CBS News fires longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley

CBS News fired Scott Pelley, one of the best-known correspondents in “60 Minutes” history, after a tense staff meeting in which he sharply challenged the program’s new executive producer and accused CBS News leadership of damaging the show.

Pelley, a former “CBS Evening News” anchor who spent nearly 40 years at CBS News and more than 20 years at “60 Minutes,” was terminated Tuesday evening. The firing came one day after an all-staff meeting introducing Nick Bilton, the technology journalist, documentary filmmaker and former New York Times tech columnist whom CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss named executive producer last week.

“Yesterday’s performative display of hostility — enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation — demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress,” Bilton wrote in a termination letter obtained by NBC News and quoted by CBS News.

Bilton told Pelley his employment was “terminated for cause effective immediately,” NBC News reported. He also accused Pelley of “remarkable incivility and contempt” and said Pelley had “hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions,” according to CBS News.

CBS News has not publicly commented on the firing.

The confrontation came amid turmoil at the 57-year-old newsmagazine, long the leading newsmagazine on American television. Employees have clashed with Weiss over the show’s editorial direction under Paramount Skydance, the media company run by David Ellison. Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski told staff in a memo last week that the program needed a “new approach,” defined as “expanding ‘60 Minutes’ beyond a one-hour television broadcast, deepening its role across CBS News, and holding everything we produce to the ambition, fairness, and fearlessness that have defined ‘60 Minutes’ at its best.”

At Monday’s meeting, according to recordings reported by NBC News, The New York Times and Status, Pelley interrupted Bilton after Bilton said Weiss “loves this institution.” Pelley replied: “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.” CBS News reported that Pelley also accused Weiss of “murdering the show” and said Bilton had “slender qualifications” for the job.

Pelley pressed Bilton about the firings of former executive producer Tanya Simon and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Bilton said those decisions predated him, NBC News reported. Status reported that Pelley called the firings “cruel” and was applauded multiple times by other staffers.

Bilton pushed back during the meeting. “I have been a journalist for 25 years, Scott,” he said, according to reports. “I have sat and talked with incredibly powerful people like you have. None of it intimidates me, OK?”

In a memo to “60 Minutes” staff, Bilton said CBS News had “parted ways” with Pelley and wrote that he had tried to find common ground. “I know how much Scott meant to many of you, and I don’t say this lightly,” Bilton wrote, according to CBS News. “I made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with him over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground. That was not the path Scott chose.”

A person close to CBS News leadership told The Associated Press that Weiss and Bilton had tried to contact Pelley late last week to tell him he remained an integral part of “60 Minutes,” CBS News reported. The person said leaders were disappointed that Pelley’s accusations were aired publicly despite efforts to engage privately.

Pelley did not name Weiss or Bilton in a written statement but expressed “gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives.” He added: “I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again — a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.”

NBC News reported that Pelley also said “new management” had instructed him to “inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story” and report unverified assertions. He did not provide specifics.

The remaining “60 Minutes” correspondents include Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim. Anderson Cooper, a 20-year veteran of the program, left last month.