Ousted 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley disputed the words of CBS editor in chief Bari Weiss, claiming that what she told the network’s employees about his firing in an editorial call Wednesday was “not true.”
In a written statement first obtained by The New York Times’ Ben Mulllin, Pelley said, “In the meeting on Tuesday in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to ‘find a way back,’” contrary to Weiss’s account.
“At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution,” Pelley wrote in his statement. “Weiss and [CBS News president] Tom Cibrowski were openly hostile from the start. ‘Firing’ was raised by Cibrowski in the first 15 seconds. No CBS executive, at any time, suggested ‘a way back.’ To say so now is disingenuous. And they know it.”
Weiss reportedly said, in the editorial meeting, “Despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back, unfortunately we weren’t able to do so, and so we had to part ways. We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose.”
Pelley was fired after he called out Weiss in an earlier staff meeting Monday that she didn’t attend. He criticized her changes to the network and her changes to CBS’s flagship news program, 60 Minutes, accusing her of “murdering” the program. The meeting was meant to introduce the new executive producer for the program, Nick Bilton, who was personally chosen by Weiss despite having no broadcast journalism experience.
Pelley was openly hostile to Bilton, and brought up the firing of several veteran 60 Minutes staffers, including correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, correspondent Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon, and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich.
“You come into our house and expect to be welcome?” Pelley asked Bilton while openly questioning his credentials. “Why was Tanya Simon fired? Why was Sharyn fired? Why was Cecilia fired? Why Draggan? Do you know the names of the people that were fired?”
Pelley was fired the next day, and then accused Weiss and CBS’s management of enforcing political bias. Weiss’s attempts to save face by saying Pelley rejected overtures to return don’t hold up next to the words of Pelley and the other veteran journalists she has forced out of CBS.