Veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley has been fired after reportedly accusing CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the top news program.
Pelley was sent a termination letter by 60 Minutes‘ new executive producer, Nick Bilton, whom the journalist said had “slender” qualifications for the job.
In a note that Bilton sent to Pelley alongside his formal termination letter, which circulated on social media Tuesday night, the new 60 Minutes chief said Pelley had set up an “ambush.”
“Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” Bilton wrote in the note.
The Independent has reached out to CBS for comment.
Bilton had tried to reassure 60 Minutes staff at Monday’s meeting that the program “is going to stay exactly like it is for now,” and that “Bari loves this institution,” according to The New York Times, which obtained an audio recording of the tense exchange.
“She is murdering 60 Minutes. She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that,” Pelley reportedly fired back.
“She has no qualifications for her job; you have slender qualifications for this job,” he added.
Weiss, who founded the anti-woke media outlet The Free Press, was appointed as the network’s editor-in-chief last October after billionaire David Ellison, who has reported ties to President Donald Trump, took over CBS’s parent company, Paramount.
The CBS News boss has faced scrutiny since being appointed, particularly over her decision to pull a 60 Minutes segment about Venezuelan migrants sent by the Trump administration to CECOT, an El Salvadoran prison accused of having inhumane conditions. The segment aired nearly one month later.
Weiss did not attend Monday’s meeting, according to The NYT.
Bilton said in his note to Pelley that his “performative display of hostility” at the meeting “demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress.”
He said that Pelley’s employment at CBS was “terminated for cause effective immediately.”
Bilton replaced Tanya Simon, who was ousted by CBS News last week, along with Simon’s deputy, Draggan Mihailovich, and 60 Minutes correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, according to reports.
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