The president of the Writers Guild of America East is decrying the management of CBS News under new owner Paramount Skydance, claiming “near-constant levels of editorial interference” at the storied organization.
Tom Fontana, the showrunner and writer leading the union, wrote members on Thursday after CBS News fired former 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley following a clash with leadership in a tense meeting earlier this week. “Like many of you, I have been alarmed by recent developments at CBS News,” he wrote, citing recent layoffs and the closing of CBS News Radio in late May.
“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,” Fontana said.
Of Pelley, an icon of the newsmagazine and a 37-year veteran of the network, the union said, “CBS management is apparently too thin-skinned to handle the honest scrutiny of their own journalists.”
Pelley was fired by CBS management after he laid into new 60 Minutes boss Nick Bilton and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss in a heated staff meeting. The journalist said Weiss was “murdering” the show. “She does not love this place, she was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that,” he said. Pelley also told Bilton he had “slender” qualifications for the executive producer role he now holds.
