{"id":683038,"date":"2026-06-04T02:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/683038\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T02:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:45:09","slug":"steve-kroft-says-60-minutes-is-disastrous-under-bari-weiss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/683038\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Kroft Says ’60 Minutes’ Is ‘Disastrous’ Under Bari Weiss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPBS NewsHour reporter Geoff Bennett teased an excerpt<\/a> from his interview with Steve Croft, in which the \u201c60 Minutes<\/a>\u201d legend said the direction of the historic news program under the leadership of CBS News<\/a> boss Bari Weiss<\/a> was \u201cdisastrous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is journalistic interference,\u201d Kroft said. \u201cIt makes no business sense whatsoever. It\u2019s the highest rated news program on television, and it has been that way for more than 50 years. The audience was up about 9% last year. Why would you mess with that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPBS NewsHour\u2019s entire sitdown with Kroft airs on Wednesday at 4 p.m. PT.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c60 Minutes\u201d has been under intense scrutiny since Paramount-Skydance CEO David Ellison<\/a> inserted Weiss as the new head of CBS News. Some have accused Weiss, who lacks experience in TV reporting, of trying to undermine<\/a> one of the most revered sources of broadcast news with political bias. The drama came to a head in late May after longtime executive producer Tanya Simon and correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi were fired<\/a>, and former NYT technology columnist Nick Bilton<\/a> was hired to run the show.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tJust days later, it was reported that \u201c60 Minutes\u201d veteran Scott Pelley lashed out at Bilton<\/a> during a staff meeting, saying the new executive producer has \u201cslender qualifications for this job.\u201d He also went after Weiss, alleging that she is \u201cmurdering \u201860 Minutes\u2019\u201d with her changes.<\/p>\n

\n\tLate Tuesday, Bilton released a letter announcing that CBS leadership and Pelley failed to reach common ground, and that Pelley was released from \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYour antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear,\u201d Bilton wrote. \u201cAnd 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\tHours later, Pelley fired back with a letter of his own<\/a>, claiming that \u201cincompetence and unprofessionalism\u201d had \u201cwreaked havoc\u201d on \u201c60 Minutes\u201d for months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PBS NewsHour reporter Geoff Bennett teased an excerpt from his interview with Steve Croft, in which the \u201c60…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[10673,100518,7930,236,18205,88,292793],"class_list":["post-683038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-60-minutes","tag-bari-weiss","tag-cbs-news","tag-celebrities","tag-david-ellison","tag-entertainment","tag-nick-bilton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683038","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=683038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}