Scott Pelley Accuses Bari Weiss Of “Murdering” ’60 Minutes’

Amid a wave of firings at 60 Minutes, longtime correspondent Scott Pelley accused CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the show, while he questioned her qualifications and that of the top rated newsmagazine’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton.

Pelley’s comments came during a staff meeting in which Bilton, named to the post last week, was introducing himself. Bilton was joined by Charles Forelle, the CBS News managing editor and a member of Weiss’ leadership team, but Weiss herself was not there, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

The New York Times and Status, which obtained audio of the meeting, reported that Bilton explained his approach to the show, but pushed back on some of the rumors about his plans. A source confirmed aspects of the meeting.

“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,” Bilton said, per the Times. He also defended Weiss, telling the staff that she “loves 60 Minutes.”

The Pelley responded, “She is murdering 60 Minutes. She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.”

“She has no qualifications for her job; you have slender qualifications for this job. 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 replaced Tanya Simon, a 60 Minutes veteran who was named executive producer last year. Also let go were Draggan Mihailovich, executive editor of the show, and two correspondents, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.

Pelley also confronted Bilton over the firings of Alfonsi and Vega, and at one point asked him why he took the job “knowing that you will never be welcome here,” per the Times.

“I have no problem taking a job in a place that I am not welcome in. I don’t think that will be the case,” Bilton said, per the audio.

A spokesperson for CBS News declined to comment. Pelley has not yet commented on the meeting.

The exchange quickly reverberated throughout the network news division, which has gone through layoffs and staff exits since Skydance acquired Paramount last year. The CEO of the newly merged company, David Ellison, tapped Weiss, the founder of The Free Press, to lead the news division. Weiss does not have broadcast news experience, but has outlined a strategy that emphasized the need to great accelerate the move to digital and streaming. That was also cited as a reason for hiring Bilton, a tech journalist who has worked for The New York Times and Vanity Fair.

What seems to have surprised the new owners and management is the level of pushback amid the changes, and the cuts at 60 Minutes — which Pelley referred to as “black Thursday,” per the Times. The show is among the top rated shows in all of broadcast TV, and its team dedicated to long-form storytelling has for years been treated as a separate, and even more independent, part of the news division.

Bilton has said that he planned to meet with staffers on the show on a one-to-one basis. Per the Times, he said that the meeting that Pelley would not “intimidate” him by bringing his criticisms up in an all-staff setting. Since the Thursday firings, CBS News executives are said to have reached out to Pelley, but he did not reply, according to sources. The Guardian first reported on the Monday meeting.

Pelley spoke out on the show after Bill Owens, its longtime executive producer, resigned last year, saying he was no longer able to make “independent decisions” about the show. “None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he had lost the independence that honest journalism requires,” Pelley said.

In December, Pelley told a USC event that the show had received “no corporate interference of any kind” from the new owners.

Later that month, though, Weiss held one of Alfonsi’s segments, on the CECOT prison in El Salvador and the migrants who were sent there by the Trump administration. Weiss said that the piece was “not ready,” but Alfonsi objected that the decision to hold it was a “political one,” and was held up because the Trump administration refused to participate. “Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver destined to kill the story,” Alfonsi wrote at the time.

The story did run a month later, with some revisions to Alfonsi’s introduction and postscript, but the piece itself was unchanged.

The night before the changes to 60 Minutes were announced, Pelley appeared at the News & Documentary Emmy ceremony and, in his remarks, noted the presence of Alfonsi, amid reports that her contract would not be renewed with the show. After Pelley presented the Mike Wallace Memorial Scholarship to student journalist Santiago Campos, Campos called out the recent direction of CBS, saying it “stains” the legacy of Wallace.

After Campos’ remarks, Pelley praised him. “God, we need young people like you right behind us. Thank you, God bless you. I know that Mike Wallace is looking down at you with pride at this very moment,” he said.