{"id":682084,"date":"2026-06-03T15:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/682084\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T15:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:47:09","slug":"bari-weiss-defends-firing-scott-pelley-from-60-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/682084\/","title":{"rendered":"Bari Weiss Defends Firing Scott Pelley From ’60 Minutes’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBari Weiss<\/a>, editor in chief of CBS News<\/a>, on a staff call addressed the termination Scott Pelley<\/a>, a longtime presence at the news outlet who was ousted from \u201c60 Minutes<\/a>\u201d Tuesday after he engaged in a tenacious confrontation with the new executive producer of the newsmagazine.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeiss is facing the risk of a full-scale revolt at \u201c60 Minutes\u201d after a series of dramatic shake-ups at the venerable program, including installing former tech journalist Nick Bilton as executive producer and ousting veterans including former EP Tanya Simon<\/a>. CBS News fired Pelley late Tuesday after he engaged in heated argument a day earlier<\/a>\u00a0with Bilton at an internal meeting.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the top of a conference call with CBS News staffers Wednesday morning, Weiss addressed the elephant in the room. Variety has confirmed the comments she made at the meeting.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBefore we get into it, I need to address what\u2019s transpired in our newsroom over the past two days and what is making news,\u201d she said. \u201cI know I speak for myself, and I hope I speak for everyone here, when I say that I\u2019m only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWeiss continued: \u201cWe cannot do our work without it. That foundation was broken on Monday, and despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley<\/a> and to find a way back, unfortunately we weren\u2019t able to do so, and so we had to part ways. We did not want that to happen, but that\u2019s the path that he chose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter news of Weiss\u2019s comments broke, Pelley issued a statement in which he accused her of lying. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m saddened to see the transcript of the CBS News morning editorial meeting,\u201d Pelley said in a statement. \u201cBari Weiss knows what she said is not true. In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to \u2018find a way back,\u2019 as Weiss said in the editorial meeting. At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPelley alleged that in the June 2 meeting, Weiss and Tom Cibrowski, president and executive editor of CBS News, \u201cwere openly hostile from the start. \u2018Firing\u2019 was raised by Cibrowski in the first 15 seconds. No CBS executive, at any time, suggested \u2018a way back.\u2019 To say so now is disingenuous. And they know it. In fact, Weiss, Cibrowski and Nick Bilton refused to answer my questions.\u201d According to Pelley, he asked Weiss a number of questions about \u201cwhy she fired the entire senior staff\u201d of \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d and that she would not provide answers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am pained that the staff of CBS News was misled in the Wednesday morning conference call. These executives cannot gain the trust of the staff with lies,\u201d Pelley said. \u201cThis is antithetical to everything we stand for and reveals contempt for what journalists do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the CBS News staff call, Weiss said the \u201cunfortunate outcome\u201d of Pelley\u2019s dismissal \u201cdoes not discount from the amazing contributions and work that Scott Pelley has done for CBS and for \u201960 Minutes\u2019 over the course of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe cited the journalist\u2019s stories from this past season on the show including about the \u201cHavana Syndrome\u201d and his \u201cincredible\u201d interview with Ben Sasse, the\u00a0former Nebraska senator who has\u00a0metastatic pancreatic cancer. Weiss said that those are the kinds of stories \u201cthat Nick Bilton is going to put on the air come September in Season 59 with the amazing team that\u2019s still there and hopefully from some new people that are going to be joining us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCibrowski also weighed in on the matter Wednesday, saying that he \u201cecho[es] all of those thoughts\u201d after Weiss spoke. \u201cScott was an integral part of \u201960 Minutes,\u2019 \u2018CBS Evening News,\u2019 this entire news organization for decades,\u201d Cibrowski said, adding, that his \u201cincredible body of work\u201d will \u201calways be part of the history of CBS News, and you will miss Scott very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCibrowski said that \u201cwe know that these events, developments, changes, are a lot to process for every single person in this room and on this call. And they are happening frequently. And we know that\u2019s a lot to ask you all to come to work every day with your head held high to do the job that we ask you to do. All we can say is that we are taking this very seriously, and we are here to support you, and that means we\u2019re not gonna do it on this public call, but if you want to talk to us, please, please. We will check in with as many of you as possible, but please call us. Please email us and we will have conversations throughout this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a letter Bilton sent to Pelley informing him that he was being fired<\/a>, the new \u201c60 Minutes\u201d EP wrote in part, \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 effective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPelley struck a defiant tone in a statement late Tuesday about his dismissal from \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLast month, \u201960 Minutes\u2019 lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause,\u201d Pelley said. On May 28, CBS News ousted Simon as well as \u201c60 Minutes\u201d executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi\u00a0and Cecilia Vega.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGood people were silenced because they stood up for our audience,\u201d Pelley said in the statement. \u201cThey stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPelley lashed out at Weiss\u2019 installation at the head of CBS News, alleging that \u201cincompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc.\u201d He said that with one of his recent stories for \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d the entire program \u201ccame within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPelley asserted that \u201cnew management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I\u2019ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an Instagram post<\/a> Wednesday, Alfonsi, the former \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent, commented on Pelley\u2019s termination: \u201cHe was fired for asking questions, which is the job. If you need one sentence that tells you exactly what CBS News has become under Bari Weiss, that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBrian Steinberg contributed to this article.<\/p>\n