Bari Weiss says fired ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent Scott Pelley violated ‘trust and mutual respect’

CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss sought to explain her actions to “60 Minutes” staff on Wednesday, after firing correspondent Scott Pelley from the newsmagazine.

“I know I speak for myself, and I hope I speak for everyone here when I say that I’m only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect,” she said on the news division’s morning call. “That foundation was broken on Monday.”

Weiss told staff that she had worked to “find a way back” with Pelley but, after unsuccessful attempts, “we had to part ways.”

“We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose,” she added.

This account is based on an audio recording of the call obtained by The Washington Post and was confirmed by four CBS News staffers on the call.

Pelley was fired by new “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton after a contentious meeting with staff — Bilton’s first since he was tapped for the job last week — in which Pelley interrogated him, questioned his credentials and demanded answers about fired colleagues.

The tumult comes as Weiss slashed staff as part of a dramatic attempt to reinvent “60 Minutes.” Bilton was named executive producer Thursday, the same day that Weiss fired executive producer Tanya Simon, three other top producers and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.

“That unfortunate outcome does not discount from the amazing contributions and work that Scott Pelley has done for CBS and for ’60 Minutes’ over the course of his career,” Weiss said, citing some of Pelly’s prior work for the show, including an episode on ‘Havana syndrome’ and an interview with former U.S. senator Ben Sasse on his terminal cancer diagnosis.

“They’re the kind of stories that Nick Bilton is going to put on the air come September in Season 59 with the amazing team that’s still there and hopefully from some new people that are gonna be joining us,” she added.

Pelley’s firing leaves a slim staff of correspondents at “60 Minutes,” including Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, Jon Wertheim and contributor Norah O’Donnell. Also, longtime correspondent Anderson Cooper resigned following the conclusion of the latest season. One of the most recognizable names and faces at the network, Pelley was the anchor of “CBS Evening News” from 2011 to 2017.

Tom Cibrowski, president and executive editor of CBS News, followed Weiss in praising Pelley, whom he called an “integral part of ’60 Minutes,’ ‘CBS Evening News,’ this entire news organization for decades.”

“We know that these events, developments, changes are a lot to process for every single person in this room and on this call, and they are happening frequently,” he added. “All we can say is that we are taking this very seriously, and we are here to support you.”

In a Wednesday morning statement, Pelley said that he was “saddened” to read the transcript of comments by Weiss and Cibrowski in the morning meeting.

“Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true,” he wrote. “In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to ‘find a way back,’ as Weiss said in the editorial meeting. At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution. Weiss and Tom Cibrowski were openly hostile from the start. ‘Firing’ was raised by Cibrowski in the first 15 seconds. No CBS executive, at any time, suggested ‘a way back.’ To say so now is disingenuous. And they know it.”

In a separate statement Tuesday, the veteran correspondent accused David Ellison, who runs CBS parent company Paramount Skydance, of dismantling the show in order to curry favor with the Trump administration. President Donald Trump has been a fierce critic of “60 Minutes” for years. He sued the network over the editing of a Kamala Harris interview in a defamation action that was settled out of court last year for $16 million as Paramount and Skydance were seeking government approval for their merger.

Pelley also said CBS News management “instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.”

“Now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable,” he wrote. “The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.”