Veteran journalist Scott Pelley reportedly tore into CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss and her newly appointed head of “60 Minutes” during a volatile staff meeting Monday.
“She’s murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” the former “CBS Evening News” anchor said of Weiss during an all-hands meeting, according to The Guardian and media newsletter Status.
“She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that,” he reportedly went on.
The blowup followed last week’s shock firings of executive producers and correspondents with the nation’s top TV newsmagazine, which has a nearly 60-year legacy.
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His challenges repeatedly drew applause, including a standing ovation from the “60 Minutes” staff, according to The Guardian.
The remarks followed Weiss, who was reportedly not present at the meeting, firing the show’s executive producer and executive editor, ousting two correspondents and appointing Nick Bilton as the program’s executive producer.
Bilton is a former tech columnist and documentarian who has never worked in broadcast TV news.
He has “slender qualifications” for the job, Pelley reportedly said in the meeting, according to Puck senior correspondent Dylan Byers, who recounted the fiery exchange in a social media post.
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When Bilton suggested that he and Scott have a private conversation, Scott objected and said he’d rather speak in front of his colleagues, to which Bilton argued that they’re “my colleagues too.”
“That remains to be seen,” Pelley responded.
Bilton, according to Status, declined to offer insight into the decisions behind the firings when asked by Pelley. On his own controversial appointment, Bilton said he cares “deeply about this institution” and wants to protect it from spiraling like other news outlets, while naming Time Magazine as one example, according to Status.
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“I have no problem taking a job in a place that I am not welcome, OK? I don’t believe that will be the case,” Bilton said after Pelley told him he “would never be welcomed here.”
The exchange follows allegations of political and editorial bias being imposed on CBS News’ staff since Weiss’s appointment following the Trump administration-approved merger of CBS’s parent company, Paramount, with Skydance.
A CBS News representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.