‘60 Minutes’ Star Fired for Confronting Boss on MAGA Makeover

CBS News has terminated the contract of veteran reporter Scott Pelley after he criticized the network’s new MAGA-friendly bosses.

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The firing comes after 68-year-old Pelley, who joined CBS in 1989, accused the network’s news editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, 42, of “murdering” 60 Minutes.

Now, Bilton, 49, has fired Pelley, who becomes the fourth reporter to leave the show since February.

Bilton’s explosive termination letter to Pelley was shared by Puck reporter Dylan Byers on Tuesday. The letter was also obtained by The New York Times.

“I started this job excited to collaborate and to benefit from the wisdom and experience of the 60 Minutes veterans, with you among them,“ Bilton wrote, saying he invited Pelley to dinner.

“It is a profound disappointment that you rejected that overture and chose ambush instead. Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt.”

Bilton called Pelley’s comments on Monday a “performative display of hostility-enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress.”

He continued, “Despite yesterday’s misconduct, I had hoped that in sitting down with you today we could find a path forward together. You made clear that you are not interested in such a path. Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you.”

The letter ended, “Your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately. Enclosed is your formal termination letter.”

The Daily Beast has contacted CBS for comment.

During an interview after his termination on Tuesday evening, Pelley said Bilton’s letter “betrays a complete misunderstanding of what we work for and what we live for at 60 Minutes.”

He also told the New York Times that Weiss declined to answer his questions about why Alfonsi, Vega and Simon were fired.

Pelley called Weiss’ behavior “cold and callous and beneath the dignity of CBS News.”

The veteran correspondent said he still cared deeply about the show he had been fired from.

“I have been in combat in Afghanistan,” Pelley said. “I have been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine multiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast.”

Bilton also wrote a letter to CBS staff, according to Byers. “You should hear this from me first. We have parted ways with Scott Pelley,” Bilton stated.

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In what has been described as an explosive staff meeting, Pelley on Monday confronted Bilton, whom Weiss brought in last week after firing his predecessor in a 60 Minutes bloodbath, telling him he would “never be welcome here” and saying Weiss is “murdering” the legendary news program.

Pelley joins a growing list of 60 Minutes staff pushed out under Weiss, a former anti-woke opinion columnist with no TV experience installed by Paramount Skydance CEO and Trump-friendly billionaire David Ellison.

On Thursday, Weiss fired correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, along with executive producer Tanya Simon, who spent nearly 30 years with the show, in what Pelley called “Black Thursday” during his confrontation with Bilton.

On Tuesday afternoon, Pelley, 68, met with CBS News leadership in an effort to get things back on track, Puck’s Dylan Byers reports.

But the two sides could not find “common ground,” according to Byers.

Weiss and Bilton attended the meeting along with CBS News president Tom Cibrowski and an HR representative, a source told CNN. The meeting concluded without a clear path forward, the outlet reports.

At one point during the heated exchange, Weiss’ deputy Charles Forelle interrupted to tell Pelley he was being “rude,” according to Status.

“This is not actually productive,” Forelle said. “This is not an interview.”

“It’s working for me,” replied Pelley, who has been with 60 Minutes since 2004 and is the most-awarded correspondent in the show’s history, according to TheWrap.

Just 15 minutes into the meeting, during which Pelley told Bilton that he had “slender qualifications for this job,” the new boss left the room, upon which the 60 Minutes staff reportedly broke into applause for Pelley.

But despite the newsroom’s apparent doubts about Bilton, a tech journalist with no TV experience, Weiss seems determined to keep Bilton in place.

Bilton held a round of one-on-one meetings with 60 Minutes staff on Tuesday, NBC News reported.

A former 60 Minutes veteran who said they spoke with multiple current staffers told NBC News that the atmosphere was “funereal” Tuesday.

“It’s devastating,” the veteran said.

Only three reporters—Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim—remain on staff as the show prepares for its 59th season on air.

Anderson Cooper’s final segment after nearly 20 years on 60 Minutes aired in May, after leaving the show voluntarily.

CNN’s Media Analyst Brian Stelter said Pelley’s firing adds to a dramatic environment at the network.