CBS News fired longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday, a day after he allegedly said Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was “murdering the show” and accused its new producer of having “slender qualifications” for the job. The move deepened the turmoil at the nation’s most influential TV news program and the news unit that oversees it.
Pelley had criticized the program’s leadership during an introductory meeting Monday between the show’s staff and Nick Bilton, the new executive producer named by Weiss last week, according to a detailed report on the Status website. In a termination notice obtained Tuesday night by The Associated Press, Bilton, a former technology journalist and filmmaker with no traditional broadcast news experience, accused Pelley of carrying out an “ambush” against him.
“Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” the letter states.
Status, which said it had heard a recording of the meeting Monday, reported that Pelley began grilling Bilton about the firings last week of Bilton’s predecessor, Tanya Simon, and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Weiss was not present at that meeting.
In the dismissal letter late Tuesday, Bilton said Pelley’s “performative display of hostility” demonstrated that he has “no interest in contributing to the future success of the show.”
Pelley’s agent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.