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Scott Pelley went down swinging.
For that, he is highly praised as a journalistic hero by the broadcasting-industrial company.
And it’s also widely derided as a self-improvement hoax.
Let’s face it, the CBS anchor once wanted to be fired — and made sure it happened.
WAR BETWEEN BARI WEISS AND ’60 MINUTES’ CONTINUES AS SCOTT PELLEY ACCUSES HIM OF KILLING THE GAME
“60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley was fired, and went down swinging. (David M. Russell/CBS via Getty Images)
He gave Bari Weiss and the show’s new host, tech reporter Nick Bilton, not the slightest chance to try the collaboration to see how it went.
When you’re accusing Weiss, the editor-in-chief, of “killing” the show that’s been in it for over two decades, you’re in full-on bridge-burning mode.
When you confront your new boss, Bilton, about him being a bit under-trained – and Weiss is completely incompetent – you’re giving them the ropes.
SCOTT PELLEY IS FIRED BY CBS NEWS AFTER CLASHING WITH BARI WEISS, NEW ’60 MINUTES’ PRODUCER
Weiss, in damage control mode, told the crew that “there has to be mutual trust and respect…That foundation was broken on Monday, and despite our efforts to contact Scott Pelley and find a way back, unfortunately we were unable to do so, so we had to split up.
“We didn’t want that to happen, but that’s the path he chose. That unfortunate outcome does not detract from the incredible money and work Scott Pelley has done at CBS and ’60 Minutes’ over the course of his career.”
The British-born Bilton retaliated in an admiring letter to Pelley:
“You hijacked my first meeting with staff to look down on me, my qualifications, and my intentions with incredible disrespect and disrespect.” He called this “showing hostility in front of the workers.”
Leftists often deride CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss as a conservative — though he’s center-left, if anything. (Michele Crowe/CBS News via Getty Images)
Pelley, on the other hand, says that the new administration has mishandled some of his issues.
At least one was happy. “Look, Scott Pelley is tough,” President Trump told the New York Post. “And he’s scared. And he’s part of this group of stupid, swindling people who don’t care about our country.”
Let’s turn the camera back. Weiss fired reporters Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vegas and executive producer Tanya Simon. Anderson Cooper has resigned to return full time to CNN. (And the “CBS Evening News” was a ratings disaster under anchor Tony Dokoupil.)
SCOTT PELLEY FIRES TEAM WITH NEW ’60 MINUTES’ HOST, ACCUSES BARRY WEISS OF ‘MILDER’ QUESTION
Left-wing caricatures portray Weiss as a conservative, though that’s not true (he’s a moderate liberal with a right-leaning outlook). But he and Bilton, who have worked together in the past, both have no TV experience.
If you visualize it in its absence, “60 Minutes,” across Manhattan’s 10th Avenue from the skyscraper, generates $200 million in advertising revenue for the network. Its ratings are up 9 percent from last year. After 58 seasons, from Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, it reaches 9.1 million weekly viewers, an amazing number in today’s fractured environment. And there has been significant growth on the digital side.
So for the average viewer who doesn’t follow all of baseball’s ins and outs, many familiar faces disappear from the most successful news franchise in television history. It’s the show’s most serious situation since 1995, when CBS killed Wallace’s story on the exposé of the tobacco report because it feared a multibillion-dollar lawsuit.
In a lengthy statement after his exit, Pelley said “good people have been silenced because they represent our audience…
“On my part, the new administration ordered me to include lies and bias in a politically sensitive matter. I was told to include unverified statements,” although he managed to ignore these orders or refuse.”
And there was this: “In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes without going on air at all.”
Pelley told the New York Times on Tuesday: “I’ve been fighting
Afghanistan. I have fought in Iraq. I have been in the war in Ukraine many times, risking my life and the happiness of my family for my devotion to broadcasting.”
However, that brought him ridicule because he was not actually “at war,” and that was not his job.
CBS NEWS EXECUTIVES TELL SCOTT PELLEY THEY WANT HIM TO STAY ’60 MINUTES’ BEFORE INTENSIVE CONTACT WITH NEW PRODUCER.
Pelley, 68, grew up in Lubbock, Texas, and worked in local television before joining CBS in 1989. He looked to another Texan, Dan Instead, as a mentor, but he didn’t have the same cowboy swagger. Pelley’s demeanor has always been cool and serious.
He worked his way up the ladder with jobs like White House correspondent, and has won 51 Emmy Awards.
The political overlay is hard to miss. The new owners of CBS, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and his son David, are friends of Trump. In fact, they held a dinner in Trump’s honor in April, which was attended by Bari Weiss and Norah O’Donnell and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Their company received management approval to buy Warner Bros. Discovery with a blockbuster deal.
Some at CBS believe the dinner presented a picture of too much coziness with the White House. But the Ellisons didn’t spend that kind of money without planning to make changes.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is a known billionaire friend of President Donald Trump. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The reaction to the chaos has been, well, intense on both sides, as reported by Mediaite:
MSNOW host Rachel Maddow said “I made the mistake of referring to the Scott Pelley news as a Hungarian media takeover, in an oligarchic way.”
Tim Miller, a former Republican spokesman against Trump, said that “the 60s don’t have another Pelley that’s better talent-wise.”
Liberal commentator Harry Sisson said Pelley was fighting “right-wing rowdies.”
Tommy Vietor, an Obama White House official, opined: “Pelley appears to be attempting murder/suicide. So far he’s in the middle.”
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On the conservative side, Outkick founder Clay Travis said: “Scott Pelley was fired by ’60 Minutes.’ Pelley will soon find out that no one else in the media will come close to paying him millions a year to do a few stories a year. I think most of these old school TV guys are delusional about their market value in today’s media. ”
Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt countered: “Scott Pelley was a middling talent with a Jupiter-sized ego. Adios.”
Steve Krakauer, Megyn Kelly’s producer: “With Stephen Colbert and Scott Pelley now out the door at CBS, we’re seeing the systematic elimination of smug, old, straight, white people who think they’re better than you.”
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So Pelley walks away with a cloud of controversy – but I’m sure he’ll have no problem finding another job.
