Scott Pelley fired from 60 Minutes after clashing with Bari Weiss
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Scott Pelley fell to the ground, shaking.
That’s why he is widely praised as a journalistic hero by the media-industrial complex.
And it is also widely derided as a self-promotional fraud.
Let’s face it, there was a time when a CBS anchor wanted to get fired and made it happen.
THE WAR BETWEEN BARI WEISS AND ’60 MINUTES’ BREAKS OUT AS SCOTT PELLEY ACCUSES HER OF KILLING THE SHOW
“60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley was fired and fell hard. (David M. Russell/CBS via Getty Images)
Bari didn’t give Weiss and the show’s new boss, tech journalist Nick Bilton, the slightest opportunity to work together to see how things were going.
Once you accuse editor-in-chief Weiss of “murdering” the series you’ve been involved with for more than two decades, you’re in full-on burn-the-bridge mode.
When you confront your new boss, Bilton, and call him minimally qualified (a far cry from Weiss), you give them the ropes.
SCOTT PELLEY WAS FIRED AFTER RELATIONSHIP WITH ’60 MINUTES’ NEW PRODUCER BARI WEISS, TOLD CBS NEWS
In damage control mode, Weiss told the staff: “There has to be trust and mutual respect… 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.
“We did not want this to happen, but this is the path he chose. This unfortunate outcome does not detract from the amazing contributions and work that Scott Pelley has done for CBS and ’60 Minutes’ throughout his career.”
British-born Bilton took his revenge with a scathing letter to Pelley:
“You hijacked my first meeting with my staff to belittle me, my qualifications and my intentions with remarkable rudeness and disdain.” He described it as “an enacted display of hostility in front of staff”.
Leftists often caricature CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss as an unbalanced conservative — though she’s more center-left. (Michele Crowe/CBS News via Getty Images)
Pelley, on the other hand, says the new administration has already handled some of his stories unethically.
At least one person was pleased. “Look, Scott Pelley is a tough guy,” President Trump told the New York Post. “And he’s afraid. And he’s part of this gang of stupid, dishonest people who don’t care about our country.”
Let’s pull the camera back. Weiss fired reporters Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vegas and executive producer Tanya Simon. Anderson Cooper resigned to return to CNN full-time. (And the “CBS Evening News” was a ratings disaster under anchor Tony Dokoupil.)
SCOTT PELLEY HAD A HEAVY CONFRONTATION WITH THE NEW ’60 MINUTES’ BOSS, ACCUSED BARI WEISS OF ‘MURDER’ SHOW
The left caricatures Weiss as a crazy conservative, but that’s not true (he’s more of a right-wing moderate liberal). But neither he nor Bilton, who has worked together in the past, have any television experience.
To put it in perspective, if it’s not broken, “60 Minutes”, which runs from the main house on Manhattan’s 10th Avenue, generates $200 million in advertising revenue for the network. Its ratings increased by 9 percent compared to last year. After 58 seasons dating back to Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, it’s averaging 9.1 million weekly viewers; an impressive figure in today’s fragmented environment. There has also been significant growth on the digital side.
So for the average viewer who doesn’t follow the inner world of baseball, many familiar faces are disappearing from the most successful news franchise in television history. It’s the worst crisis since 1995, when CBS shut down Wallace’s story about a tobacco whistleblower’s revelations because the show feared a multibillion-dollar lawsuit.
In a lengthy statement following his exit, Pelley said “good people were silenced because they defended our audience…
“For my part, I was instructed by the new administration to insert lies and bias into a politically sensitive story. I was told to include unsubstantiated allegations, but he managed to ignore or deny these instructions.”
And there was this: “In one case involving one of my stories, it came 19 minutes after the entire show had gone on air.”
“I’ve been in war,” Pelley told the New York Times on Tuesday.
Afghanistan. I fought in Iraq. “I have been in the war zone in Ukraine many times, risking my life and my family’s happiness because of my commitment to broadcasting.”
However, this earned him some ridicule because he wasn’t actually “at war” and it wasn’t his job.
CBS NEWS CHIEF TOLD SCOTT PELLEY THEY WANT HIM TO STAY ON ’60 MINUTES’ AHEAD OF TENSION Clash WITH NEW PRODUCER
Pelley, 68, grew up in Lubbock, Texas, and worked in local television before joining CBS in 1989. He considered another Texan, Dan Pretty, a mentor, but he lacked the same cowboy swagger. Pelley’s demeanor was always sober and serious.
He rose through the ranks with roles such as chief White House correspondent and won 51 Emmy Awards.
The political layer is hard to miss. CBS’s new owners, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and his son David, are billionaire friends of Trump. They even held a special dinner to honor Trump in April, attended by Bari Weiss as well as Norah O’Donnell and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Their company merged with Warner Bros. in a blockbuster deal. Received management approval to acquire Discovery.
Some at CBS believed the dinner projected an image of excessive comfort in the White House. But the Ellisons didn’t spend that kind of money without planning to make changes.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is a known billionaire friend of President Donald Trump. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
According to Mediaite, there were intense reactions on both sides to this confusion:
“I created a rift by calling the Scott Pelley news a sort of Hungarian oligarchic takeover of the media,” MSNOW host Rachel Maddow said. he said.
“60 doesn’t have another Pelley on the project talent-wise,” said Tim Miller, a onetime Republican spokesman who is staunchly opposed to Trump.
Liberal commentator Harry Sisson said Pelley was taking on “right-wing crooks.”
Obama White House official Tommy Vietor said: “Pelley appears to be attempting a murder/suicide. He’s halfway there so far.”
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On the conservative side, Outkick founder Clay Travis said: “Scott Pelley got fired by ’60 Minutes.’ Pelley will soon learn that no one in the media is going to come close to paying him millions to write a few stories a year. I think a lot of these old-school TV guys are delusional about market values in today’s media.”
Newsmax host Rob Schmitt was dismissive: “Scott Pelley was a middling talent with an ego the size of Jupiter. Adios.”
Megyn Kelly producer Steve Krakauer: “With Stephen Colbert and Scott Pelley now out the door at CBS, we’re seeing a systematic elimination of cocky, old, straight, white men who think they’re better than you.”
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So Pelley leaves in a swirling cloud of controversy – but I’m sure he won’t have any trouble finding another job.
