CBS fires Scott Pelley amid turmoil over direction of ’60 Minutes’
CBS News fired high-profile “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley amid controversy over the direction of the program, which has been a mainstay of the network’s television schedule for decades.
“Your employment at CBS News is terminated, effective immediately,” Nick Bilton, the new executive producer of “60 Minutes,” wrote to Pelley in a letter seen by CNBC. It was not immediately clear when the letter was sent.
Pelley previously quoted CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss as saying,murderAccording to NBC News “60 Minutes.”
In a statement obtained by MS Now, Pelley said the network was trying to “curry favor with the Trump administration.”
“The waste is heartbreaking,” Pelley wrote.
Skydance and Paramount merged last year, taking responsibility for CBS and other Paramount properties, including the famed movie studio and its nascent streaming business. Paramount Skydance Chief Executive Officer David Ellison now shares Paramount with Warner Bros. It is trying to merge it with Discovery and needs regulatory approval from the Trump administration to complete the deal.
In 2024, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump sued “60 Minutes,” claiming the program deceptively edited an interview with rival Kamala Harris. Paramount settled the lawsuit for $16 million, which irritated some veteran “60 Minutes” staffers. Including Pelley. Another important anchor is Anderson Cooperannounced earlier this month that he would be leaving the show.
“For my part, the new administration instructed me to insert lies and bias into a politically sensitive story,” Pelley said in the statement. “I was told to include unsubstantiated allegations. To date, I have managed to ignore or deny these instructions in every case.”
According to the NBC News report, Pelley told Bilton during a meeting Monday that he had “poor qualifications” for the role of executive producer of the “60 Minutes” newsmagazine.
Bilton is a former New York Times technology columnist and has produced several documentaries for HBO and Netflix. Bilton replaced Tanya Simon as the series’ executive producer. Simon spent more than two decades at “60 Minutes” before he was fired last week. Bilton, by contrast, has no experience running a TV newscast.
“60 Minutes’ leadership is no longer recognized,” Pelley said in a statement. “The principles I loved are gone, so I must go too.”
During a May 28 interview, Bilton told CNBC that he was determined to show that his hiring was not a political maneuver.
“I will prove this with my work,” Bilton said. “I am committed to holding people in power accountable.”
In an editorial call with CBS on Tuesday, Weiss told employees she was “only interested in working in a newsroom built on trust and mutual respect,” according to a transcript of the call obtained by CNBC.
“That foundation was broken on Monday and despite our efforts to contact Scott Pelley and find a way back, unfortunately we were unable to do so and so we had to part ways,” Weiss said. “We didn’t want this to happen, but he chose this path.”
CBS News President Tom Cibrowski added to the call that the organization “will miss Scott greatly.”
Read Pelley’s full statement here:
There’s never been anything like 60 Minutes in America.
The Sunday tradition is the most successful program in history. For over a decade, its innovative growth across all major online platforms has expanded its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58th season, 60 Minutes has grown rapidly, with an unprecedented 9% increase in viewers on CBS.
“60” has been America’s number one show for decades because our beloved viewers find integrity, quality and humanity in our stories. When management of the program passed to my colleagues and I, our responsibility was to energetically expand into a new era of media technology while maintaining the values our audiences expect. Now the new owner of our network is burying that myth, apparently to curry favor with the Trump administration.
Waste breaks hearts.
Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when all of our top executives and two of our best on-air reporters were brutally fired for no reason. Good people were silenced for defending our audience. They defended justice against the forces of political prejudice; They advocated professionalism against chaos.
For my part, the new administration instructed me to insert lies and bias into a politically sensitive story. I was told to include unsubstantiated claims. So far I have managed to ignore or reject these instructions in every case. Recently politicians have been invited to choose reporters for on-air interviews. Giving politicians control of 60 Minutes interviews is not the way to do it. Finally, the incompetence and unprofessionalism of the new management wreaked havoc. In one case involving one of my stories, it arrived 19 minutes after the entire show had gone on air.
At 60 Minutes, we fought harder than anyone knows to save the show that has become an American icon. We owe this to our millions of viewers. I was deeply touched by the thousands of wishes we received to “keep fighting the good fight.” Many of the men and women of CBS News are still in this fight. But now the collapse of top values has become untenable. 60 Minutes’ leadership is no longer recognized. The principles I hold dear are gone, so I must go too.
After 37 years at CBS, I leave with one feeling; a heart filled with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encourage and enrich my work, often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when these people and their ideals will be honored again; A day when sanity, competence and courage return.
Scott Pelley
—CNBC’s Alex Sherman And Ryan Ruggiero contributed to this report.
