{"id":2440820,"date":"2026-06-01T21:09:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T21:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2440820"},"modified":"2026-06-01T21:09:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T21:09:01","slug":"report-scott-pelley-of-60-minutes-accuses-cbs-news-head-bari-weiss-of-murdering-the-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/report-scott-pelley-of-60-minutes-accuses-cbs-news-head-bari-weiss-of-murdering-the-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Scott Pelley of ’60 Minutes’ accuses CBS News head Bari Weiss of ‘murdering’ the show"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This image released by CBS News shows Bari Weiss at the CBS News\/Politico reception ahead of the White House correspondents dinner in Washington on April 25, 2026. (Mary Kouw\/CBS News via AP)<\/p>\n

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FILE – Scott Pelley, anchor of “CBS Evening News,” at the CBS Upfront in New York, May 15, 2013. (Photo by Charles Sykes\/Invision\/AP, File)<\/p>\n

<\/span>Charles Sykes\/AP Photo\/Charles Sykes<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 In a remarkable sign of the turmoil at CBS\u2019s top-rated \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d correspondent Scott Pelley said CBS News head Bari Weiss of \u201cmurdering the show\u201d and accused its new producer of having \u201cslender qualifications\u201d for the job, according to reports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Pelley made his accusations in an introductory meeting Monday between the newsmagazine\u2019s staff and Nick Bilton, the new executive producer named by Weiss last week, according to a detailed report on the Status website<\/a>, which said it had heard a recording of the meeting. Weiss herself was not present, according to the report. Status specializes in media news and analysis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Status reported that Pelley, the longtime \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent, began grilling Bilton at the 10 a.m. meeting about the firings last week of Bilton’s predecessor, Tanya Simon, and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Status also reported that Pelley told Bilton, a former technology journalist and filmmaker with no traditional broadcast news experience, that his qualifications for the position were \u201cslender.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Pelley also charged, according to Status, that Weiss herself had \u201cno qualifications for her job,\u201d and said the changes she had made to \u201cCBS Evening News,\u201d which Pelley once anchored, \u201chave been catastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It added that Bilton insisted that \u201cBari loves this institution\u201d and \u201cshe loves \u201960 Minutes'” \u2014 to which Pelley countered, \u201cShe\u2019s murdering \u201860 minutes.\u2019 She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and she\u2019s doing exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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CBS says leaders tried to reach out to Pelley<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Two spokespeople for CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But a person close to CBS News leadership, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that both Weiss and Bilton had tried to reach out to Pelley late last week when the changes rocked the 57-year-old show to tell him that he was an integral part of \u201c60 Minutes\u201d and wanted him to remain so.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The person said Weiss and Bilton felt it was disappointing that Pelley’s accusations were being aired publicly despite efforts to engage with him privately.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The New York Times, which also reported that it had listened to a recording of Monday’s meeting, noted that Pelley’s \u201cnewscaster’s baritone\u201d was shaking during the exchange. The newspaper also quoted an unnamed executive at the meeting as saying Weiss had been prepared to come, but \u201cwe asked her not to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Argument comes after memo touting \u2018new approach\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Reports about the contentious meeting came four days after Weiss, who has become a polarizing figure in the media world since taking the reins at CBS last October, told staff in a memo that it was time for a \u201cnew approach\u201d at the top-rated newsmagazine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the memo, Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski said their goal was \u201cbuilding a show that thrives in the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThat requires a new approach,\u201d they wrote, defining that approach as \u201cexpanding \u201860 Minutes\u2019 beyond a one-hour television broadcast, deepening its role across CBS News, and holding everything we produce to the ambition, fairness, and fearlessness that have defined \u201860 Minutes\u2019 at its best.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bilton, they said, \u201cembodies the energy and ambition that animated the founders of the show. We cannot imagine a better fit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Status report noted that Pelley was applauded multiple times by other staffers during the meeting. It said Pelley focused on the firings last week, calling them cruel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bilton reportedly replied that he was not intimidated. \u201cI have been a journalist for 25 years, Scott,” Status quoted him as saying. “I have sat and talked with incredibly powerful people like you have. None of it intimidates me, OK? So you are not going to intimidate me in front of this group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nhregister.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This image released by CBS News shows Bari Weiss at the CBS News\/Politico reception ahead of the White House correspondents dinner in Washington on April 25, 2026. (Mary Kouw\/CBS News via AP) Mary Kouw\/CBS News via AP FILE – Scott Pelley, anchor of “CBS Evening News,” at the CBS Upfront in New York, May 15, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2440821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[402269,479127,479131,479128,345440,313298,318729,345436,345437,345438,396573,465857,345439,439780,457600,433513,479129,479130],"class_list":["post-2440820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-bari-weiss","tag-cbs-bari-weiss-scott-pelley-60-minutes","tag-cecilia-vega","tag-nick-bilton","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30597-ap-business-news-f-wire","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31388-premium-entertainment","tag-product-31995-ap-online-general-financial-business-news","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-32520-ap-online-other-u-s-government-news","tag-product-33328-ap-premium-entertainment-other","tag-product-33329-ap-premium-entertainment-tv","tag-scott-pelley","tag-sharyn-alfonsi","tag-tanya-simon","tag-tom-cibrowski"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Report-Scott-Pelley-of-60-Minutes-accuses-CBS-News-head.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2440820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2440822,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440820\/revisions\/2440822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2440821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2440820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2440820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2440820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}