Scott Pelley. A 37-year veteran of CBS News. Was fired by the network on Tuesday after clashing with its new management. In a statement posted on social media, Pelley accused CBS’s new leadership of instructing him to include unverified assertions and to introduce bias into his reporting.

Accusations of Political Bias and Unprofessionalism

Pelley criticized the new CBS management for undermining the integrity of 60 Minutes, a program he described as having been a leader in American journalism due to its commitment to quality, integrity, and humanity in its stories.

“Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration,” he wrote.

He also condemned the recent firings of 60 Minutes’ senior leadership and two of its top correspondents, calling it a betrayal of the show’s values — “They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos,” Pelley said.

According to Pelley, new management had instructed him to include politically sensitive content with unverified assertions; he said he had refused every directive thus far.

Dispute Over Control of Interviews and Management Chaos

Pelley also criticized the decision to let politicians choose which 60 Minutes correspondents they would be interviewed by, while “Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done,” he said.

He claimed that the new management’s incompetence had nearly caused one of his stories to not air at all; “In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all,” he wrote.

During a morning call with CBS News staff on Wednesday, Bari Weiss, the newly appointed editor-in-chief, addressed Pelley’s firing. According to an audio recording obtained by The Guardian, Weiss said that trust and mutual respect were essential to the newsroom and that these values had been broken during the previous week’s meeting with Pelley.

“We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose,” Weiss said, adding that Pelley’s contributions to the network were significant.

Pelley responded later in the day with a new statement contesting Weiss’s version of events; he claimed that no genuine effort was made during the Tuesday meeting to find a resolution. “In the meeting on Tuesday. In which I was effectively fired, there was no effort to ‘find a way back,’ as Weiss said in the editorial meeting,” he said.

Background on the Management Shakeup and Pelley’s Tenure

Pelley joined 60 Minutes in 2004 and was fired on Tuesday after clashing with the new network leadership. His dismissal followed a broader shakeup at CBS News, which began in August 2025 when David Ellison, an ally of former President Donald Trump, acquired CBS’s parent company, Paramount.

Ellison appointed Weiss as the new editor-in-chief in October, and she has since pushed for a digital-first strategy for CBS News. Weiss criticized the network for relying too heavily on broadcast television and failing to connect with younger audiences.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Weiss told staff in January that mainstream media, including CBS News, was losing public trust and not meeting audiences where they were. She also highlighted that more than 6% of CBS News employees had been laid off, and the network had shut down its radio division.

Following the conclusion of the latest season of 60 Minutes in early May, Tanya Simon, the show’s executive producer, and two of its longtime correspondents were also fired without explanation, further inflaming tensions within the newsroom.

According to a termination letter from Nick Bilton, the newly appointed executive editor with no prior broadcast news experience, Pelley had “hijacked” a staff meeting to criticize Bilton and Weiss. Bilton accused Pelley of demonstrating “remarkable incivility and contempt” during the meeting and said his antipathy toward the show’s future was clear.

Pelley, in turn, had accused Weiss of “murdering 60 Minutes” and claimed she was brought in to dismantle the program.