Longtime ‘60 Minutes’ Anchor Fired After Attacks On New Leadership

CBS News fired “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday, just one day after he accused editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of attempting to “murder” the long-running show. 

Nick Bilton, the tech journalist and filmmaker recently named the new boss of “60 Minutes,” told Pelley that he was being fired after he aggressively “hijacked” a staff meeting to attack the new direction of CBS. Pelley, who has been with the network for decades, attacked Bilton’s qualifications during a staff meeting on Monday and reportedly ignored opportunities for private meetings with the new leadership. 

“Yesterday’s performative display of hostility enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress,” Bilton wrote to Pelley. “I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama.”

WATCH FROM TODAY’S EPISODE OF MORNING WIRE:

Bilton said that Pelley “hijacked” his first meeting with staff to “disparage” him and responded to his efforts to reach out with “remarkable incivility and contempt.” 

“I welcome a diversity of viewpoints and respectful debate among the team, but this was nothing of the sort,” he said. 

During Bilton’s first meeting with staff, Pelley interrupted Bilton to say that Weiss was “murdering ‘60 Minutes,” according to a recording obtained by The New York Times.

“She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that,” Pelley said of Weiss.

“She has no qualifications for her job; you have slender qualifications for this job,” he added. “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 responded by saying that he would be meeting with everyone, including Pelley, to discuss his plans for the show and that he wanted to focus on producing quality journalism. Pelley met with Bilton and other CBS executives on Tuesday, but that meeting did not go well. 

“Despite yesterday’s misconduct, I had hoped that in sitting down with you today we could find a path forward together,” Bilton wrote. “You made clear that you are not interested in such a path. Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. (‘CBS’) to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately.”

Pelley had worked for CBS News since 1989 and once anchored “CBS Evening News.” 

In an interview with the New York Times after his firing, Pelley discussed his experience reporting in various war zones. 

“I have been in combat in Afghanistan,” he said. “I have been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine multiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast.”

Weiss came to CBS after the network and “60 Minutes” had faced years of accusations of bias, including for releasing a highly edited interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election.