In his first interview after leaving the program, «60 Minutes» Scott Pelley said CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss and the network's management are engaging in "hidden political bias" to influence the show, adding that the management "doesn't know what they're doing.".
In an interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, host of The New York Times podcast, Pelley also detailed a comment he made earlier last week, shortly after receiving his dismissal notice. He claimed that network executives "instructed me to insert falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story." In the case of one segment, "the entire program was 19 minutes away from not airing at all.".
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In an interview with the Times, Pelley said the article he cited was published in February and focused on the murders of Renee Goode and Alex Pretty, as well as the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis.
According to Pelley, before the story aired, footage of violent clashes between protesters and police was shown, including Pretty, who was shown kicking out the taillight of a police car. He added that the story already provided the "full context" of the situation.
On Sunday, the day of the broadcast, about four hours after the noon deadline, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss sent a memo to the program's then-executive producer, Tanya Simon, he said.
Pelley told the Times: «The email had two questions: Can we make the protesters appear more aggressive? I’m paraphrasing. I don’t have the exact quote, but that’s what they told me. And another question: Renee Good’s car. We need to describe what she was driving.” to the side policeman.".
Goode was driving her car when she was shot and killed by a police officer in January, sparking national outrage and renewed scrutiny of the administration's crackdown on immigration. The Trump administration claimed she attempted to hit the officer with her car, but video footage showed her tires were pointed away from him, Pelley noted.
Pelley said, "The video shows the officer standing slightly off to the side of the car. And you can clearly see that Ms. Goode's car's wheels are turned all the way, away from the officer. But he shoots her in the head, kills her, and says things about her that I cannot repeat in polite company.".
«"From the very beginning, we tried our best to show the responsibility the protesters bore," he said. "We'd already scoured the video archives for these scenes. But somehow, 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.".
Pelley said he and the videographer watched the footage several times and "realized that events did not unfold as the president said and did not unfold as Bari Weiss remembered.".
He said, "The deadline was noon. It's almost five o'clock now. This is damn dangerous. So I decided I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't going to get into a discussion about it. I wasn't going to call Bari Weiss about it. I just refused to make those changes.".
He didn't make any changes and he said no one called him about it.
«"It occurred to me that perhaps Bari Weiss hadn't seen the broadcast and didn't realize those changes hadn't been made," he said. "But that's exactly what happened. I felt the president's version of events had a level of political influence I'd never seen in my 37 years at CBS News.".
The network characterized the request for edits as something that should happen within the newsroom. A CBS News spokesperson responded: "In the email, Bari made four points during an editorial exchange. They were not politically motivated and were offered solely to ensure the story was as strong, fair, and accurate as possible. As is often the case in any collaborative newsroom, not all of her comments made it into the final version." A source at the network noted that the program and its newsroom had also produced a number of controversial stories in recent months, including one on tensions between the Trump administration and the Vatican and the Pentagon's lack of preparation for the Iranian attack on its base in Kuwait.
In an interview with the Times, Pelley sharply criticized Weiss and the newsroom's leadership for what he called "incompetence.".
His dismissal followed a verbal altercation with Nick Bilton, the show's new executive producer, at a staff meeting on Monday, during which Pelley claimed he was "weakly qualified" for the job and accused Weiss of "killing" the show. In an interview with the Times, Pelley said he made these comments because Weiss and CBS News management had offered no explanation for firing former executive producer Tanya Simon and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega the previous week. He claimed the show had seen ratings growth and digital viewership had increased.
Pelley said, "The people who have been appointed to these positions, for reasons beyond their control, have no experience in television. They don't know what they're doing. And there's an underlying political bias here that I've never seen before on any program." «60 Minutes» , not on CBS News. So I'm hoping for a return to common sense. We can save this. We can land this plane. But right now, CBS News is burning.".
Bilton expressed the need to more actively promote the show digitally, as it lacks content specifically designed for podcasts and other platforms. In a memo sent Thursday after Pelley's departure, he also attempted to reassure staff, writing, "This should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: we will never take direction from the company's owners regarding these stories.".
The station said it tried to contact Pelley in the days before Monday's standoff, but he never responded.
«"I'm almost 69 years old, and if I've learned anything in life, it's not to react reflexively when you feel like this," Pelley said. "I thought, 'I'll wait a day. I'm too emotional. I'm bound to say the wrong thing.'".
However, upon learning of the meeting on Monday, he said he canceled his vacation plans because he "realized this was a critical moment" for the program. As it turned out, he said, he was the most senior employee. «60 Minutes» in the room and the only correspondent.
«"So when I saw Nick Bilton's email, and then saw him reading it from his phone to my heartbroken people, I felt like someone had to stand up for not just the broadcast, but the people. There are people in this room who are going into war zones, being pregnant »'' Pelley said.
Pelley expressed support for the decision of the program's three remaining staff correspondents—Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim—to stay, saying they had discussed maintaining "broadcasting principles" before his dismissal.
He said that when he attended a meeting with CBS News management on Tuesday, following Monday's conflict, firing was "not even on my radar." Pelley said, "So I thought the meeting would continue. We'd have a long conversation. Very soon after the meeting started, [CBS News President] Tom Cibrowski said, 'This conversation is over.' I was stunned.".
In his resignation letter, Pelley Bilton wrote that his "spectacular display of hostility, played out in front of staff instead of a civilized, private conversation, demonstrated that you are not interested in contributing to the future success of the show or in approaching my new position with an open mind to collaboration and progress.".
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