Pelley: firing raised in first 15 seconds. No resolution offered. Weiss openly hostile throughout. Then the disclosure - told repeatedly to include unverified assertions in stories. Refused every time. Then fired.
Weiss called it the path he chose. He did choose. He chose not to lie.
The firing of Scott Pelley will reverberate in American journalism history as a symbolic execution of the single most groundbreaking and successful news program in the annals of U.S. broadcast television. https://t.co/MRUFn9bBiL
In appeals court fight over the White House ballroom, DOJ says the federal government could quickly bulldoze the statute of liberty and no one would have standing to sue over the changes once the demolition is done.
New whistleblower allegations: The Trump admin had plans to classify 2.7 million living people — including some U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents — as dead as part of its immigration enforcement efforts, according to a former senior Social Security executive. https://t.co/rPruAbqhDH
You know who should not be in office? Paxson, Trump and Platner. That there is even a debate shows how unhealthy our democracy is. We keep lowering standards then wonder how standards have gotten so low. We don't need perfection. But character is important in a democracy.
"Pelley was not uncivil. He didn’t threaten anyone. He didn’t curse or scream. He was professionally disagreeable. Which is basically the job description for journalists. It’s the job description that Weiss herself wrote. She just didn’t mean it."
https://t.co/Xc4ha2iVx3
The three remaining “60 Minutes” correspondents told colleagues Friday that they will stay with the embattled newsmagazine for one stark reason: “We don’t want to see ‘60 Minutes’ die.” https://t.co/dQmJobScJx
The '60 Minutes' legend's daughter claims her father would want CBS staff to speak out against the network's current leadership. https://t.co/seNoyOVQfn
I get it. But they aren't going to change the direction of 60 Minutes. This is like the Captain refusing to abandon a ship. it's still going to sink. Maybe they dont have anywhere else to go.
The people parroting “60 Minutes needed to change” kayfabe promos can spare me the utter bullshit. These three spell out how the behind the staffers were treated.
Nick Bilton has come in for a LOT of scrutiny, but he gets some credit today — sources say he worked hard behind the scenes to convince the three remaining correspondents to stay. (But the coming weeks/months will be the real test.)
The veteran correspondents staying at 60 Minutes are making the same mistake WaPo reporters did. 60 Minutes fate lies with viewers, not Bari Weiss or any internal deal she cut with them.
Viewers will abandon 60 Minutes like they did WaPo because they no longer trust the owner.
"People sometimes ask me why I’m so hung up on Bari Weiss and the answer is that it’s because her project is essentially the same as Donald Trump’s project." Scott Pelley gets it, too. Today's Triad from JVL (link in reply):
Nick Bilton walked into the 60 Minutes newsroom four days after Bari Weiss fired the people who built the show. He tried to pretend he didn't know about the firings. Scott Pelley, in front of the remaining staff, would not let that stand.
"She loves 60 Minutes," Bilton said. "She's murdering 60 Minutes," Pelley said back. "She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it - and she's doing exactly that."
One of Weiss's lieutenants kept interrupting to say Pelley was being rude. Pelley kept going.
JVL's framing is the right one. The corrupter depends on the existing institution being too polite to say the obvious thing out loud. Christopher Wray resigned quietly to "preserve the integrity of the FBI." John Kelly gave print interviews after he left. Thom Tillis, John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell, Jim Mattis, Bill Barr - all of them saw it. All of them objected privately. None of them said it in the room where it was happening, to the person doing it, while the cameras were still running.
Pelley said it in the room. To the person's face. In front of witnesses. While he still worked there.
That is a different thing entirely. Not a memoir. Not an anonymous source in a tell-all. Not a carefully worded statement issued after the resignation letter was already filed. The true thing, said out loud, to the people who needed to hear it, at the moment it could still matter.
Authoritarianism counts on politesse. It counts on people deciding the fight isn't worth the awkwardness, the career risk, the label of being difficult. Scott Pelley decided it was worth it. The republic needs more of that calculation to come out the same way.
NEW: The initial draft of the Stahl-Whitaker-Wertheim letter read like a full-throated rejection of CBS leadership, accusing their "overlords" of using “chilling” and “callous” tactics—all of it omitted from final memo. It also did not include any language about Nick Bilton...