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<\/p>\nUPDATED 6:37 PM: Scott Pelley was fired from 60 Minutes and CBS News on Tuesday evening, days after a verbal confrontation with the show\u2019s new executive producer in which the veteran correspondent blasted the news division leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately,\u201d Bilton wrote in a letter to Pelley, below.<\/p>\n
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RELATED: Cecilia Vega Blasts CBS After Firing From \u201860 Minutes,\u2019 Calls Out \u201cCensorship, Both Imposed And Self-Driven\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Per the letter sent to Pelley, he met with Bilton earlier on Tuesday, but \u201cwe could not find a path forward together. You made clear you are not interested in such a path.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, Pelley challenged Bilton as he introduced himself to staff, telling the former tech writer that his boss, CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss, was \u201cmurdering\u201d the show. Weiss had set her sights on an overhaul of 60 Minutes, firing not just correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega but executive producer Tanya Simon and other top producers.<\/p>\n Pelley is a 37-year veteran of CBS News, who has served as chief White House correspondent and as anchor of CBS Evening News along with working at 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n His firing leaves open the question of just what the show will look like next season, and if other correspondents will remain with the program. But it also will put further pressure on Bilton and Weiss for upending a show that actually improved its ratings performance in the past season as one of the top-rated programs on broadcast TV. And within CBS News, there is confusion and distrust at leadership decisions.<\/p>\n RELATED: Former \u201860 Minutes\u2019 Executive Producer Bill Owens Praises Scott Pelley For Speaking Out, Blasts CBS News For Purge Of Top Staffers And Correspondents<\/a><\/p>\n Like Alfonsi, Deadline has learned that Pelley has had conversations about representation with Bryan Freedman, a well-known litigator who has represented other news media personalities. Bilton\u2019s reference to Pelley\u2019s termination \u201cfor cause\u201d was a signal that the network was aware of the legal implications of his firing.<\/p>\n Pelley told The New York Times after he was informed of his termination: \u201cI have been in combat in Afghanistan. I have been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine multiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast.\u201d<\/p>\n After Pelley\u2019s meeting with CBS brass earlier in the day, Weiss held an emergency meeting with news division leadership to decide how to move forward.<\/p>\n While Pelley earned praise from 60 Minutes veterans for speaking out about the firings last week, Bilton wrote that \u201cyou hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt. I welcome a diversity of viewpoints and respectful debate among the team, but this was nothing of the sort.\u201d<\/p>\n At the Monday meeting, as Bilton tried to dismiss some rumors about his plans, Pelley said of Weiss: \u201cShe is murdering\u00a060 Minutes. She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she\u2019s been doing exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n Pelley added: \u201cShe has no qualifications for her job; you have slender qualifications for this job. The changes that she\u2019s made at the\u00a0Evening News\u00a0have been catastrophic, so why should we expect that any of this is going to be any better?\u201d<\/p>\n Following the firings of Alfonsi and Vega, and the earlier departure of Anderson Cooper, the show\u2019s remaining correspondents are Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and L. Jon Wertheim, with Norah O\u2019Donnell a contributing correspondent.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether additional correspondents will be hired on the show with the network having gone through a couple of rounds of cost-cutting layoffs.<\/p>\n At the very least, Pelley\u2019s confrontation and firing likely will only add to the scrutiny of the news division and whether it is being influenced by corporate concerns. CBS parent Paramount is in the midst of seeking Trump administration approval for its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, and its CEO David Ellison has, among other things, hosted a dinner for Trump tied to the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association dinner, and he attended the president\u2019s State of the Union address.<\/p>\n Bilton also wrote a letter to the staff of the show, below.<\/p>\n Team,<\/p>\n You should hear this from me first. We have parted ways with Scott Pelley.<\/p>\n I know how much Scott meant to many of you, and I don\u2019t say this lightly. I made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with him over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground. That was not the path Scott chose.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t pretend otherwise.<\/p>\n I won\u2019t relitigate the last week with you here. What I will commit to is this: My unyielding support for each of you, the journalism that you do and what\u00a0we will do together going forward.<\/p>\n Nick<\/p>\n PREVIOUSLY, EXCLUSIVE, 6:19 p.m. PT: Bari Weiss and CBS News leadership were said to be in an emergency meeting on Tuesday to decide how to move forward on 60 Minutes following an extraordinary clash between Scott Pelley and the show\u2019s new executive producer<\/a>, Nick Bilton at an all staff meeting this week.<\/p>\n Pelley has earned praise from 60 Minutes veterans and others at the network for challenging a series of firings from the top rated broadcast, amid concerns that it future direction is being influenced by corporate concerns.<\/p>\n An insider source described the situation as \u201cunsustainable,\u201d with management believing that Pelley had created a \u201chostile workplace environment.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, Pelley challenged Bilton as he introduced himself to staff, telling the former tech writer that his boss, CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss, was \u201cmurdering\u201d the show. Weiss had set her sights on an overhaul of 60 Minutes, firing not just correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega but executive producer Tanya Simon and other top producers.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a lot of love for Scott here, a lot of respect for what he has done over the years. But what happened this week is unacceptable,\u201d a management insider said. As of now, the feeling is that \u201ceverything is up for discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Alfonsi, Deadline has learned that Pelley has had conversations with Bryan Freedman, a well-known litigator who has represented other news media personalities, about representation.<\/p>\n Puck reported earlier on Tuesday that Pelley met with CBS News leadership but that the two sides did not find common ground.<\/p>\n If Pelley were to exit, it would mark the end of a 37-year career at the network, with stints as chief White House correspondent and as anchor of the CBS Evening News.<\/p>\n At the Monday meeting, as Bilton tried to dismiss some rumors about his plans, Pelley said of Weiss, \u201cShe is murdering\u00a060 Minutes. She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she\u2019s been doing exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n Pelley added, \u201cShe has no qualifications for her job; you have slender qualifications for this job. The changes that she\u2019s made at the\u00a0Evening News\u00a0have been catastrophic, so why should we expect that any of this is going to be any better?\u201d<\/p>\n Pelley\u2019s remarks received praise from the show\u2019s former executive producer<\/a>, Bill Owens, who said at an event at the New York Press Club on Monday night that he \u201ccouldn\u2019t be prouder of him.\u201d He said that Pelley \u201ccan smell a fraud a mile away.\u201d<\/p>\n If Pelley were to leave, his departure would leave Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and L. Jon Wertheim as full time correspondents for the show, with Norah O\u2019Donnell as contributing correspondent.<\/p>\n A CBS News spokesperson has not commented on Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n Best of Deadline<\/p>\n Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPDATED 6:37 PM: Scott Pelley was fired from 60 Minutes and CBS News on Tuesday evening, days after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[18026,135126,49,48,135621,258219,258220,75,258221,116300,257412,258166,155953,258222,348],"class_list":["post-711711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-60-minutes","tag-bari-weiss","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cbs-evening-news","tag-cecilia-vega","tag-correspondent","tag-entertainment","tag-evening-news","tag-executive-producer","tag-nick-bilton","tag-scott-pelley","tag-sharyn-alfonsi","tag-tanya-simon","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}