60 Minutes' Scott Pelley hits back after being fired from CBS over dramatic clash
After over 20 years as 60 Minutes' veteran news correspondent, Scott Pelley has been sacked by CBS in what he branded a 'unprofessional' decision.
The move comes after Nick Bilton, the show's executive producer, accused the 68-year-old of 'ambush', 'hostility' and 'misconduct' in a damning termination letter, which was shared with PEOPLE.
The letter, signed by Bilton and delivered on Tuesday (2 June), informed Pelley he was being let go from CBS 'for cause, effective immediately.'
Bilton wrote of the longtime journalist: "It is a profound disappointment that you rejected that overture and chose ambush instead. Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt."
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Pelley is subsequently accused of demonstrating 'performative display[s] of hostility', and having taken 'no interest in contributing to the future success of the show'.
It goes on to say: "I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama. I am eager to work alongside those who share this goal. Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you."
The star's employment termination comes just days after The New York Times reported a major clash had occurred between Pelley and Bilton at a recent 60 Minutes meeting.
It was reported that Bilton had told attendees that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss 'loves 60 Minutes', after which Pelley supposedly hit back: "She’s murdering 60 Minutes. She does not love this place, she was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that."
Pelley is said to have continued: "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 is reported as having responded: "Well, I will show you. That’s what I have to say. That is my plan over the next two weeks. I’ll be meeting with everyone. I’m very excited to meet with everyone, yourself included."
Following his firing, Pelley told The New York Times he hasn't recognised 60 Minutes since Paramount Skydance took over CBS, accusing executives of the news division 'incompetence and unprofessionalism', and accusing them of 'currying favour with the Trump administration'.
He added: "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."
Pelley continued: "For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.
"I’ve 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 60 Minutes interviews 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."
He also cited the numerous risks to life he's taken in his position as a journalist, referencing his deployment across the Middle East and Ukraine.
Pelley explained via phone call: "I have been in combat in Afghanistan. I have been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine multiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast."
Rhianna Benson