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Veteran anchor Scott Pelley was fired by CBS News on Tuesday, a day after his explosive meeting with new 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton.
Bilton announced Pelley’s termination in a letter addressed to the longtime 60 Minutes correspondent, obtained by Mediaite.
“Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” wrote Bilton. “Yesterday’s performative display of hostility enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress.”
The move from the new EP comes just a day after his first meeting with 60 Minutes staff was hijacked by Pelley, who demanded to know more details on Thursday’s firings, which included Bilton’s predecessor, Tanya Simon, correspondent Cecilia Vega, and the show’s long-time Executive Editor Draggan Mihailovich.
The former anchor of CBS Evening News also took aim at Weiss, claiming she had “no qualifications for her job” and countering Bilton’s claim that the new chief “loves 60 Minutes” with a sharp interjection.
“She’s murdering ’60 Minutes.’ She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it—and she’s doing exactly that,” said Pelley. “She has no qualifications for her job; you have slender qualifications for this job. The changes that she’s made at the ‘Evening News’ have been catastrophic, so why should we expect that any of this is going to be any better?”
Pelley also criticized Bilton directly, telling him he “would never be welcomed” at the show and calling out Bilton’s “slender” qualifications for the job.
The new EP claimed that he had hoped to make peace at a meeting with Pelley on Tuesday, but that effort was not successful– an outcome reported on earlier in the day, leading to rumors of Pelley’s imminent departure. Bilton invoked the meeting yet again in a staff memo announcing Pelley’s departure.
“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,” wrote Bilton. “That was not the path Scott chose.”
In the memo, Bilton claimed his biggest regret was that “this situation interfered” with his meeting about the upcoming season of 60 Minutes.
“What I regret most is that this situation interfered with the conversation I had hoped to have with you about Season 59 and the future of this show,” he wrote, before nodding to the recent swath of firings. “I realize this is a great deal of change in a very short time, and I wouldn’t pretend otherwise.”
Bilton’s letter to Pelley struck a harsher tone, calling out his “misconduct” and “antipathy to the future of the show” before informing him of his firing.
Read the full text of Bilton’s letter:
Dear Mr. Pelley:
I meant what I said in my letter last week to the 60 Minutes team: joining 60 Minutes is the honor of my career and I am grateful to be working alongside the people who have contributed to the most important television journalism brand this country has ever produced. While I’m new to 60 Minutes, I’ve devoted my career to investigative journalism and storytelling. I started this job excited to collaborate and to benefit from the wisdom and experience of the 60 Minutes veterans, with you among them. For that reason, 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. Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt. I welcome a diversity of viewpoints and respectful debate among the team, but this was nothing of the sort. Yesterday’s performative display of hostility-enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress. I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama. I am eager to work alongside those who share this goal.
Despite yesterday’s misconduct, I had hoped that in sitting down with you today we could find a path forward together. You made clear that you are not interested in such a path.
Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. (“CBS) to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately. Enclosed is your formal termination letter.
Sincerely,
Nick Bilton
Executive Producer, 60 Minutes
The post New 60 Minutes Boss Fires Scott Pelley in Scorched-Earth Letter: ‘You Hijacked My First Meeting’ first appeared on Mediaite.