In his first interview after leaving the program, «60 Minutes» Last week, Scott Pelley recounted the events that led to his firing and called for the resignation of CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
In an interview with the newspaper The New York Times Pelley described last week's staff changes, which resulted in the firing of executive producer Tanya Simon and her two top deputies, and her replacement by technology journalist Nick Bilton. Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega were also fired. Pelley called the events the "Black Thursday massacre," noting that the final season under Simon, a 25-year veteran of CBS News, saw ratings rise and the network's online presence increase by 190 percent. He added that the firings occurred the day after he and Simon attended the Emmy Awards ceremony for News and Documentary, where they won two awards.
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«"Within hours, all those people were fired, and a third of our correspondents were laid off," said Pelley, who had worked at the network for 37 years. "At the same time, we were told about our new executive producer. His name is Nick Bilton. I'm sure he's a wonderful person, but no one had ever heard of him. He has no experience in television news and no management experience. So imagine how we feel when someone like that comes to a team like '60 Minutes.'".
Pelley said his reaction was "shock, despair, disbelief, desperately searching for an explanation, knowing there would be one, but never getting one." He said «60 Minutes» "It's like family. 'We travel together. We dine together. We go to war together,'" he said. "My former boss and former producer, Bill Owens, saved my life in a firefight in Iraq. So those bonds are very strong, and when someone wipes out, kills a large number of your family members, people are desperately searching for an explanation, and as we sit here today, it hasn't been found.".
After these events, CBS management tried to contact Pelley, but he said he was "too emotionally disturbed" and wanted to wait a bit before speaking. He learned that a staff meeting was scheduled for the following Monday and canceled a planned hike in the Canadian Rockies with his wife. "I wouldn't be able to attend the meeting, and my wife and I talked about it and realized it was a turning point for the program." «60 Minutes» , and cancelled their vacation so I could be there," Pelley said.
This meeting was his first with Hilton, Pelley told the newspaper. The Times , He and others in the room were expecting Weiss to show up and explain what had happened, but she didn't. "I was waiting for someone to come in, and it was Nick Bilton and one of Bari's deputies. Bari wasn't there. People were a little shocked by that," he said. "While we were standing there, Nick walked to the front of the room and did something absolutely stunning. He pulled out his phone and started reading a statement from it to a room full of 50 grief-stricken people. The callousness, the complete indifference to the situation, you could hear the groans in the room. They laid out a big table of bagels, as if we were all better.".
He added that Bilton had already written an "offensive" email to staff sharing his thoughts on the news programme, saying it was "strange" that «60 Minutes» airs only at 7:00 PM on Sundays, "when we've been working 24/7 online, worldwide, for over a decade. This shows that Nick Bilton knows nothing about us, knows nothing about our culture, and yet he's being thrust upon us as our new leader.".
At that meeting, Pelley accused Weiss of trying to shut down the show and said Bilton had "modest qualifications" for perhaps the most prestigious job in television news. When asked The Times, Asked why he felt it was necessary to speak out, he said he looked around and realized he was the most senior employee, given that the other senior staff had been laid off. "So when I saw Nick Bilton's email and then saw him reading it from his phone to my grief-stricken team, I felt like someone had to stand up for not just the airwaves, but the people. There are people in this room who are going into war zones, being pregnant »" he said, barely holding back tears. "Newsrooms are a bit like the army, the police, or the wonderful people of the New York City Fire Department who work nearby. In many cases, it's life-threatening work. And the fact that CBS News is run by people who don't know this, have never felt this, and don't understand it—it's a tragedy.".
After that meeting, he was called into another meeting with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski. He had no idea he was about to be fired. When he entered the room, he described the atmosphere as "hostile and dismissive.".
«Before I could even sit down, Tom Cibrowski said, „This is grounds for termination.“ I sat down and thought, „Okay, let’s talk about this,“„ Pelley said. „Tom is accusing me of physically assaulting Nick Bilton. That’s a lie. I never came within 10 feet of Nick Bilton. I’ve never laid a hand on anyone in anger in my entire life. And when he was caught in his lie, he said, “Okay, I take it back.„ And I said, “Great.»”.
Pelley hoped the meeting would continue with a discussion of the future of the program.« 60 minutes", But it ended within minutes. "Sibrowski says he'll have an answer in a few minutes," Pelley said. He returned to his office and waited four hours before deciding to leave. Shortly after, he received an email saying he'd been fired.
Asked if Weiss should be fired, Pelley replied, «Oh, my God, yes. Look, she’s a wonderful person. And the organization she founded, 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.“„.
Pelley expressed hope that Paramount executives realize that "this isn't working.".
«We have shows that are barely aired. Respected journalists say that one political party is biased in its favor. We have a show that is one of the most important in America. The most successful in the history of television. It was doing great, so why are we making these changes?» he said. «We need adult oversight, and right now there is none. People have been appointed to these positions who, for reasons beyond their control, have no experience in television. They don’t know what they’re doing. And there is a hidden political bias that I’ve never seen before in any «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.".
Pelley also weighed in on Anderson Cooper's recent departure and the decisions of Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim to remain at the newsmagazine.
About Cooper: «Correspondents don’t leave the program «"60 minutes". It's the best job in the world. There are no other goals. So if someone of Anderson Cooper's stature decides to leave the program, it means they found their role there unbearable.".
As for the remaining trio, he said he assumed they weren't leaving for the same reason he hadn't planned to: "We've discussed staying before, to preserve the broadcasting principles. If we leave, there's nothing we can do to help.".
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