In a startling development, the CBS News veteran 60 minutes Reporter Scott Pelley was fired by the network after falling out with the show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, in a fiery meeting with the show’s staff on Monday.
Belton notified Bailey of his termination Tuesday evening, writing in a memo that his employment was “terminated for cause effective immediately.” Billy has been with CBS News for decades, and previously served as an anchor for CBS News CBS Evening News.
At the meeting on June 1 with the new 60 minutes Billy Weiss, CBS News editor-in-chief, Barry Weiss, is “killing it,” executive producer Nick Pelton said. 60 minutes. She doesn’t like this place; She was brought in to kill her and she does just that.
He also said that Pelton, a veteran technology journalist who previously worked at… New York Times and Vanity galleryhe had “slim” qualifications for what is arguably the most important EP job in television news.
“You should hear this from me first. Scott Pelley and I have broken up,” Pelton wrote in a note to 60 minutes Staff Tuesday. “I know how much Scott meant to a lot of you, and I don’t say that lightly. I made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with him over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground. This was not the path Scott chose.”
In the note to Bailey, Belton wrote: “Yesterday, you hijacked my first staff meeting to belittle me, my qualifications, and my intentions with marked rudeness and contempt. I welcome diversity of viewpoints and respectful discussion among the team, but this was nothing of the sort.”
Weiss hired Pelton to overhaul the program last month, parting ways with EP Tanya Simone and some of her assistants, as well as reporters Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi. Anderson Cooper has made the decision to leave the show after this season.
With Billy out, the show opened up to three reporters: Lesley Stahl, 84; Bill Whitaker, 74; And John Wertheim (55 years old). His dismissal raises questions about all other reporters as well.
“I know from many conversations with colleagues that many of the production teams and reporters working on the show today have had to struggle to maintain editorial independence on a regular basis,” Vega said in a statement after her termination. “I’m far from the only one 60 minutesHer correspondent who asked herself: What is my personal red line? How much can I withdraw before I pay the price?
In an interview with THRBelton said he wanted to bring him 60 minutes To the 21st century and to a new digital platform, he suggested that the new reporters he brings in should be specialists in different fields.
