From the Hunter Biden laptop to Kamala Harris edits: the long history of '60 Minutes' controversies
Former "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley accused CBS News leadership of political bias and incompetence on Sunday in his first sit-down interview since he was fired from the network last week after clashing with new management.
Pelley, who spent 37 years at CBS News, said the turmoil began after CBS dismissed several senior "60 Minutes" staffers and installed journalist Nick Bilton as the program’s new executive producer under CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. During the emotional interview, Pelley not only insisted Weiss put her "thumb on the scale" for President Trump but also pushed back on the notion that "60 Minutes" is biased against conservatives.
Media Research Center President David Bozell was stunned to hear Pelley’s remarks.
"Scott Pelley is seriously still asking why Americans think ‘60 Minutes’ is biased? Maybe because Americans watched Lesley Stahl dismiss the Hunter Biden laptop story. Maybe because they watched ‘60 Minutes’ clean up Kamala Harris’s answers. Maybe because they’ve spent years watching one set of rules for Democrats and another for Republicans," Bozell told Fox News Digital.
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"The amazing thing isn’t that trust in the media has collapsed," Bozell continued. "The amazing thing is that the people responsible for squandering that trust still can’t figure out why."
Here are noteworthy "60 Minutes" scandals and controversies that occurred long before Weiss took over the network in 2025:
The 1995 "60 Minutes" segment about Big Tabacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand was so scandalous that it led to the 1999 film "The Insider" starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe.
Wigand, a former executive of the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, had an agreement not to disclose internal information about the cigarette juggernaut, but he told "60 Minutes" that the company knew its product was addictive despite what the chief executive had claimed during congressional testimony.
This occurred as CBS awaited approval for a $5.4 billion merger deal with the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and the network famously delayed the story. Fearing a messy lawsuit that could interfere with the merger, CBS honchos initially spiked the story altogether, but the network eventually aired it the following year.
The New York Times published a 1995 opinion piece that said the "act of self-censorship by the country's most powerful and aggressive television news program sends a chilling message to journalists investigating industry practices everywhere." The Times added, "The most troubling part of CBS's decision is that it was made not by news executives but by corporate officers who may have their minds on money rather than public service these days."
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A widely disputed story over former President George W. Bush’s National Guard service that "disregard some fundamental journalistic principles" forever changed the legacy of CBS anchor Dan Rather.
Rather’s story, which aired during the presidential race between Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry, relied on documents that could not be authenticated. The unverified memo disparaged Bush’s behavior while he served in the National Guard in the 1970s, allegedly written by his commanding officer at the time. Critics charged that these documents were forged as part of a naked attempt to make Bush look bad two months before the 2004 election.
After initially defending the memos, Rather and CBS eventually acknowledged the authenticity of the documents was never verified and shouldn't have been used. CBS News fired four high-level employees in 2005 for their role in the segment.
"We deeply regret the disservice this flawed 60 Minutes Wednesday report did to the American public, which has a right to count on CBS News for fairness and accuracy," then-CBS President Leslie Moonves said at the time.
Rather apologized for the scandal ahead of a CBS investigation into the allegations of journalistic malpractice. He stepped down from his role as anchor of "CBS Evening News" months after the scandal. Rather eventually parted ways with CBS in 2006.
"60 Minutes" was humiliated once again in 2013 when a segment focused on the claims of former security officer who claimed to have raced to the scene and engaged attackers during a deadly attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya. The security officer, Dylan Davies, provided a completely different version of the events to the FBI, forcing CBS to issue a retraction.
"The fact that the FBI and the State Department had information that differed from the account Davies gave to 60 Minutes was knowable before the piece aired. But the wider reporting resources of CBS News were not employed in an effort to confirm his account. It’s possible that reporters and producers with better access to inside FBI sources could have found out that Davies had given varying and conflicting accounts of his story," then-CBS standards and practices chief Al Ortiz said at the time.
Critics were also irked when it was learned that Davies planned to write a book for Simon & Schuster, a subsidiary of CBS at the time.
Former "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan, who reported the story, and a producer were both forced to take leave of absence as a result.
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Longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl completely dismissed the scandal surrounding Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop during her interview with President Trump shortly before the 2020 election.
At the time, Trump insisted that then-candidate Joe Biden was "in the midst of a scandal," referring to reports about the email's contents showing his involvement in his son's overseas business dealings.
He's not," Stahl replied.
"Of course he is, Lesley," Trump sternly doubled down.
"No, c'mon," Stahl continued. "This is '60 Minutes' and we can't put on things that we can't verify."
CBS News eventually went on and verified the infamous laptop in 2022.
CBS came under fire in 2021 for a "60 Minutes" segment where then-correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi challenged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and painted a narrative that he had given supermarket chain Publix preferential treatment on distributing COVID vaccines because its PAC had donated $100,000 to his campaign.
However, the story came under significant criticism, including from Democrats like Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz. Publix had more than 800 locations in the state, making it an ideal location for distributing the vaccines to a state with a high senior population.
Also, Publix fired back against the notion that it essentially bribed DeSantis, calling the suggestion "false and offensive."
CBS stood by the story at the time, even though the "pay-for-play" narrative was debunked. In addition, DeSantis accused CBS of cheaply editing a back-and-forth that aired between him and Alfonsi that omitted context about the story.
CBS was forced to shell out cash after being accused of interfering with the 2020 presidential election by deceptively editing an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the preview clip that aired on "Face the Nation," Bill Whitaker asked Harris about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not "listening" to the Biden administration.
"Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region," Harris responded in the "Face the Nation" clip.
Harris was mocked by conservatives for offering a lengthy "word salad" to Whitaker. But when that same question aired the following night in the primetime election special, a shorter, more focused answer from Harris followed.
"We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end," Harris said.
Critics accused CBS News of editing Harris' "word salad" answer to shield the vice president from further backlash. Trump filed a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS alleging election interference over its handling of the interview, accusing the network of aiding his Democratic rival through deceptive editing just days before the election.
In July 2025, Paramount Global and CBS agreed to settle by paying Trump a sum that could reach north of $30 million. Trump received $16 million upfront to cover legal fees, costs of the case, and contributions to his future presidential library or charitable causes, to be determined at Trump’s discretion.
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CBS News denied Pelley’s claim that the network favors Trump.
"There is no credible argument to suggest Ms. Weiss was ‘putting a thumb on the scale on behalf of the administration’ in any instance over the past seven months," a CBS News spokesperson said.
Fox News Digital’s Hanna Panreck, David Rutz, CJ Womack and Joseph W. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.