Chaos at 60 Minutes as veteran correspondent blasts new CBS boss over Bari Weiss’ latest round of firings in tense meeting

Longtime 60 Minutes veteran Scott Pelley was said to have had some harsh words for CBS News management on Monday following a major overhaul of the program.

Pelley took direct aim at CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss for firing the show’s executive producer, executive editor and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega in what he called ‘Black Thursday,’ the Guardian reports. 

‘She’s murdering 60 Minutes,’ the longtime anchor said at a meeting with the show’s staff and Nick Bilton, its newly-appointed executive producer, and CBS News managing editor Charles Forelle, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

‘She does not love this place,’ he reportedly continued. ‘She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.’

Weiss did not attend the meeting on Monday after CBS executives ‘asked her not to’ over the staff’s anger over the firings, according to The New York Times.

Forelle then accused Pelley of being rude, but he fired back by saying the network was rude in its treatment of Tanya Simon, the executive producer who was fired on Thursday.

Pelley also allegedly told Bilton he had ‘scant qualifications’ for the job, according to Puck News reporter Dylan Byers.

Bilton responded by suggesting they have the conversation in private, but Pelley countered that he would prefer to speak in front of his colleagues, Byers reports.

When Bilton then rebuked, ‘They’re my colleagues too,’ Pelley replied: ‘That remains to be seen.’

Those familiar with the discussions said 60 Minutes staff who were present at the meeting showed their support for Pelley – even giving him a standing ovation as he spoke.

His comments came even as one source claimed network executives have signaled their willingness to negotiate with Pelley, who has been a fixture of the news magazine since 2003 and is seen as an integral part of the show.

Senior CBS News executives have reached out to him, along with remaining 60 Minutes correspondents Bill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl and Jon Wertheim, several times over the past week in hopes of convincing them to stay, according to Variety.

But in the hours after Pelley’s eruption, several dozen CBS News veterans – including many former 60 Minutes employees – signed a letter to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, urging him to commit to the show’s editorial independence.

‘We, the undersigned, urge you and your management team at CBS News to uphold the principle of editorial independence that has made 60 Minutes – in the words of the show’s new executive producer – “the most important television journalism brand this country has ever produced,”‘ it read.

‘Institutional trust is not transferred through ownership,’ the signatories then argued. ’60 Minutes prospered and had impact because it operated under an implicit and sacred obligation to the public.

‘Modernizing the show for new audiences and new delivery approaches is important – but not at the cost of editorial integrity,’ the letter continued. 

‘The wholesale dismissal of editorial management, without a pledge to maintain the values, standards and traditions of this program, puts the legacy of 60 Minutes in jeopardy.’ 

The letter concluded by asking Ellison to ‘send a clear message to your staff, your viewers and the broader public that you respect and value editorial independence and press freedom.’

Among the organizers of the letter was former 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman, who produced the show’s groundbreaking investigation into the tobacco industry in the 1990s.

Signers also included former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather, documentary editor Alex Gibney and actor Glenn Close as well as many other veterans of CBS News.

Outrage at the network executives erupted last week after the show’s producers were fired along with Vega and Alfonsi – who was reportedly left unaware of executives’ decision not to renew her contract.

Both of the now-ousted correspondents have claimed their firing was a form of censorship.

Vega, in her statement, said her contract was not set to expire until March 2027 and that she was fired after she refused to tailor her stories to be politically biased.  

‘Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions,’ she wrote. ‘Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven.

‘It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.

‘I held the line and refused to incorporate suggestions that offend the conscience, a phrase I borrow from a colleague who has also fought to keep questionable editorial suggestions away from the facts,’ she continued, not naming the colleague.

‘I know from many conversations with colleagues that many producing teams and correspondents working on the show today have had to fight to maintain editorial independence with regularity.

‘I am far from the only 60 Minutes correspondent who has asked herself, “What is my personal red line? How much can I push back before I pay the price?”‘ 

Alfonsi, meanwhile, blamed her exit from the program on a clash she had with CBS brass back in December over a decision to pull a segment she produced about the conditions at Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), an El Salvadoran prison where the US has deported suspected illegal immigrants.

Weiss argued at the time that Alfonsi did not get enough administration officials on the record for the ‘important piece.’    

Alfonsi immediately tore into the decision in an internal email, accusing her bosses of political censorship. The email was promptly leaked to the press.

The journalist reiterated those claims to the Times Wednesday, as the paper broke the news on her 60 Minutes exit.

‘I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting,’ she told the Times.

Alfonsi also claimed her agent’s inquiries to the network about her future at 60 Minutes had been ‘met with absolute silence.’

‘The message could not be clearer: my time at 60 Minutes is apparently over,’ she said in a statement.

‘In the coming days, network leadership may attempt to hide behind corporate euphemisms like “modernization” and “restructuring” to explain away my departure. Don’t be misled,’ she wrote. 

‘This was not a routine corporate transition; it was a deliberate choice,’ the statement continued.

It also praised ‘fearless, independent reporting’ seen from 60 Minutes in the past.

‘Today, CBS management is abandoning that mission, choosing access journalism over accountability and protecting power rather than scrutinizing it,’ she wrote, just hours before Weiss’s shakeup.

‘Journalists willing to challenge authority are being pushed aside in favor of those who will not.’ 

Anderson Cooper has already left the program ahead of his contract’s expiration earlier this month, in part because of the show’s new direction after Paramount’s merger with Skydance over the summer, Status reported.

Veteran Lesley Stahl is also mulling a network exit as well, after being passed over for a recent sit-down with Benjamin Netanyahu in April, sources told Status earlier this month.

Weiss was appointed by Paramount CEO David Ellison late last year. 

Owens and former CBS News chief Wendy McMahon both fled ahead of Ellison’s ascent in July, citing corporate overreach they said was already occurring ahead of Paramount’s merger with Ellison’s Skydance, which was solidified over the summer.

The Daily Mail has reached out to CBS News for comment.