Posted in: CBS, TV | Tagged: 60 minutes, cbs news

60 Minutes: CBS News Editor-in-Chief Weiss Defends Scott Pelley Firing

CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss defended the firing of CBS's 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley during a staff call on Wednesday.

UPDATE: CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss addressed the firing of CBS's 60 Minutes longtime correspondent Scott Pelley on a conference call with staff on Wednesday morning. Joined by CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, Weiss claimed that Pelley broke "that foundation" of "trust and mutual respect" on Monday with his exchange with new EP Nick Bilton. "Before we get into it, I need to address what's transpired in our newsroom over the past two days and what is making news. … I know I speak for myself, and I hope I speak for everyone here when I say that I'm only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect. We cannot do our work without it," Weiss said during the conference call, according to a recording transcript confirmed by sources. "That foundation was broken on Monday, and despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back, unfortunately, we weren't able to do so, and so we had to part ways. We did not want that to happen, but that's the path that he chose."

ORIGINAL REPORT: In what's proving to be a very fluid situation, longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley is responding to his firing, which was made official on Monday night by new 60 Minutes EP Nick Bilton. In a statement released late on Tuesday, Pelley called out CBS News brass for the layoffs and changes that have taken place with the long-running news magazine, saying they were "casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration." Pelley goes on to accuse leadership of instructing him "to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story," among other things. "The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well," the ex-anchor notes at one point.

"There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes," Pelley's statement began. "The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58th season, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS."

He continued, "'60' has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration."

"The waste is heartbreaking. Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos."

"For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I've 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. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all."

"At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to "keep up the good fight." Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well."

Pelley concluded, "I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return."

"Your 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 for cause effective immediately," Bilton wrote in a letter to Pelley, which you can check out below:

#BREAK: CBS NEWS has terminated Scott Pelley's contract. pic.twitter.com/vbXyX8PBBv

— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) June 3, 2026

The situation exploded on Monday, when Bilton introduced himself to CBS News' 60 Minutes staff. The meeting did not go well, with Pelley making his feelings known on a number of issues, including his view of CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss as "murdering" the show, how Bilton wasn't qualified for his position, and how the new regime is looking to weaken the network's journalistic integrity and standards.

The meeting came amid a wave of layoffs and expected changes at the long-running news magazine, including the firings of Executive Producer Tanya Simon, Executive Editor Draggan Mihailovich, and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. On Tuesday, reports surfaced that Pelley met with Bilton and other CBS News officials, but the two sides could not reach an agreement on how to move forward. On Tuesday night, a decision was made to fire Pelley from the long-running news magazine.

According to a report from The New York Times, based on an audio recording of the meeting it obtained, Bilton sought to lay out his vision for 60 Minutes. In addition, he attempted to shut down rumors that the news magazine was "going to be like TikTok," adding, "The show is going to stay exactly like it is for now." But when Bilton reportedly claimed that Weiss "loves '60 Minutes,'" Pelley responded, "She is murdering '60 Minutes.' She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she's been doing exactly that."

Pelley continued, "She has no qualifications for her job; you have slender qualifications for this job. The changes that she's made at the 'Evening News' have been catastrophic, so why should we expect that any of this is going to be any better?" Pelley was referencing CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, Weiss' choice to lead the network's evening news and serve as the face of CBS News. In terms of viewers, Dokoupil's run on CBS Evening News has pulled in numbers below what the previous anchors brought in (and only recently breaking the 4 million viewers average, a bar considered by many in the industry as the sign of a news show's success or failure).

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