60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley reportedly criticized higher ups’ handling of the long-running CBS news program during a staff meeting.
According to audio obtained by Status and The New York Times on Monday, June 1, Pelley, 68, was critical of CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
“She is murdering 60 Minutes,” he reportedly claimed. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.” (Weiss was reportedly not in attendance for the meeting.)
At another point in the staff gathering, Pelley reportedly questioned if the show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, was qualified for the job.
“[Weiss] has no qualifications for her job; you have slender qualifications for this job,” Pelley said via The New York Times. “The changes that she’s made at the Evening News have been catastrophic, so why should we expect that any of this is going to be any better?”
Bilton, 49, reportedly responded, “Well, I will show you. That’s what I have to say. That is my plan over the next two weeks. I’ll be meeting with everyone. I’m very excited to meet with everyone, yourself included.”
The show’s new executive producer — who succeeds Tanya Simon — added that Weiss loves the show and “this institution.”
“For me, the journalism is the journalism,” Bilton said, according to the recording. “That is why I am here. That is why we are all here. The rumors people are spreading, that I’m going to turn the show into 60 one-minute episodes, that it’s going to be like TikTok, that is not changing. The show is going to stay exactly like it is for now.”
Us Weekly has reached out to CBS News for comment on the meeting and Pelley’s reported comments.
60 Minutes is described by CBS as America’s #1 television news program, promising to present hard-hitting investigative reports, newsmaker interviews and in-depth profiles.
In recent weeks, viewers have noticed some changes to the program, including the departure of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper after nearly 20 years as a correspondent.
On Thursday, May 28, news broke that 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi’s contract was not renewed. In an interview with The New York Times, the veteran journalist claimed, “It was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting.”
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Cecilia Vega also confirmed she had been fired on what some staffers described as “Black Thursday.”
“I have the utmost respect and admiration for my colleagues at 60 Minutes and the stories that air every Sunday. But I very much fear what comes next for and the future of the legendary broadcast,” Vega, 49, wrote via Instagram. “In recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories. Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions. Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven. It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”
60 Minutes airs on CBS Sundays at 7 p.m. ET.
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