Topline
Ousted “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley called out CBS News and Paramount’s new leadership and accused them of harming the weekly news show’s reputation in a bid to curry favor with the Trump administration in a statement issued early on Wednesday, hours after he was fired by the network for clashing with management.
Scott Pelley was fired from 60 Minutes by CBS News on Tuesday.
CBS via Getty Images
Key Facts
In his statement shared with several outlets, Pelley hailed “60 Minutes,” calling it the “most successful program of any kind in history,” and touting its recent ratings successes.
The senior journalist said the weekly show’s success was a result of the audience finding “integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories,” before accusing CBS’s new owner—Larry Ellison’s Skydance Media—of casting this aside to “curry a moment of favor” with the Trump administration.
Pelley was fired “for cause” by the show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, after clashing with him over the firing of his long-time colleagues and telling Bilton he had “slender” qualifications for the job.
In his statement, Pelley lamented the “waste is heartbreaking,” and said “60 Minutes” lost its DNA after its entire senior leadership and two of his on-air colleagues— Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega—were “cruelly fired without cause.”
He said they were silenced for standing against “the forces of political bias” before alleging that the new management instructed him to “inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story,” which he claims he ignored.
Read Scott Pelley’s Full Statement
“There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.
The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58th season, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.
“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.
The waste is heartbreaking.
Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.
For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.
At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.
I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.
Scott Pelley”
Further Reading
Top ‘60 Minutes’ Correspondent Scott Pelley Fired After He Calls Out CBS News Boss Bari Weiss (Forbes)
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