60 Minutes is currently in turmoil following a series of tumultuous meetings and layoffs. It began last week with the ouster of key staff, prompting veteran correspondent Scott Pelley to confront the newly appointed Executive Producer, Nick Bilton, in a Monday morning staff meeting. Per audio recordings obtained by NBC News, Pelley had strong criticism of CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, “She’s murdering 60 Minutes.” The next day, he was abruptly fired.
Per NBC, Weiss addressed network employees on Wednesday, claiming, “I hope I speak, 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. We cannot do our work without it.”
Weiss further remarked, “That foundation was broken on Monday, and despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back, unfortunately we weren’t able to do so, and so we had to part ways.” She concluded by stating, “We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose.” In a written statement, Pelley hit back at the narrative, writing “No CBS executive, at any time, suggested “a way back.” To say so now is disingenuous. And they know it.”
Pelley and CBS leadership have been very vocal about their stances
Pelley, a 37-year veteran of the network, began his statement by expressing his disappointment, noting, “I’m saddened to see the transcript of the CBS News morning editorial meeting. Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true. 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,” Pelley stated.
He further emphasized that “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.” In his statement, he states that both Weiss and executive editor Tom Cibrowski were “openly hostile from the start. “Firing” was raised by Cibrowski in the first 15 seconds.”
The Guardian reported that, last Thursday, according to sources, executive producer Tanya Simon and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega were ousted as part of a larger overhaul of the show. During the meeting with the show staff, Pelley was recorded telling Bilton that Weiss “does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.”
Pelley reportedly also criticized the leadership’s qualifications, arguing that Weiss had no qualifications to oversee the network and that Bilton possessed only slender qualifications for his role. Per The Guardian and a report by CBS News, staffers applauded Pelley’s comments multiple times.
Bilton responded to the confrontation in a termination letter, obtained by the New York Times, that was sent to Pelley on Tuesday evening. “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.
According to CBS, Bilton reportedly accused Pelley of hijacking the meeting to disparage his intentions with remarkable incivility. In a separate memo to staff, Bilton claimed he made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with Pelley over the weekend and tried to find common ground on Tuesday, asserting that “That was not the path Scott chose.” Both Weiss and Bilton, however, praised Pelley’s contributions to the show “over the course of his career.”
Following Pelley’s firing, Alfonsi, who previously clashed with Weiss over a shelved segment regarding the deportation of Venezuelan men, took to Instagram to comment on the situation, writing, “He was fired for asking questions, which is the job. If you need one sentence that tells you exactly what CBS News has become under Bari Weiss, that’s it.”
CBS noted that Pelley highlighted his concerns, stating, “Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause,” he said. He added, “For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified.”
Pelley also noted that he was leaving with a heart brimming with gratitude for his colleagues, while expressing hope for a return to the ideals that once defined the network. Interestingly, these layoffs seem to be part of a larger shift, which also led to CBS axing The Late Night with Stephen Colbert.
Published: Jun 4, 2026 05:45 pm