Rachel Maddow invites Scott Pelley to join MS NOW after CBS News firing
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MS NOW host Rachel Maddow suggested former “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley join her network after he was fired from CBS News on Tuesday.
Speaking at the MS NOW panel, Maddow said, “No one is more sensitive to the value of a free press than those who seek to destroy it.” “And when the president openly says, ‘I’m going to use the power of the state to get the media I want,’ and he lines up his oligarchic friends to do it for him. Again, there’s no excuse for that. It’s not for any other reason.”
He added: “There’s nothing else going on at CBS News except what’s happening at CBS News. And I don’t know where Scott Pelley is going to land. Frankly, I hope he lands right here.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
THE WAR BETWEEN BARI WEISS AND ’60 MINUTES’ BREAKS OUT AS SCOTT PELLEY ACCUSES HER OF KILLING THE SHOW
Former “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley was fired from CBS News on Tuesday. (David M. Russell/CBS via Getty Images)
As Maddow continued, fellow MS NOW host Michael Steele was heard responding “yes” to the remark.
“I hope it gets on television tomorrow. And I hope that everyone in journalism and everyone who values a free press finds ways to defeat the people who are trying to take the free press away from us. But at this point, it’s a completely collective fight. And no, I just don’t think there’s any suggestion that there’s anything else going on here,” Maddow said.
Throughout the night, Maddow repeatedly called Pelley’s firing from “60 Minutes” an “oligarchic” takeover of the press by the Trump administration.
“I joked that the Scott Pelley news was kind of a Hungarian oligarchic takeover of the media. I kind of say that as a joke, but I’m also dead serious,” Maddow said.
’60 MINUTES’ HOST SCOTT PELLEY REPORTED SAID CBS CHIEF BARI WEISS SHOULD TAKE THE JOB MORE ‘SERIOUS’
MS NOW host Rachel Maddow defended former “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley after he was fired from CBS News. (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images; Michele Crowe/CBS News via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital has reached out to MS NOW and CBS News for comment.
Pelley was fired from the long-running CBS News program on Tuesday following a bitter dispute with the network’s executive editor, Bari Weiss, and new “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton.
Fox News Digital confirmed that Pelley’s departure came after Pelley lashed out at Bilton at an all-staff meeting on Monday; Pelley accused Weiss of “butchering” the hit newsmagazine show and bluntly told Bilton, who had no linear television experience, that she had “poor qualifications” for her new role.
SCOTT PELLEY WAS TRIALD FOR CLAIMING HE WAS ‘At WAR’ IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ AFTER THE BROADCAST OF CBS NEWS
A source told Fox News Digital that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and new “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton told longtime “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley to stay on the show before attacking his bosses at a staff meeting. (Michele Crowe/CBS News ©2025; Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)
In his own statement, Pelley criticized parent company Paramount CEO David Ellison for discrediting CBS News “to curry favor with the Trump administration.”
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“The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognized. The principles I held dear are gone, so I must leave, too,” Pelley wrote.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
