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Scott Pelley in his first interview after leaving the program «60 minutes »" accuses CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss that she is "putting pressure" on the presidential administration Donald Trump , and calls for her resignation.
In conversation with Lulu Garcia-Navarro from The New York Times fired program correspondent «60 Minutes» spoke about his concerns that arose from the very beginning of Weiss's tenure.
«"What bothered me was that she had no experience in television and had never run a major global company like CBS News," Pelley said. "Those were red flags for me, but I thought [Paramount Skydance CEO] David Ellison believes that she is the right person for the job.".
Pelley went on to argue that Weiss's attempts to modernize the 58-year-old news magazine ignored what was already happening.
«"Of course we need to attract a younger and younger audience, but their argument about moving into the internet age is just disingenuous," Pelley said. "It feels like Bari Weiss and [the program's new executive producer] «60 minutes »] Nick Bilton "They were sealed in a time capsule in 1990, and it suddenly cracked. They just discovered the internet and now they're running around telling everyone how important it is.".
Pelley went on to detail his claim that Weiss had introduced "lies and bias" into one of his reports. The report focused on protests in Minneapolis against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in the city. Specifically, Pelley accused Weiss of interfering with the coverage of a murder. Renee Goode — just a few hours before the show was scheduled to air. Here's his version:
«About four hours after the deadline, Bari Weiss sends an email to my boss, Tanya Simon . The letter asks, among other things, if we can make the protesters appear more aggressive. I'm paraphrasing. I don't have the exact quote, but that's what they told me. And one more thing: Renee Goode's car. We need to describe how she's driving toward the police officer.".
«"That's not what you see in the video. The video shows the officer standing slightly off to the side of the car. And you can clearly see Ms. Goode's wheels turned all the way to the stop, away from the officer. But he shoots her in the head, kills her, and says something about her that I cannot repeat in polite company.".
«"From the very beginning, we tried our best to show the responsibility the protesters bore. We'd already scoured the video archives for these scenes. But for some reason, that wasn't enough for Ms. Weiss. The video showed the officer neither standing in front of the car nor driving toward it, but that's exactly how the president stated it, and that's exactly how she wanted it described.".
In response to this statement, a CBS News representative said: The Times newspaper "In the email, Bari raised four points during the editorial correspondence. They were not politically motivated and were proposed solely to make the story as compelling, objective, and accurate as possible. As is often the case in any collaborative editorial environment, not all of her comments made it into the final version.".
More broadly, Pelley argued that the incident showed that Weiss consistently follows Trump's orders.
«"At the time, I had the impression that she was pressuring the government in the administration's interests," Pelley said. "She was constantly monitoring the president's views. We communicated those views. There's nothing wrong with that, but it was never enough.".
A CBS News spokesperson also responded to the claim, stating The Times newspaper: «"There is no compelling evidence to suggest that Ms. Weiss 'interfered with the administration's affairs' at any point in the past seven months.".
But Pelley continued: "The bigger problem... frankly, it wasn't any political influence. The problem was incompetence. You can't miss deadlines. This episode almost didn't make it to air, just 19 minutes short. A whole hour of programming «60 Minutes» ! It was the night of the Grammy Awards. «60 Minutes» "They were a prelude to the Grammys, and we almost had the broadcast canceled. I swore to myself that no matter what Bari Weiss wanted to do with the story, I would never miss a deadline again, because we were putting the entire network at risk.".
Garcia-Navarro finally asked Pelley, "Do you think Bari Weiss should be removed from office?"«
Pelley was adamant.
«Oh, my God, yes,„ he said. “Look, she’s a wonderful person. And the organization she founded, the Free Press, has been very successful. But television is not her thing. It’s like someone coming to me and saying, „Here’s a Boeing 747 with 400 people on board, we need you to fly it to Paris.“ I’d say no, because I have no idea. And it would be a lot better if Bari Weiss were offered the job and she said, »Oh, that’s not for me, I don’t know how to do that.’”.
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The article, titled "Scott Pelley lashes out at Bari Weiss in new interview, accusing her of 'meddling with Trump' and calling for her resignation," first appeared on Mediaite.