and work that Scott Pelley has done for CBS and for 60 Minutes over the course of his career,” Weiss says, citing some of Pelly’s prior work for the show, including an episode on ‘Havana syndrome’ and an interview with former U.S. senator Ben Sasse on his terminal cancer diagnosis.
Pelley disputed this claim.
“Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true,” Pelley writes in a statement to The New York Times.“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. Weiss and Tom Cibrowski 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.”
Pelley’s firing leaves a minuscule staff of correspondents at 60 Minutes, including Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, Jon Wertheim, and contributor Norah O’Donnell. Aside from the firings of reporters Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, longtime correspondent Anderson Cooper will also be absent from the screens of weekly 60 Minutes viewers come fall. Cooper resigned after last season.
The three correspondents issued a joint statement, saying: “We have had a hard time deciding whether to stay … We don’t want to see 60 Minutes die. We have been grieving because this whole mess has wounded and damaged the broadcast.
“We want to stay and fight,” they added.
Pelley’s firing marks the end of his nearly-40-year run at CBS News. He was a 60 Minutes correspondent for more than 20 years.
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