'60 Minutes' host Scott Pelley reportedly said CBS chief Bari Weiss needed to take job more 'seriously'
CBS' "60 Minutes" host Scott Pelley reportedly argued that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss needed to take her job "more seriously" after the fallout from her pulling a "60 Minutes" segment last month.
On Monday, The New Yorker reported on ongoing tensions within the network since Weiss formally took charge in October through its parent company, Paramount Skydance, under new CEO David Ellison. The tensions escalated after she abruptly pulled a "60 Minutes" segment covering migrants sent to the El Salvador prison CECOT by the Trump administration hours before it was set to air.
The article highlighted a meeting between the show's staff members the day after the decision, where Pelley allegedly called out the new leadership.
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"[D]uring a '60 Minutes' staff meeting, Scott Pelley, a longtime correspondent, expressed frustration that Weiss hadn’t attended any of the screenings of the segment or communicated directly with ['60 Minutes' correspondent Sharyn] Alfonsi. 'She needs to take her job a little bit more seriously,' he said," the article read.
This marked a shift in Pelley's perspective since his previous comments on how new leadership had been affecting "60 Minutes" last month, prior to the controversy.
"However, I will say that in that season, last season, all of our stories got on the air. We got them all on the air," Pelley said on Dec. 12. "We got them on the air with an absolute minimum of interference, nothing anyone in this room would be alarmed by. So, our company is the new Paramount, and we were all very concerned at ‘60 Minutes’ about what that meant."
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"It’s early yet, but what I can tell you is, we are doing the same kinds of stories with the same kind of rigor, and have experienced no corporate interference of any kind. So that has been a tremendous way to start this season," he continued.
Fox News Digital reached out to CBS News for comment.
The New Yorker also claimed that a former CBS staffer penned an open letter to Ellison to express concerns about "a breakdown in editorial oversight" stemming from Weiss' decision. An anonymous former CBS executive reportedly told the publication that pulling the "60 Minutes" segment risked charges of "corporate interference."
"It makes you wonder, did someone call once they saw the promo on the air, and then she spent more time on it because there was some big complaint?" the executive reportedly said.
Sources added that Weiss reportedly "readily realizes and admits that she was not as knowledgeable as she should have been about the timing of the marketing and promo process at ‘60 Minutes.’"
"She brings the sometimes chaotic energy and work ethic of a startup, but she also realizes she needs to work on having more executive discipline," the sources said.
The "60 Minutes" segment, titled "Inside CECOT," finally aired Sunday night.