Modern Media
Longtime correspondent Scott Pelley was fired from the gold-standard program on Tuesday, in the latest sign of chaos at the iconic show
What began as slight trepidation among CBS News staffers when Bari Weiss was installed as editor-in-chief of the news organization last October has evolved into outright chaos in the wake of longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley’s unceremonious dismissal on Tuesday.
It’s the latest crisis to engulf the newsroom months after Weiss overhauled the flagship CBS Evening News program, bumping up morning host Tony Dokoupil to lead anchor. Last week, Weiss fired a slate of trusted correspondents and producers and hired tech journalist and filmmaker Nick Bilton as executive producer of 60 Minutes, the gold-standard television news program that has won more than 150 Emmys since its launch in 1968.
Bilton’s arrival was immediately met with internal pushback from Pelley, who confronted the new boss during a heated all-hands meeting on Monday. An impassioned Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering” the iconic Sunday evening show and demanding answers from Bilton as to why four senior colleagues were “cruelly fired” on what he described as “Black Thursday.”
