Elise Santora

Theatre/TV Actor, Singer, Poet, Activist

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

A message for CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and new owner David Ellison.

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

Do not watch CBS News.

Do not watch 60 Minutes.

Do not normalize what CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is attempting to get away with.

[Elise Santora @Elipalma]

@UnrealBluegrass @Martina 100%

[Andy Ostroy @AndyOstroy]

Bari Weiss's legacy will be that she was the unqualified, incompetent, blinded-by-hubris egomaniac who destroyed an prestigious news network and iconic No 1 news program. And Nick Bilton will go down as the arrogant fool who curiosly hopped on the Weisstanic as it headed for the 'berg...

[Ben Mullin @BenMullin]

Scott Pelley just issued a statement on Bari's remarks this morning:

[Elise Santora @Elipalma]

💔

[Michael Geheren @mgeheren]

When @ScottPelley signed off from @CBSEveningNews, he spoke about Freedom of the Press. My first years in broadcast journalism were at a CBS affiliate while he anchored the Evening News. He was excellent then as he is now, fighting for @60Minutes.

[Dylan Byers @DylanByers]

New statement from Scott Pelley:

There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.

The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58thseason, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.

“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.

The waste is heartbreaking.

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. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.

For my part, 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. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, 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.

At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.

I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.

Scott Pelley

[Wu Tang is for the Children @WUTangKids]

Only thing left to say to CBS after reading that powerful Scott Pelley statement is…..with a little help from David Letterman:

"In the words of the great Edward Murrow, 'Good night and good luck, motherf*ckers!'"

[Elise Santora @Elipalma]

@DougWahl1 Nope.

[Lucas Sanders 👊🏽🔥🇺🇸 @LucasSa56947288]

RETWEET if you support Scott Pelley after CBS News has just fired him.

[Elise Santora @Elipalma]

@peekaboo_jen BOMB has the same problem as the last season of OL-rushed storyline choices w/o enuf character development or one dimensional character choices, so plot-driven raising big questions not answered and not allowing these beautiful actors 2 provide emotional payoffs of any kind.

[Elise Santora @Elipalma]

@UnrealBluegrass @NotAvgLiberal Who?!

[Elise Santora @Elipalma]

@UnrealBluegrass @bariweiss @joerogan @60Minutes @CBSNews Word!

[Elise Santora @Elipalma]

@TVInsider @OutlanderHome Not if Matthew Roberts is the show runner…no thank you.

[Elise Santora @Elipalma]

@peekaboo_jen We will never forget you James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser. You have made sure of that…💜

[Elise Santora @Elipalma]

@peekaboo_jen @OutlanderHome Word!

[The Art Of Dialogue @ArtOfDialogue_]

Jenifer Lewis calls out celebrities for attending the 2026 Met Gala amid Jeff Bezos backlash