'60 Minutes' veteran Scott Pelley rips CBS News bosses, saying they are 'murdering' the program
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Nick Bilton, the new executive producer of “60 Minutes,” received a hostile welcome Monday from the CBS News program’s most respected correspondent Scott Pelley as the staff is still reeling over last week’s firings.In the first staff meeting since Bilton was named last week, Pelley accused CBS News Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the country’s most-watched news program, which recently finished the TV season with a 9 percent ratings increase.Recordings of the meeting were circulated to journalists.“She is murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” Pelley said.
“She does not love this place.She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.” Pelley also attacked the credentials of Bilton, a former New York Times tech reporter and documentary filmmaker who like Weiss has no previous experience running a TV news operation.Bilton was named to replace Tanya Simon on Thursday, an unexpected move that also came with the firing of correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.
The moves were enacted by Weiss, who has targeted the prestigious program for changes since she arrived at the network last fall.David Ellison, chief executive of CBS News parent Paramount, brought in Weiss — a skeptic of legacy media — with a mandate to move the division more to the political center.
But many critics have seen the move as an attempt to placate the Trump administration while Ellison seeks regulatory approval for his deal to acquire Warner Bros.Discovery,“60 Minutes,” has long been in Trump’s cross hairs.
The president sued the program last year over the editing of an interview with his 2024 opponent former Vice President Kamala Harris.The suit was settled just ahead of the Federal Communications Commission clearing the way for Ellison’s Skydance Media takeover of Paramount.One person close to “60 Minutes” said attendees at the meeting in the M...