{"id":3291,"date":"2026-06-04T09:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3291"},"modified":"2026-06-04T09:26:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:26:00","slug":"fired-scott-pelley-decries-heartbreaking-submission-to-trump-by-cbs-paramount-incompetence-unprofessionalism-in-the-new-management-have-wreaked-havoc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3291","title":{"rendered":"Fired Scott Pelley Decries \u201cHeartbreaking\u201d Submission To Trump By CBS, Paramount: \u201cIncompetence &#038; Unprofessionalism In The New Management Have Wreaked Havoc\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThe leadership of<em>\u00a060 Minutes<\/em>\u00a0is no longer recognizable,\u201d Scott Pelley said late Tuesday just hours after being\u00a0fired from CBS News\u00a0after almost 40 years at the network. \u201cThe principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well,\u201d the former<em>\u00a0CBS Evening News\u00a0<\/em>anchor and<em>\u00a060 Minutes<\/em>\u00a0correspondent added in a scathing parting salvo to CBS News boss Bari Weiss, newly minted\u00a0<em>60\u00a0<\/em>EP Nick Bilton and Paramount CEO David Ellison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As Ellison seeks full approval of his $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery from the federal government, a blunt Pelley accused CBS News of bending the knee to Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>More from Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"mb-4\">\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">CBS News Terminates Scott Pelley\u2019s Contract After Verbal Confrontation With New \u201860 Minutes\u2019 Executive Producer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Scott Pelley Accuses Bari Weiss Of \u201cMurdering\u201d \u201860 Minutes\u2019 In Tense Exchange With Show\u2019s New Executive Producer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Trump&#8217;s Anti-Weaponization Fund &#8220;Not Moving Forward,&#8221; Acting Attorney General Says<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"max-md:faux-bleed mb-4 bg-accent\/2 pb-5 md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Revealing that \u201cnew management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story,\u201d Pelley stated \u201cincompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc.\u201d Throwing\u00a0<em>Free Press<\/em>\u00a0founder Weiss well under the bus in a chaotic news division now in open revolt I hear, Pelley continued: \u201cIn a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read Scott Pelley\u2019s full post-firing statement here:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"mb-4 border-l-2 pl-5 italic text-tertiary\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There has never been anything in America like\u00a0<em>60 Minutes.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58th season,\u00a0<em>60 Minutes<\/em>\u00a0grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c60\u201d has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>The waste is heartbreaking.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.<\/p>\n<p>For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I\u2019ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over<em>\u00a060 Minutes<\/em>\u00a0interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.<\/p>\n<p>At\u00a0<em>60 Minutes<\/em>, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to \u201ckeep up the good fight.\u201d Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of<em>\u00a060 Minutes<\/em>\u00a0is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.<\/p>\n<p>I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion\u2014a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again\u2014a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.<\/p>\n<p>Scott Pelley<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Long simmering tensions at CBS News since Weiss\u2019 appointment to the division\u2019s top gig last October finally exploded earlier this week when Pelley confronted ex-<em>New York Times<\/em>\u00a0reporter Bilton at the latter\u2019s first meeting with<em>\u00a060 Minutes\u00a0<\/em>staff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The 37-year CBS News veteran, who served as chief White House correspondent in the past, called out the absent Weiss and Bilton directly. \u201cShe has no qualifications for her job; you have slender qualifications for this job,\u201d Pelley told Bilton in front of colleagues in person and remotely. \u201c\u201dThe changes that she\u2019s made at the\u00a0<em>Evening News<\/em>\u00a0have been catastrophic, so why should we expect that any of this is going to be any better?\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"max-md:faux-bleed mb-4 bg-accent\/2 pb-5 md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Bilton seemed stunned Monday and soon retreated under calls from other execs that Pelley was being \u201crude.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Today Bilton ripped Pelley\u2019s \u201cperformative display of hostility\u201d in his letter to the journo pink slipping him \u201cwith cause.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As Deadline exclusively reported tonight, Pelley and his team have had conversations with Hollywood litigator Bryan Freedman. The lawyer, best known of late for representing Justin Baldoni in his<em>\u00a0It Ends With Us<\/em>\u00a0battle with Blake Lively, had already been retained by ex-<em>60 Minutes<\/em>\u00a0reporter \u00a0Sharyn Alfonsi \u2014 who was cut in a purge at the news magazine over the past few days. Freedman was instrumental in big payouts to the likes of Megyn Kelly, Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson in dust-ups and exits from their respective legacy media perches.<\/p>\n<div class=\"mb-4\">\n<div class=\"rounded-xl bg-secondary p-5\">\n<div class=\"mb-4 flex items-center justify-between\">\n<div class=\"flex items-center gap-2\"><span class=\"text-base font-semibold text-primary\">Trending on Yahoo 100<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"mr-0.5 label-m-emphasized\">See full list<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"rounded-2xl bg-primary p-5\">\n<div class=\"mb-5 flex flex-col gap-4 lg:flex-row\">\n<div>Tony Dokoupil honors Scott Pelley after his CBS firing<\/p>\n<div class=\"mb-3 line-clamp-3 text-secondary label-s-regular\">Tony Dokoupil called Scott Pelley &#8216;a journalist who valued truth at all costs&#8217; following Pelley&#8217;s removal by 60 Minutes\u2019 new executive producer. The change comes as CBS News leadership pursues a new direction for its long-running news program.<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex items-center gap-2\">\n<div class=\"inline-flex items-center\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex shrink-0 items-center gap-2\">\n<div class=\"whitespace-nowrap text-tertiary\">Mediaite<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-purple-13 group-hover:underline lg:overflow-x-hidden lg:text-ellipsis lg:whitespace-nowrap\">Tony Dokoupil Pays Tribute to Fired Colleague Scott Pelley on CBS Evening News: He \u2018Valued Truth at All Costs\u2019<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">See ya in court, cause or not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Best of Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"mb-4\">\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Everything We Know About Sony Television And Netflix\u2019s \u2018The God Of The Woods\u2019 Adaptation So Far<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">2026 TV Cancellations Photo Gallery: Series Ending This Year &amp; Beyond<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">2026 Premiere Dates For New &amp; Returning Series On Broadcast, Streaming &amp; Cable<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sign up for\u00a0Deadline&#8217;s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on\u00a0Facebook,\u00a0Twitter, and\u00a0Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe leadership of\u00a060 Minutes\u00a0is no longer recognizable,\u201d Scott Pelley said late Tuesday just hours after being\u00a0fired from CBS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,7,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment-2","category-news","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3293,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291\/revisions\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}