Charlie Ban

[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

[Ben Dreyfuss @bendreyfuss]

The fact that the first paragraph is one paragraph and not two, despite the obvious break point where he starts whining about the meeting, proves Nick Bilton should go home and play with his kids

[Jeremy Fassler @J_fassler]

I cannot wait for the movie about Bari Weiss's mismanagement of CBS to get made. The scene with Scott Pelley reading her the riot act is going to win whoever plays him Best Supporting Actor. (My choice: Christopher Eccleston.)

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

@ralter This is very good and actually improved my day when I saw it

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

@runpacer Or the quality of the spelling

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

“I can’t prescribe this child refreshment! He’s my son!”

[mr_eggs @scrumble_eggs]

Admit it. You assumed that Dr. Pepper was a man. You didn’t even consider that Dr. Pepper could be a woman.

[NACo @NACoCounties]

#CountyNews: Drawing an all-time high for the Western Interstate Region Conference, Maui County offered attendees a look at a sophisticated wildfire recovery effort.

Read more: https://t.co/MlvZwCMr26

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

@jen_rice_ It’s an elbridge too far!

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

@AlJean @nick_field90 Al, when I heard that Ted died, my mental image that came up was of Duke. Thank you for that show.

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

Tom Arnold in The Stupids wasn’t crying wolf about someone stealing his garbage

[Pittsburgh Scanner @pgh_scanner]

Homewood. Upland Street. Caller says that people in a fake garbage truck are going around trying to take people's trash.

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

@johnjchapman Obviously moving the start downtown changed the character of the course, but losing Western Avenue in 2017 was a real shame

[NACo @NACoCounties]

#CountyNews: In a frontier Montana county, local history and culture will get a larger stage as a museum prepares for a major addition.

Now in its 90th year, the Carter County Museum is Montana’s oldest, and it's in a strong position to grow.

Read more: https://t.co/tiGVeUpKYm

[Kyle Goon @kylegoon]

The only uplifting story I’ll write about the Steelers this year:

Eli Heidenreich and Alex Tecza are lifelong Yinzers, winning a state title in high school before helping lift Navy football to new heights.

Now, they’re trying to make the Steelers.
https://t.co/fN31N1UnyV

[Jason, @jasonc_nc]

Property tax is becoming the world’s fastest IQ test

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

@emiliepfrank I did that a lot in the summer of 2021 and I keep telling myself I’ll do it again

[scary lawyerguy @scarylawyerguy]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the greatest one off acting job in TV history. It's like, they asked this guy to basically synthesize Don's entire life in a single monologue in the very last episode of one of the greatest shows of all time and he fucking nailed it.

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

@MartyGriffinKD Are you new here?

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

@stephenjnesbitt Good golly, that was fun to read

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

I didn’t need this extra detail of good news but I certainly like knowing it

[Katie Robertson @katie_robertson]

More: A source told me that the other, higher bidder for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was Alden Global Capital (which did not respond to comment request). PG owner Block Communications went with the nonprofit Venetoulis Institute instead https://t.co/zw3jxr9PuY

[Charlie Ban @likeasmokingBan]

@jmart Get that man a turkey carcass!