WGA Slams Scott Pelley’s Firing and CBS News’ ‘Cruel and Needless Layoffs’

The head of the Writers Guild of America East union blasted Paramount-owned CBS News for recent “cruel and needless layoffs,” its firing of “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley and the shutdown of CBS News Radio.

In a message to members Thursday morning, WGA East president Tom Fontana decried the “assaults on CBS News, an institution of American journalism for nearly a century.” He said the actions taken by CBS News “are more than mere ideological interference with the news. They display a profound contempt for the journalism profession.”

WGA East represents unionized employees at CBS News as well as CBS News Digital.

Reps for CBS News did not immediately provide comment.

Fontana, in his message to WGA East members, wrote, “Like many of you, I have been alarmed by recent developments at CBS News. In the past year, CBS has enacted cruel and needless layoffs across the organization and shuttered CBS News Radio. In addition, based on a string of public reporting and confidential reports from WGAE members, it is clear that CBS brass is engaged in a near-constant level of editorial interference that would have previously been unthinkable.

“Over the course of the last few weeks, CBS has laid off or fired multiple newsroom workers and journalists, most recently Scott Pelley; CBS management is apparently too thin-skinned to handle the honest scrutiny of their own journalists,” the union boss continued.

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“These assaults on CBS News, an institution of American journalism for nearly a century, are more than mere ideological interference with the news. They display a profound contempt for the journalism profession, for our members who have dedicated their lives to informing the public about the world, and for the ethics that underpin true journalism, chief among them honesty, integrity, and objectivity.”

Bari Weiss, the Free Press founder who Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison put in charge of CBS News, has made a series of changes to the news organization since coming on board last fall. Those have included a significant round of layoffs this spring, the shutdown of CBS News Radio and a massive shake-up at the storied “60 Minutes” newsmagazine.

Last week, Weiss named former tech journalist Nick Bilton as executive producer of “60 Minutes” and ousted veterans of the program including former EP Tanya Simon. CBS News fired Pelley this Tuesday after he engaged in heated argument a day earlier with Bilton at an internal meeting.

On a June 3 conference call with CBS News staffers, Weiss said that “despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back, unfortunately we weren’t able to do so, and so we had to part ways. We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose.” She said “I’m only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect” and that Pelley had “broken” that foundation.

Pelley shortly thereafter accused Weiss of lying in describing his termination. “Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true,” he said in a statement, alleging “there was no effort of any kind to ‘find a way back,’ as Weiss said in the editorial meeting.” He also said, “These executives cannot gain the trust of the staff with lies. This is antithetical to everything we stand for and reveals contempt for what journalists do.”

In his message to WGA East members, Fontana concluded with this: “To our friends and colleagues at CBS News: we see you, and you are not alone. Thousands of your union brothers, sisters, and siblings have your backs. We stand shoulder to shoulder with you now, we will be there with you when this difficult time in American life passes, and we will help you build what comes next.”