‘Trump Hates It!’: CBS Thought It Had Silenced Scott Pelley for Good, Then He Came Out Swinging, Publicly Exposed Bari Weiss and Left the Network in Shambles
Scott Pelley, former host of CBS’s “60 Minutes,” is not making the quiet exit network executives appeared to have planned for him.
Just hours after CBS News CEO Bari Weiss told staffers that the network had tried to repair its relationship with the veteran correspondent before ultimately parting ways, Pelley publicly accused her of lying.
“Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true,” Pelley said in a statement released Wednesday.
The latest clash marks the newest chapter in a growing partisan war inside CBS News, one that critics say corporate leaders fueled as Paramount pursues regulatory approval for a multibillion-dollar merger while seeking to appease President Donald Trump.
“What’s going on here is obvious,” wrote one critic. “After the merger, the newly installed Barry Weiss planned on reformatting 60 mins because Trump hates it. And that’s what’s happening. Right. Before. Our. Eyes. We’re witnessing government (more specifically, the president) changing the media.”
‘Adds Insult to Injury’: Trump Just Handed the Keys to America’s Entire Intelligence System to a Bootlicking Yes-Man Who’s Never Spent a Day in Intel and Tried and Failed to Destroy Leticia James
According to Pelley, CBS never made a genuine effort to reconcile differences.
“In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to ‘find a way back,’ as Weiss said in the editorial meeting,” Pelley said. “At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution.”
He described Weiss and CBS News President Tom Cibrowski as “openly hostile from the start,” claiming Cibrowski raised the possibility of firing him almost immediately.
“No CBS executive, at any time, suggested ‘a way back.’ To say so now is disingenuous. And they know it,” he added.
The extraordinary public rebuke came after Weiss told employees Wednesday morning that CBS had made efforts to salvage its relationship with Pelley.
“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,” Weiss said during a staff meeting, The New York Times reports.
But Pelley painted a dramatically different picture, alleging that executives repeatedly refused to answer questions about a string of high profile departures that have hollowed out “60 Minutes” in recent months.
According to Pelley, Weiss repeatedly responded to his concerns with the same phrase: “I’m not answering that question.”
The confrontation reportedly escalated when Cibrowski abruptly ended the meeting.
“This conversation is over!” Cibrowski allegedly shouted twice while standing and showing Pelley the door.
The fallout stems from a tense meeting earlier this week in which Pelley challenged newly installed “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton, telling him he lacked the experience necessary to oversee one of television’s most respected news programs.
Bilton later fired Pelley “for cause,” accusing him of hijacking a staff meeting and publicly attacking his leadership.
Yet Pelley’s supporters see something much larger than a personality conflict unfolding behind the scenes.
The veteran journalist alleges that CBS management tried to interfere with editorial decisions and pressured him to include information he believed did not meet journalistic standards.
“For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story,” Pelley said. “I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified.”
He also claimed CBS executives were allowing politicians to influence interview selections.
“Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done,” he said.
Those allegations land at a particularly sensitive moment for Paramount and CBS.
The network’s parent company recently agreed to settle Trump’s widely criticized lawsuit over a 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent in the presidential race. The settlement reportedly cost Paramount $16 million and came as the company seeks federal approval for a major merger.
Critics, both inside and outside CBS, argue that the settlement sent a strong message to journalists who challenge powerful political figures.
Former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens resigned last year, citing concerns about journalistic independence. Former CBS News President Wendy McMahon also departed amid growing tensions over the company’s handling of the Trump lawsuit.
Now Pelley appears determined to become the latest and most vocal dissenter.
After nearly four decades at CBS News, the correspondent left with a warning about what he believes is happening inside one of America’s most storied news organizations.
“I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion — a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives,” Pelley wrote.
“I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again — a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.”
Many supporters have applauded Pelley for standing up to the network as it caves to Trump and politicians.
“I am so proud of people like Scott Pelley, standing up for what is right is never easy but it is always the right thing to do,” one X user wrote. “Thank goodness, he is standing up for journalistic integrity. It will only be because of journalist like him the democratic freedom of the press will endure,” another person added.
“Thank you, Scott, for your bravery and integrity, something those who buckle under Trump’s power don’t have. This is the end of a long admired show, a show people could turn to for FACTS not slanted, political bias,” a third person wrote.