CBS News faced a fresh wave of turmoil on Monday after Scott Pelley, the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent, laced into the show\u2019s newly hired executive producer during a staff meeting and accused Bari Weiss, the network\u2019s editor in chief, of \u201cmurdering\u201d the longstanding Sunday news program.<\/p>\n
In an extraordinary exchange, Mr. Pelley, his newscaster\u2019s baritone sometimes shaking in anger, told Nick Bilton, the new executive producer, that he had \u201cslender\u201d qualifications for his new job and questioned the network\u2019s commitment to the future of the program, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.<\/p>\n
The 10 a.m. gathering, held at the program\u2019s Midtown Manhattan headquarters, was intended as a formal introduction to Mr. Bilton, a tech journalist and filmmaker who was appointed last week as part of a major shake-up at \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d CBS fired Tanya Simon, the previous executive producer, and her deputy, along with Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, two of the show\u2019s correspondents \u2014 an event that Mr. Pelley referred to as \u201cBlack Thursday.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meeting quickly turned tense \u2014 not a surprise after months of strain between veteran journalists at \u201c60 Minutes\u201d and Ms. Weiss, an opinion journalist who was a longtime critic of legacy media institutions before she became the head of one last year. She was appointed by David Ellison, a tech scion who took control of CBS\u2019s parent company, Paramount, in a multibillion-dollar merger.<\/p>\n
Mr. Bilton, who had never worked in traditional broadcast news, opened Monday\u2019s meeting by trying to assuage the anxieties of staff members who believed he might fundamentally change the decades-old DNA of the country\u2019s top-rated news program.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, the journalism is the journalism,\u201d Mr. Bilton said, according to the recording. \u201cThat is why I am here. That is why we are all here.\u201d He added: \u201cThe rumors people are spreading, that I\u2019m going to turn the show into 60 one-minute episodes, that it\u2019s going to be like TikTok, that is not changing. The show is going to stay exactly like it is for now.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also warned that the broadcast television industry that incubated \u201c60 Minutes\u201d would soon be obsolete. \u201cBroadcast is an ice cube that is melting, OK?\u201d Mr. Bilton said, saying the show had to adapt. \u201cBari loves this institution,\u201d he added. \u201cShe loves \u201960 Minutes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
At that, Mr. Pelley interrupted.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is murdering \u201860 Minutes,\u2019\u201d the correspondent said. \u201cShe does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she\u2019s been doing exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Pelley added: \u201cShe has no qualifications for her job; you have slender qualifications for this job. The changes that she\u2019s made at the \u2018Evening News\u2019 have been catastrophic, so why should we expect that any of this is going to be any better?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Bilton responded: \u201cWell, I will show you. That\u2019s what I have to say. That is my plan over the next two weeks. I\u2019ll be meeting with everyone. I\u2019m very excited to meet with everyone, yourself included.\u201d<\/p>\n
CBS News did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Ms. Weiss did not attend the gathering. A CBS executive at the meeting said that Ms. Weiss had been \u201cprepared to come, and we asked her not to,\u201d citing the staff\u2019s ill feelings surrounding the firings.<\/p>\n
Ms. Weiss and Mr. Bilton had reached out to Mr. Pelley several times in recent days for a private discussion, but Mr. Pelley did not respond, according to two people familiar with their exchanges. <\/p>\n
In the meeting on Monday, Mr. Pelley pressed Mr. Bilton repeatedly on why CBS had fired Ms. Alfonsi and Ms. Vega. Mr. Bilton said those decisions predated his hiring. Mr. Pelley asked Mr. Bilton why he had accepted a position at a program \u201cknowing that you will never be welcome here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no problem taking a job in a place that I am not welcome in,\u201d Mr. Bilton said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that will be the case.\u201d He added: \u201cI have been a journalist for 25 years, Scott. I\u2019ve sat across from incredibly powerful people like you have, and none of it intimidates me. OK? So you are not going to intimidate me in front of this group of people. I want that to be clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Bilton said that he wanted to help \u201c60 Minutes\u201d avoid the fate of old-media stalwarts that had failed to adapt, citing Time magazine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI care so deeply about this institution,\u201d Mr. Bilton said, to which Mr. Pelley interrupted: \u201cOh, please.\u201d<\/p>\n
At one point, Charles Forelle, a top deputy to Ms. Weiss, urged Mr. Pelley not to act \u201crude\u201d toward Mr. Bilton.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not being rude,\u201d Mr. Pelley responded. \u201cYou know what was rude? Black Thursday was rude.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Weiss\u2019s handling of \u201c60 Minutes\u201d has generated internal turmoil for months.<\/p>\n
In December, she pulled a segment reported by Ms. Alfonsi, about the brutal treatment of migrants in a Salvadoran prison, saying that it needed more reporting. The segment was critical of the Trump administration, and Ms. Alfonsi said the decision was \u201cpolitical.\u201d The piece ultimately aired with some additional comments from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Mr. Bilton moved to conclude the meeting after roughly 15 minutes. He encouraged the assembled staff members to partake in the food that had been laid out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to thank everyone for graciously being so welcoming,\u201d Mr. Bilton said. \u201cI look forward to talking to you in a one-on-one setting as these meetings are scheduled. And enjoy the bagels.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201c60 Minutes\u201d staff applauded Mr. Pelley after Mr. Bilton departed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CBS News faced a fresh wave of turmoil on Monday after Scott Pelley, the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent, laced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[95970,95965,11288,95968,96639,92716,2998,9,11,10,4468,56641,98039,17085,95966,2556,95967],"class_list":["post-251323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-60-minutes-tv-program","tag-alfonsi","tag-appointments-and-executive-changes","tag-bari","tag-bilton","tag-cbs-corporation","tag-cbs-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news-and-news-media","tag-nick","tag-pelley","tag-scott","tag-sharyn","tag-television","tag-weiss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}