Scott Pelley Calls Bari Weiss ‘Disingenuous’ After She Defended Firing ‘60 Minutes’ Journalist
Key takeaways
- “We did not want that to happen, but that's the path that he chose,” Weiss said, before praising Pelley for his work on “unforgettable stories,” naming a recent report on Havana Syndrome and an interview with former Sen.
- Cibrowski also spoke on the call, lauding the journalist as “an integral part” of the network and acknowledged the ongoing changes were “a lot to process.”
- In a letter obtained by the New York Times and other outlets, Bilton said Pelley was “terminated for cause effective immediately,” claiming the former correspondent “hijacked” his first staff meeting.
Topline Former “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley accused CBS News’ editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of “lying” to staff during a conference call, claiming Weiss and the network’s president and executive editor Tom Cibrowski were “openly hostile from the start” and brought up the prospect of firing him “in the first 15 seconds” of a meeting they held Tuesday.
Scott Pelley attends the CBS Fall Schedule Celebration at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California.Wire Image Key Facts In comments during a Wednesday conference call first reported by The Guardian, Weiss said her staff tried to “engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back,” but ultimately was unable to find common ground—a statement Pelley called "disingenuous" in his own response sent to members of the media later the same day.
“We did not want that to happen, but that's the path that he chose,” Weiss said, before praising Pelley for his work on “unforgettable stories,” naming a recent report on Havana Syndrome and an interview with former Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who is suffering from metastatic pancreatic cancer.