Brian Stelter on Scott Pelley Ouster: ‘We All Know President Trump Watches 60 Minutes, Rants About 60 Minutes’

EXCERPT:

STELTER: “In a statement to me overnight, John, Scott Pelley charged that the new leaders of CBS News have been trying to inject political bias and poison '60 Minutes.' Here's a part of his statement. He said, 'For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.' He said he's been, '... told to include assertions that are unverified.' Now, Pelley said he managed to ignore those instructions or refuse those instructions. But he is explicitly now on the record, saying that Bari Weiss and her leadership team are trying to add bias and infect the story of '60 Minutes.' Now, for her part, Weiss has not directly commented on this claim, but she has been saying for months that she wants to revive and reorient CBS News to bring it into the digital age, that she wants to tell accurate and fair and honest stories. So if she does respond on the record of Pelley, I suspect that's what she would say. But right now, this is a stunning war of words inside one of the biggest news outlets in the country. And it's been going on for almost a week now because last Thursday is when some of Pelley's colleagues were fired. Two '60 Minutes' correspondents and the top producers were all forced out. So it's a total overhaul of '60 Minutes,' leaving people wondering, is this happening for political reasons or for cultural reasons? Weiss's team has argued it's for cultural reasons, that the show is archaic, that it's in desperate need of change, and that they're bringing in outsiders to make that happen. However, Pelley is suggesting it's for political reasons, saying it's apparently to curry favor with the Trump administration. We all know President Trump watches '60 Minutes,' rants about '60 Minutes.' He sued the program in 2024.”