{"id":681048,"date":"2026-06-03T02:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/681048\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T02:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:42:10","slug":"cbs-news-fires-60-minutes-correspondent-scott-pelley-after-clash-with-new-producer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/681048\/","title":{"rendered":"CBS News fires \u201860 Minutes\u2019 correspondent Scott Pelley after clash with new producer"},"content":{"rendered":"

CBS News has fired veteran \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Scott Pelley a day after he confronted the show\u2019s new executive producer at a heated staff meeting.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYour antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you,\u201d \u201c60 Minutes\u201d executive producer Nick Bilton said in a letter addressed to Pelley, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News. <\/p>\n

\u201cI therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately,\u201d Bilton added.<\/p>\n

In a separate note to \u201c60 Minutes\u201d staffers, Bilton confirmed that the network had \u201cparted ways\u201d with Pelley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how much Scott meant to many of you, and I don\u2019t say this lightly,\u201d Bilton wrote. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelley\u2019s exit deepens the turmoil at \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d<\/a> the leading newsmagazine on American television. In recent months, \u201c60 Minutes\u201d employees have clashed with CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss over the show\u2019s editorial direction under its new corporate owner, Paramount Skydance, the media company run by technology scion David Ellison.<\/p>\n

The tension reached a fever pitch Monday<\/a> during a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d staff meeting designed to introduce employees to Bilton, a technology journalist tapped by Weiss to be executive producer of the program. Pelley laced into Bilton, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News and a source who was in the room.<\/p>\n

Bilton, a documentary filmmaker and a former tech columnist at The New York Times, told the gathered staffers that Weiss \u201cloves this institution,\u201d according to the recording. Pelley interrupted Bilton and pushed back, accusing Weiss of \u201cmurdering\u201d the venerable newsmagazine, which debuted in September 1968.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe does not love this place,\u201d Pelley told Bilton, according to the recording. \u201cShe was brought in to kill it, and she\u2019s been doing exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Pelley also pressed Bilton about the firings of former executive producer Tanya Simon and fellow correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega; Bilton said those decisions predated him. Alfonsi collided with Weiss last year over the decision to postpone a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d segment about the Trump administration\u2019s deportation of Venezuelan men to a prison in El Salvador.<\/p>\n

Alfonsi alleged the story was abruptly pulled for \u201cpolitical reasons.\u201d Weiss said it was \u201cnot ready\u201d for air. The segment, titled \u201cInside CECOT,\u201d ultimately aired in January and featured statements from the White House and the Department of Homeland Security that were not in the original version.<\/p>\n

In one especially tense exchange at Monday\u2019s meeting, Pelley asked Bilton why he had accepted a position at a show \u201cknowing that you would never be welcomed here,\u201d according to the recording.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that will be the case,\u201d Bilton replied, according to the recording. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have been a journalist for 25 years, Scott. I have sat and talked with incredibly powerful people like you have,\u201d he added. \u201cNone of it intimidates me, OK?\u201d<\/p>\n

In the termination letter obtained by NBC News, Bilton accused Pelley of \u201cremarkable incivility and contempt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s performative display of hostility \u2014 enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation \u2014 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,\u201d Bilton wrote.<\/p>\n

Pelley\u2019s firing marks the end of his nearly 40-year run at CBS News. He joined the news division in 1989 before he ascended to the anchor desk at the \u201cCBS Evening News,\u201d which he helmed from 2011 to 2017. He was a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

The remaining roster of \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondents includes Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim. Anderson Cooper, a 20-year veteran of the show, left the program last month.<\/p>\n

The tumult at \u201c60 Minutes\u201d comes amid head-spinning changes in the wider media world. Ellison, whose Skydance Media took over Paramount in an $8 billion merger, looks set to expand his media empire with a $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN and HBO. The deal still needs sign-off from federal regulators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CBS News has fired veteran \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Scott Pelley a day after he confronted the show\u2019s new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-681048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}