60 Minutes veteran Scott Pelley broke the silence after being fired from CBS News.
“There has never been anything like this in America 60 Minutes,” Pelley, 68, wrote in a statement Tuesday, June 2, obtained by Deadline.
The journalist continued, “Sunday Culture is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on all major Internet platforms has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58th season, 60 Minutes grew rapidly by about 9% in viewers on CBS.”
“60 has been the best show in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and personality in our stories. When management of the program was transferred to me and my colleagues, our responsibility was to grow vigorously into a new era of media technology while maintaining the standards that our viewers expect,” he wrote, going on to accuse CBS’ new owners of bowing out. President Donald Trump. (Skydance Media, led by David Ellisonthe son of a millionaire Larry Ellisonbought CBS parent company Paramount last year.)
“Now, the new owner of our network is putting aside this myth, apparently to curry favor with the Trump administration,” Pelley said.
“Last month, 60 Minutes it lost its DNA when all of our senior leadership and two of our top writers on air were brutally fired for no reason.” “Good people are silenced because they represent our audience. They stood for justice against the power of political bias; they represented professionalism against chaos.”
Pelley went on to criticize the new CBS News management team led by the editor-in-chief Barry Weiss.
“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,” he said. “Until now, in every case, I have been able to ignore these orders or refuse. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose people to talk to on the radio. Giving politicians control 60 Minutes negotiations are not how this is done. Ultimately, the incompetence and lack of professionalism in the new administration caused havoc. In an issue involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes without going on air at all.”
“With 60 Minuteswe fought harder than anyone knows to preserve the system that became America’s symbol. We owe that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply touched by the thousands of wishes we have received to ‘keep up the good fight.’ ” Pelley wrote: “Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the price collapse at the top is no longer acceptable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer visible. The values I respect are gone, so I have to go too.”
He concluded, “I leave after 37 years at CBS with one emotion – a heart overflowing with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who have inspired and enriched my career, often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for the day when those people and their ideas are respected again – the day when sanity, skills, and courage return.”
Us Weekly contacted CBS News for comment.
Earlier on Tuesday, Us confirmed that Pelley’s contract with CBS News was terminated following a verbal altercation with. 60 Minutes‘ new manufacturer Nick Bilton at a staff meeting on Monday.
In a memo to Pelley, Bilton wrote in part, “Yesterday, you boycotted my first meeting with the staff to look down on me, my qualifications, and my intentions with marked disrespect and disdain. I welcome diversity of opinion and respectful debate within the group, but this was not at all. I have no interest in playing a role in the future success of the show or approaching my new era with a mind open to cooperation and progress.”
