Scott Pelley has broken his silence on his firing from 60 Minutes, telling The New York Times that CBS News “is on fire” under new leadership and accusing the network’s editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of injecting political bias into reporting. The veteran correspondent’s first interview since being terminated on June 2 marks an escalation in the turmoil engulfing the storied newsmagazine.
Quick Facts
- Pelley was fired on June 2, 2026, one day after confronting management at a heated staff meeting.
- He accused Weiss of “putting a thumb on the scale” on behalf of the Trump administration during a recent season of 60 Minutes.
- Pelley claimed Weiss requested changes to a February 1 report about an ICE shooting in Minneapolis to falsely portray a protester as “driving toward” an officer.
- The firing came after Weiss removed executive producer Tanya Simon and correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi in late May.
Pelley told The New York Times interviewer Lulu Garcia-Navarro that Weiss lacks the qualifications to lead a news organization. “She doesn’t know television, she doesn’t understand how it works. She doesn’t have management experience for a large organization like CBS News,” Pelley said, adding that asking him to run the show would be like “somebody walking up to me and saying, ‘There’s a 747, there are 400 people on it, we need you to fly it to Paris.'”
The interview, published Sunday morning, reveals the depth of the rift between Pelley and management over the show’s direction. During the Monday staff meeting that preceded his firing, Pelley described Weiss as “unqualified” and challenged the competency of new executive producer Nick Bilton, who was installed at the same time as the other departures.
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The Editorial Interference Claim
Pelley’s most serious allegation concerns a February 1 report titled “Calls grow for independent probe into Minneapolis shootings,” which examined an ICE officer’s fatal shooting of protester Renee Good. According to Pelley, Weiss sent notes to producer Tanya Simon requesting changes that aligned with President Trump’s portrayal of the incident.
Pelley told The Times that Weiss wanted the report to describe Good as “driving toward the officer,” despite video evidence showing her wheels turned completely away from the officer. “On the video, you see the officer standing slightly off the front of the car,” Pelley said. “You clearly see Ms Good’s wheels turned completely as far as they will go, away from the officer. But he shoots her in the head and kills her.”
The notes came “about four hours after our deadline,” Pelley said, describing the intervention as “a level of political influence that I had never seen in 37 years at CBS News.” A CBS News spokesperson rejected the allegation, stating that Weiss’s feedback “had no political motivation and were proposed solely to make the piece as strong, fair, and accurate as possible.”
Pelley also noted that the officer used profanity toward Good before the shooting, a detail he said Weiss did not want emphasized in the report. He defended his team’s original approach: “60 Minutes had gone out of our way in our plan from the very beginning to show the protesters for the responsibility that they had.”
The Broader Housecleaning
Pelley’s firing is the latest consequence of Weiss’s aggressive overhaul of 60 Minutes. In late May, Weiss forced out executive producer Tanya Simon and several top producers, as well as correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi. At the same time, she installed Bilton, a former Vanity Fair journalist and filmmaker with no television news experience, as the show’s new executive producer.
Pelley accused Weiss of misunderstanding the show’s evolution. “We started our first ’60 Minutes’ online show, ’60 Minutes Overtime,’ in 2010,” he said. “I shoot TikTok verticals, or I used to shoot TikTok verticals on every assignment. We’re there. We’re everywhere.” He challenged the notion that the program has failed to adapt, noting that 60 Minutes achieved 9% ratings growth in the past season—”unheard-of in broadcast television.”
Pelley said he confronted Bilton because “somebody had to stand up not just for the broadcast but for the people.” Bilton justified the firing by saying Pelley’s “performative display of hostility” showed “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.”
Pelley’s interview affirms that he is not going quietly after the controversial shakeup at the most watched news program on American television. Calls have grown for Bari Weiss to step down from her role, with former 60 Minutes correspondent Armen Keteyian writing on social media after reading Pelley’s interview: “Incredible. Scott spoke for everyone in the family, past and present. Every last word.”
Sources
- CNN — Scott Pelley’s June 7 interview with The New York Times, his accusations against Bari Weiss and CBS leadership, details of the Minneapolis shooting story, the May staff changes, and Bilton’s justification for the firing.
- The Guardian — Pelley’s specific claims about Weiss’s email requesting changes to the Renee Good report, video evidence contradicting the requested framing, and Pelley’s criticism of Weiss’s television experience.
- Multiple news outlets — Confirmation that Pelley was fired on June 2, 2026, one day after the Monday staff meeting, and details of the broader 60 Minutes housecleaning.
