Scott Pelley accuses CBS News leadership of political bias after firing
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Former “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley accused CBS News leadership of political bias and incompetence in his first sit-down interview since being fired from the network last week following a clash with the new management.
Pelley He told the New York Times Lulu Garcia-Navarro says she hopes Paramount leadership will intervene after the latest upheaval at the long-running newsmagazine.
“CBS News is on fire right now,” Pelley said.
Pelley, who spent 37 years at CBS News, said the turmoil began when CBS laid off several senior “60 Minutes” staffers and appointed technology journalist Nick Bilton as the show’s new executive producer under the direction of CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and “60 Minutes” new executive producer Nick Bilton told longtime reporter Scott Pelley to stay on the show before criticizing his bosses at a staff meeting, a source told Fox News Digital. (Michele Crowe/CBS News ©2025; Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)
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Describing the staff cuts as a “Black Thursday massacre”, Pelley said employees were left without a clear explanation.
“These are all our senior staff,” Pelley said. “Our boss, Tanya Simon, is the first woman to be the executive producer of ’60 Minutes.’ And she finished this season with 9 percent growth in our audience, unheard of in broadcast television, and 190 percent growth in our online presence.”
Pelley said Bilton canceled a planned trip with his wife to attend his first staff meeting and objected to Bilton reading comments on his phone after the firings.
Pelley claimed he felt compelled to speak because he was the most senior person in the room.
Pelley criticized the way Bari Weiss ran CBS News and argued that she lacked the television experience needed to run the network. (David M. Russell/CBS via Getty Image/Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Image)
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“I felt like someone had to stand up for the people, not just for the broadcast,” Pelley said.
Pelley also accused Weiss of interfering with a “60 Minutes” story that aired in February about protests against ICE crackdowns in Minneapolis. He said Weiss asked for the change after the story was approved by senior editors and after the show’s Sunday deadline.
He said one of the requested changes relates to how the publication describes Renee Good’s death.
“The video showed that the officer wasn’t standing in front of the car and wasn’t moving toward it, but that’s what the president said about it and that’s how he wanted to be identified,” Pelley said.
The former “60 Minutes” reporter said recent staff cuts and leadership changes have eroded confidence in the program. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
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Pelley said he rejected the changes after reviewing the footage with the producers and an editor.
“There was a thumbs down on the scale of the president’s version of events that I felt was a level of political influence that I’ve never seen in 37 years at CBS News,” Pelley said.
He said his biggest concern was the lack of television experience from CBS News leadership, especially Bari Weiss.
“Television is not her thing,” Pelley said of Weiss. “It’s like someone coming up to me and saying, ‘There’s a 747, there’s 400 people on it, we need to fly it to Paris.’ I’m going to decline because I have no idea.”
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CBS News denied Pelley’s characterization of Weiss’ involvement in the Minneapolis story.
“Bari made four points in the back-and-forth editorial process in an email,” a CBS News spokesperson told The Times. “They had no political motivation and were merely suggested to make the work as strong, fair and accurate as possible.”
The network also denied Pelley’s broader claim that Weiss was acting on behalf of the Trump administration.
“There is no credible argument to suggest that Ms. Weiss ‘tipped the scales on behalf of the administration’ on any occasion in the past seven months,” a CBS News spokesperson said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to CBS for comment but did not immediately hear back.
