Overview
- Scott Pelley, a longtime 60 Minutes correspondent, was dismissed after a tense staff meeting in which he challenged new executive producer Nick Bilton and publicly accused editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of undermining the show.
- Pelley says Weiss sought editorial changes that would have portrayed protesters as more violent and aligned reporting with the Trump administration’s account of a Minneapolis shooting, and he wrote that management instructed him to inject falsehoods and bias.
- CBS News rejects a political motive and says Weiss’s notes were routine editorial feedback meant to make pieces stronger, while some staffers say the changes and a pulled CECOT deportation report felt political.
- Paramount CEO David Ellison personally called correspondent Lesley Stahl to pledge protection for 60 Minutes’ editorial independence, but an open letter from journalists and visible morale problems show trust at the program remains fractured.
- The dispute puts broader pressure on CBS and Paramount because ownership ties to Ellison and prior settlements with the White House raise questions about how corporate and political interests could affect newsroom decisions and the future stability of the program.