Scott Pelley fired from 60 Minutes: 'Your employment is terminated with immediate effect'

WASHINGTON, DC: Veteran anchor Scott Pelley was fired by CBS News after a heated clash with network executives over sweeping cuts at ‘60 Minutes’.

The veteran correspondent publicly defended ousted staffers and blasted CBS leadership behind closed doors. His sudden removal now leaves the network’s flagship news program facing major upheaval ahead of its next season.

Scott Pelley blasts Bari Weiss

Pelley, one of the most recognizable faces in broadcast journalism, was terminated days after CBS News executives fired ‘60 Minutes’ executive producers, editors, and correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi without publicly explaining the cuts.

During a tense staff meeting on Monday with newly appointed executive editor Nick Bilton and another CBS executive, Pelley reportedly unloaded on Bari Weiss, the former opinion writer who joined CBS in October as editor-in-chief.

“She’s murdering 60 Minutes,” Pelley said, according to the Guardian. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.”

Sources told the outlet that CBS executives had tried to meet with Pelley after last week’s dismissals, but he initially refused.

Pelley later met with Weiss and other executives, where Weiss reportedly told him his conduct had crossed a line. He later informed staffers he expected to be fired.

That prediction became reality hours later.

Bilton sent Pelley a message Tuesday evening informing him he had been “terminated for cause, effectively immediately”.

“Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” Bilton wrote in the message first reported by Puck’s Dylan Byers.

Shortly after news of the firing broke, Pelley spoke to The New York Times via phone. “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.”

'60 Minutes' turmoil grows after firing

Bilton also informed ‘60 Minutes’ staff of Pelley’s departure in a separate email obtained by the Guardian.

“You should hear this from me first. We have parted ways with Scott Pelley,” Bilton wrote. “I know how much Scott meant to many of you, and I don’t say this lightly.”

He added that repeated attempts to speak privately with Pelley had failed. “This afternoon, I tried to find common ground. That was not the path Scott chose,” Bilton said.

Pelley’s firing came less than a week after he publicly praised Alfonsi at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, just hours after she revealed CBS would not renew her contract for what she described as punitive reasons.

“There have been many great 60 Minutes correspondents over the years. I see Sharyn Alfonsi in the audience,” Pelley said during the event.

He also praised scholarship recipient Santiago Campos after the student accused current CBS leadership of actions that “stain the legacy of Mike Wallace”.

The latest shake-up leaves 60 Minutes with only three full-time correspondents ahead of its 59th season this fall: Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and L Jon Wertheim.

Former 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager called Pelley “the heart and soul of 60 Minutes,” adding, “He’s the present-day Mike Wallace of the program.”

Longtime producer Rome Hartman also defended Pelley and took aim at Weiss and Bilton over the firing.

“We SHOULD wrestle over important stuff,” Hartman said in a text message. “The irony is flammable!”