\n<\/p>\n
Scott Pelley, a veteran 60 Minutes correspondent, called out CBS News management in a heated meeting on Monday morning, attacking the network\u2019s decision on Thursday to fire the show\u2019s executive producer, executive editor, and two fellow correspondents, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, as part of a broader overhaul of the show, sources tell the Guardian.<\/p>\n
During a meeting of the show\u2019s staff and Nick Bilton, its newly appointed executive producer, along with the CBS News managing editor Charles Forelle, Pelley took direct aim at Bari Weiss, the network\u2019s controversial editor-in-chief.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s murdering 60 Minutes,\u201d Pelley said, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. \u201cShe does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forelle accused Pelley of being rude, and Pelley countered by saying that the network had been rude by the way it treated Tanya Simon, the show\u2019s executive producer who was fired on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Bilton conveyed to Pelley that he would not be \u201cintimidated\u201d by his remarks.<\/p>\n
60 Minutes staff who were present for the meeting showed strong support for Pelley, giving him a standing ovation, sources said.<\/p>\n
Last Wednesday, hours after Alfonsi announced that the network had opted not to renew her contract for the show\u2019s 59th season, Pelley gave her a shoutout at the News & Documentary Emmy awards. \u201cThere have been many great 60 Minutes correspondents over the years. I see Sharyn Alfonsi in the audience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pelley was also effusive in praising Santiago Campos, an 18-year-old high school senior who called out the network\u2019s direction under Weiss, saying that it \u201cstains the legacy of Mike Wallace\u201d, the namesake of the award that Campos received.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that Mike Wallace is looking down on you with pride at this very moment,\u201d Pelley said.<\/p>\n
The exchange on Monday raises questions about Pelley\u2019s future at the show.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for CBS News and Pelley have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Alfonsi \u2013 who had reported a December 2025 segment about a notorious prison in El Salvador that got shelved by Weiss \u2013 released a blistering statement, saying: \u201cThe wall between editorial independence and corporate interest at CBS is being methodically torn down.\u201d She added: \u201cJournalists willing to challenge authority are being pushed aside in favor of those who will not. If this continues, the result will be a broadcast that looks like 60 Minutes but lacks the courage and character to produce journalism that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her own statement on Thursday, Vega, who joined the show in 2023, suggested that political bias is at play at the network.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories,\u201d she said. \u201cReporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions. Let\u2019s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven. It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.\u201d The network released a statement pushing back on Vega\u2019s characterization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scott Pelley, a veteran 60 Minutes correspondent, called out CBS News management in a heated meeting on Monday morning, attacking the network\u2019s decision on Thursday to fire the show\u2019s executive producer, executive editor, and two fellow correspondents, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, as part of a broader overhaul of the show, sources tell the Guardian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[4699,16140,562,12997,2378,3279,18242,7884],"class_list":{"0":"post-49961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-cbs","9":"tag-correspondent","10":"tag-cuts","11":"tag-lays","12":"tag-leadership","13":"tag-minutes","14":"tag-pelley","15":"tag-scott"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}