The 37-year news program vet accuses new ownership of “casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.”

Fired 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley lashes out at CBS leadership over a ‘collapse of values at the top’

The 37-year news program vet accuses new ownership of "casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration."

June 3, 2026 2:43 a.m. ET

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Scott Pelley on '60 Minutes'. Credit:

- Former *60 Minutes *correspondent Scott Pelley has replied after his firing Tuesday.

- In a statement, Pelley praised the news program's dedicated audience, while lamenting "a collapse of values at the top" of leadership.

- *60 Minutes* "lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause," he said.

Longtime *60 Minutes *correspondent Scott Pelley has replied following publication of a blistering letter that accompanied his firing Tuesday and a related staff memo.

"'60' has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories," Pelley wrote in a statement published by multiple news outlets. "Last month, *60 Minutes* lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos."

The 37-year veteran of the CBS news program complained of "incompetence and unprofessionalism" in new management and said "the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.

"The waste is heartbreaking," he continued.

The controversy began Monday when Pelley accused new CBS News boss Bari Weiss of "murdering" *60 Minutes* during a heated staff meeting led by recently hired executive producer Nick Bilton and told the filmmaker and former tech reporter that he had "slender" qualifications for the job.

Bari Weiss in Washington, D.C., on April 25; Nick Bilton in Los Angeles in 2016.

Mary Kouw/CBS via Getty; Albert L. Ortega/Getty

CBS responded by firing Pelley on Tuesday after a subsequent meeting with the correspondent, Weiss, Bilton, CBS News president and executive editor Tom Cibrowski, and a representative from CBS HR reportedly did not go well.

"One of the first things I did in my new role was call you to talk and invite you to dinner. It is a profound disappointment that you rejected that overture and chose ambush instead," Bilton wrote in a letter that accompanied Pelley's formal termination notice.

"Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear,” Bilton wrote. "And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated effective immediately."

The termination was followed by notice to *60 Minutes *staff from Bilton, explaining "We have parted ways with Scott Pelley."

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He continued: "I know how much Scott meant to many of you, and I don't say this lightly. I made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with him over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground. That was not the path Scott chose."

Bilton also said he regretted that the "situation interfered with the conversation I had hoped to have with you about Season 59 and the future of this show. I realize this is a great deal of change in a very short time, and I wouldn't pretend otherwise."

"I won't relitigate the last week with you here. What I will commit to is this: My unyielding support for each of you, the journalism that you do and what we will do together going forward," he concluded.

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Without naming names, Pelley wrote in his statement that "new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over *60 Minutes* interviews is not how this is done."

He also claimed one of his stories almost did not air, saying, "incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc."

"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. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return," Pelley concluded in his statement.

EW has reached out to CBS for comment.

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Source: “EW News”