Bari Weiss Defends Scott Pelley Firing as '60 Minutes' Trust Broke Before Season 59
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 3
Bari Weiss Defends Scott Pelley Firing as '60 Minutes' Trust Broke Before Season 59
3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 3
Summary
Wednesday’s staff call had Bari Weiss tell CBS News employees that Scott Pelley was fired because the newsroom’s foundation of “trust and mutual respect” was broken and efforts to repair the relationship failed.
Monday’s rupture centered on a contentious meeting with new executive producer Nick Bilton, where Pelley challenged Bilton’s credentials and pressed him over recently fired colleagues during Bilton’s first staff session.
Pelley rejected Weiss’s account, saying no “way back” was ever offered, that Tom Cibrowski raised firing within the first 15 seconds, and that Weiss and Cibrowski were openly hostile.
The clash lands amid Weiss’s overhaul of “60 Minutes,” which already cut Tanya Simon, three other top producers, and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, leaving a thinner bench ahead of Season 59.
Pelley has cast the purge as political, accusing Paramount Skydance’s David Ellison of dismantling the show to appease the Trump administration after Trump’s $16 million settlement with CBS during merger review.