‘Poison Pelley’: Scott Pelley’s tirade against new ’60 Minutes’ boss latest example of respected CBS journo’s ‘diva’ behavior
Scott Pelley was dramatically fired on Tuesday from “60 Minutes” after his latest run-in with network brass. But he then fired back, accusing Bari Weiss‘ regime of interfering with his work.
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It’s certainly not the first time Pelley has clashed with the network, but the gloves really came off late last night in his battle with Weiss and her brand new “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton.
CBS insiders tell Page Six Hollywood that the focus will now shift to Lesley Stahl — considered the last tether to the program’s past as the most successful TV news broadcast in history. The 84-year old has spent almost the entirety of her illustrious career at CBS News where she began as a producer in 1971.
“Scott wasn’t popular with most of the talent,” said one insider, adding of Stahl, “if I were her, I would stick around and see what happens. She’ll be 85 this year and her contract is up.” Then again, “If I’m CBS and I’ve basically lost everyone, maybe I just bring in all new people.”
Status reported this month that Stahl and Weiss also have butted heads after a high-profile interview with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu went to a different reporter.
Pelley had a Monday morning meltdown at the venerable show’s first staff meeting under new boss Nick Bilton, reportedly saying the former Vanity Fair writer “will never be welcome here” and has “slender” qualifications for the gig, while Weiss was “murdering” “60 Minutes,” (and he didn’t mean ‘killing it’).
By Tuesday, Pelley was let go. Bilton wrote in a memo (which subsequently leaked): “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 to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated effective immediately.”
The leaked memo Bilton sent Pelley also said: “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.” The memo also accused Pelley of staging a “performative display of hostility,” and said he had “no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress.”
At nearly midnight NYC time last night, Pelley fired back in a statement that was posted on X by Puck’s Dylan Byers. “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,” Pelley wrote.
He also accused the show of interfering with his reporting, alleging in a lengthy statement, “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.”
He added: “Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast,” without specifying further, and that, “incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.”
CBS did not comment when we reached out last night.
Weiss first shook up “CBS Evening News” by installing Tony Dokoupil as anchor, then she shut down CBS News Radio and most recently hired Bilton, a former tech columnist turned screenwriter, as the new “60 Minutes” boss with no TV news experience. Weiss also let go of former executive producer Tanya Simon and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, as well as correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, while Anderson Cooper flew the coop.
A CBS source confirmed to Page Six Hollywood that Pelley was let go following his outburst. Bilton also wrote to CBS News staffers about his decision to can the respected journalist: “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.”
A staffer on Tuesday told us that morale at the network has been low after recent layoffs and shakeups. “People were pretty [down],” at Bilton’s ill-fated “60 Minutes” staff meeting, a source told us.
“The behavior is a lot in the building,” a CBS News source told us of Pelley’s hissy fit on Bilton. The insider added that, “Nick handled it really, really well, and he did not wither under that assault.”
“You are not going to intimidate me in front of this group of people,” Bilton shot back at Pelley during Monday’s back-and-forth, according to The Post. “I want that to be clear.” Bilton ended the meeting by saying, “Enjoy the bagels,” a source said (always a good tagline). But after Bilton left, “The room erupted into applause and Nick definitely heard it.”
Even after Pelley’s exit, the ill will against Bilton from some corners of CBS is strong. An insider compared it to the rage at ABC when Michael Strahan left “Live with Kelly and Michael” to join “GMA” in 2016, leading to a very public feud with Kelly Ripa.
“Nick took a dream job. Don’t yell at him about it,” a CBS News source told us. “There was a way for Scott to express his displeasure that didn’t have to be what he did.”
Pelley reportedly had another year left on his contract and was making around $5 million a year. Sources also told P6H that Bilton is pulling down $2.5M in his role.
Monday’s 15 minute-long heated-back-and-forth at Bilton’s meeting is far from the first time that Pelley has clashed with his CBS bosses. He has a reported history of contentious behavior that goes back more than a decade.
Pelley was relegated to “60 Minutes” in 2017 after being pushed out of the “CBS Evening News” anchor chair amid a clash with another former CBS News chief, David Rhodes, now the executive chairman of Sky News Group.
Pelley had taken over the anchor desk in 2011 from Katie Couric, another ill-fated CBS experiment.
Years after his “Evening News” ouster, in 2019, he told CNN’s “Reliable Sources” that he was axed from the anchor desk because he “wouldn’t stop complaining to management” about a “hostile work environment,” claiming he went to Rhodes as well as former disgraced CBS honcho Les Moonves about the issue. He alleged that his contract was not renewed after his complaints.
CBS said at the time: “Scott was expressing his own opinion. We disagree. CBS News has been working hard to advocate for an inclusive, safe and dignified workplace for everyone at CBS News and Scott has been a supporter of these efforts.”
When he was axed from the CBS anchor desk amid low ratings in 2017, Page Six reported that, “Furious fired CBS News anchor Scott Pelley ordered his assistant to clear out his office on Tuesday after he clashed” with Rhodes. The acrimonious anchor apparently preemptively cleared out his office while he was on assignment in Syria, mucking up CBS’ plans to announce the change.
A source at the time told Page Six, “Scott is really angry. He had a huge fight with David Rhodes and decided, ‘Right, I am going to clean out my office, I am done.’”
Page Six nicknamed him “Poison Pelley” after he yelled at one of the column’s reporters in 2013: “You wouldn’t last 10 seconds at CBS News!” (We hear that after his Bilton bollocking, CBS staffers were passing around our old Poison Pelley clips to colleagues via email.)
A CBS rep did not comment, including on Pelley’s accusations last night of network meddling, and Pelley, who no longer has an agent, could not be reached.
Read more Fired ’60 Minutes’ star Scott Pelley accuses CBS of pushing ‘falsehoods and bias’
