Scott Pelley Fires Back After CBS News Ouster: ‘Collapse of Values’
Scott Pelley said he no longer recognizes “60 Minutes” in the months following Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of CBS News, accusing the executive in charge of the news division of “incompetence and unprofessionalism” that has been “wreaking havoc” for months.
Pelley, in his first statement since CBS News announced his resignation Tuesday night, said Paramount Skydance is “dismissing this legend” because it is weakening the newsmagazine “apparently to curry favor with the Trump administration.”
A spokesperson for CBS News did not immediately respond to an inquiry seeking comment.
CBS News terminated the “60 Minutes” veteran after the journalist and executives felt they could not find a way to work together following a heated public exchange Monday between Pelley and Nick Bilton, the former technology journalist appointed last week by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who also sent the show’s most senior producers, as well as correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Pelley is the fourth “60 Minutes” reporter to leave the venerable newsmagazine since February, leaving just a trio — Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim — to handle assignments as the show prepares to get stories ready for its 59th season in the fall.
“Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our top on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced for standing up for our audiences. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos,” Pelley said.
“For my part, the new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and biases into a politically sensitive story. I have been told to include claims that have not been verified. So far, in every case, I have managed to ignore or refuse these instructions. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for on-air interviews. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not the way this is done,” he added. “Finally, the incompetence and unprofessionalism of the new management has wreaked havoc. In one case involving one of my stories, the entire program came in 19 minutes after not appearing on air at all.”
Pelley, who has been one of the most public faces at CBS News for decades, having both anchored “CBS Evening News” and for a time contributed to “60 Minutes,” indicated he hoped the storied news division that once served as home to Walter Cronkite could turn itself around. “After 37 years at CBS, I leave with one emotion: a heart full of gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who have encouraged and enriched my work, often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are once again honored – a day when common sense, competence and courage return.”
