{"id":253167,"date":"2026-06-03T02:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/253167\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T02:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:53:11","slug":"60-minutes-star-scott-pelley-fired-from-cbs-news-after-blasting-bari-weiss-in-heated-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/253167\/","title":{"rendered":"’60 Minutes’ star Scott Pelley fired from CBS News after blasting Bari Weiss in heated showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

CBS News axed veteran \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday night, a day after after the longtime network star blasted editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and challenged her newly installed <\/a>leadership team in a heated confrontation that exposed the widening civil war inside the iconic news magazine.<\/p>\n

In a letter obtained by The Post, newly appointed \u201c60 Minutes\u201d executive producer Nick Bilton blasted Pelley in informing him he was fired \u201cfor cause effective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Y]ou hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,\u201d Bilton wrote, referring to Monday\u2019s heated face-off between the journo and his boss.<\/p>\n

Veteran CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley became the latest casualty of the turmoil engulfing \u201c60 Minutes\u201d after publicly clashing with network leadership. 60 Minutes \/ YouTube<\/p>\n

Bilton further accused Pelley of staging a \u201cperformative display of hostility\u201d and claimed he had \u201cno interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama,\u201d Bilton wrote.<\/p>\n

He went on to tell Pelley: \u201cYour antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the meeting in question, Pelley told Bilton him he had \u201cslender\u201d qualifications for the job and that he would \u201cnever be welcome here,\u201d sources previously told The Post.<\/p>\n

Bilton fired back: \u201cYou are not going to intimidate me in front of this group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The correspondent also accused Weiss of \u201cmurdering \u201860 Minutes\u2019\u201d and claimed she \u201cwas brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that,\u201d according to sources familiar with the exchange.<\/p>\n

The clash lasted roughly 15 minutes before Bilton ended the meeting and walked out.<\/p>\n

The confrontation divided staffers at CBS News, with some insiders branding his behavior as \u201cbullying\u201d and \u201cgrandstanding\u201d \u2014 and yet another reckoning it was \u201ca set up,\u201d sources told The Post.<\/p>\n

Bari Weiss\u2019s effort to remake CBS News has sparked fierce resistance from some \u201c60 Minutes\u201d staffers. CBS News via AP<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did he accomplish?\u201d one CBS source said of Pelley\u2019s explosive attack. \u201cHe embarrassed the company and the leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

The insider added: \u201cThis was a set up. This was Scott going off for show. This was just a show. He wants to stand up for journalism and maybe get fired but what does it change?\u201d<\/p>\n

A second source agreed that Pelley\u2019s tactics were \u201cproblematic,\u201d noting that the correspondent should have met with Weiss or Bilton to at least to hear them out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat grandstanding thing is insane. It\u2019s third-grade, playground bullying stuff,\u201d the source said. \u201cThis is not the way you conduct yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not taking down a dictator or someone who has committed war crimes,\u201d the source added. \u201cYou\u2019re not interviewing Saddam Hussein. It was a little bit overkill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelley challenged newly installed \u201c60 Minutes\u201d executive producer Nick Bilton during a contentious staff meeting that exposed deep divisions inside the newsmagazine. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Pelley, a fixture at CBS News for nearly four decades and one of the most recognizable faces on \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d had become one of the most vocal internal critic of Weiss\u2019s efforts to remake CBS News and modernize \u201c60 Minutes\u201d under new owner David Ellison.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, she has overseen a sweeping shakeup at the network that has claimed executive producer Tanya Simon, correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi<\/a> and Cecilia Vega<\/a>, senior executive producer Draggan Mihailovich, veteran producer Guy Campanile and digital chief Matthew Polevoy.<\/p>\n

One CBS insider previously described the purge as \u201cnot surgical\u201d but rather \u201ca bloodbath.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Pelley reportedly referred to the mass dismissals as \u201cBlack Thursday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tensions stem in part from Weiss\u2019s intervention in a controversial \u201c60 Minutes\u201d report on El Salvador\u2019s notorious CECOT prison. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi later accused Weiss of attempting to \u201csanitize accurate reporting,\u201d while Weiss argued the segment required additional reporting and more input from Trump administration officials before it aired.<\/p>\n

Sharyn Alfonsi was informed that CBS News would not renew her contract amid a sweeping overhaul of \u201c60 Minutes\u201d overseen by Weiss. Getty Images for Texas Conference for Women<\/p>\n

The report ultimately ran unedited with additional comments from the administration.<\/p>\n

Pelley joined CBS News in 1989 and has served as a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent since 2004. He also anchored the \u201cCBS Evening News\u201d from 2011 through 2017 and has been one of the network\u2019s most prominent on-air personalities.<\/p>\n

CBS News declined comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CBS News axed veteran \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday night, a day after after the longtime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16763,2997,1871,2998,1208,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-253167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-60-minutes","tag-bari-weiss","tag-cbs","tag-cbs-news","tag-media","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253167","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=253167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}