Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim say theyll stay at 60 Minutes

“60 Minutes” correspondents Leslie Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim said Friday that they planned to stay on at the newsmagazine, capping days of turmoil for the show.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.“We have had a hard time deciding whether to stay,” the three wrote in a memo to their colleagues at the program, but ultimately added: “We don’t want to see ‘60 Minutes’ die.”They wrote that they were still “deeply upset by the firings” of executive producer Tanya Simon and high-ranking producer Draggan Mihailovich, whom they called “strong leaders who everyone respected.” Their colleague Scott Pelley was fired earlier this week after he challenged the newsmagazine’s new executive producer over the recent firings.The longtime correspondents said that “as far as we can tell,” those leaders were fired because “they fought for our ‘60 Minutes’ values and stood up to protect our independence and integrity.”“Newsrooms are not supposed to be run like dictatorships,” they added in the memo, obtained by NBC News.The statement is the latest beat in the turmoil engulfing “60 Minutes,” America’s top-rated and most prestigious newsmagazine, which just ended its 58th season The upheaval started last week, when several key senior staff members were let go.Tensions between “60 Minutes” staffers and management reached an all-time high during a Monday meeting to introduce executive producer Nick Bilton, where Pelley openly challenged leadership and accused CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the storied newsmagazine that debuted in 1968.“She does not love this place,” Pelley told Bilton at the meeting, according to the recording.

“She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.”The next day, Pelley was fired after a nearly 40-year run at CBS News.In a written statement, Pelley expressed “gratitude for the men...