Former CBS News reporter Scott Pelley told his side of the story of how he was fired after speaking out against the new management in a staff meeting and how he thinks the new owners ad management of CBS don’t understand how important legacy media establishments like “60 Minutes” are for the country, and for the people who work there. “No executive at CBS News, our editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, coming over to 60 Minutes to explain, to talk with us, to sit with us,” Pelley said, telling the story of the meeting where the clash between a traditional media giant and an attempt at a new model took place. “That’s a family at 60 Minutes. My colleagues and I have worked together 10, 20, 30 years. We travel together. We dine together. We go into literal combat together. My former boss and former producer, Bill Owens, saved my life in a firefight in Iraq,” he said. “They’d put out a big spread of bagels like we were all going to feel better.” “I’m waiting to see who comes in, and it’s Nick Bilton and one of Bari’s deputies. No Bari. People are a little shocked by this,” he said. “As we’re standing in there, Nick makes his way to the front of the room and does something absolutely jaw-dropping to me. He pulls out his phone and begins reading a statement off his phone in a room full of 50 heartbroken people. The callousness, the tone-deafness of that – you could hear the groan in the room when that happened.” “It’s a very loving and empathetic organization, and we were met with cold, callous indifference to what anyone thought,” Pelley said. “I’m the only correspondent there, which surprised me. And I looked around at my friends and colleagues in the room and realized I was the senior person,” he said. “Only I could do it. None of them could be asked to take that risk.” “There are people in that room who go to war zones when they are pregnant,” Pelley said. “Newsrooms are sort of like the military or the police or the beautiful people at the FDNY down the street.” “It is a life-threatening job in many instances, and very strong bonds, very emotional bonds are found or are developed in that kind of setting,” he said, also telling a story about one time someone got a paper cut in a meeting after Mike Wallace threw a script. And to have people running CBS News who don’t know that, have never felt that, and don’t understand it is a tragedy I never expected to see,” Pelley said.

SCOTT PELLEY: One-third of our correspondents have been fired. And at the same moment that that happens, we are informed of our new executive producer. His name is Nick Bilton. I’m sure he must be a wonderful man, but no one had ever heard of him. He has zero experience in television news and no experience in management. So imagine how we feel when someone like that comes into a shop like “60 Minutes.” … Shock, dismay, impossible to believe, searching desperately for an explanation, knowing that an explanation would be forthcoming and then not seeing that. No executive at CBS News, our editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, coming over to 60 Minutes to explain, to talk with us, to sit with us. That’s a family at 60 Minutes. My colleagues and I have worked together 10, 20, 30 years. We travel together. We dine together. We go into literal combat together. My former boss and former producer, Bill Owens, saved my life in a firefight in Iraq. So, Lulu, these bonds are pretty tight. And when somebody wipes out, murders, a large number of your family members, people are hurt and shocked, in disbelief, and just desperate for some explanation. And as you and I sit here today, there still has been none. LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: CBS leadership says that they tried to get in touch with you to talk about all of those changes before Bilton’s first day, and you didn’t speak to them. Why not? SCOTT PELLEY: I’m almost 69 years old, and if I’ve learned one thing in life, it is not to reflexively react when you feel that way. And I thought, you know, I’m going to give it a day or something. I’m too emotionally wrought up. I’m going to say the wrong thing. I’m not going to hear what they have to say. This isn’t the moment. It was incredible to me that they did reach out to talk to me after wiping all these people out. I mean, within hours. So, we had a baby shower at the house, and we got through the weekend. And I learned that Nick Bilton was going to speak to the 60 Minutes staff on that next Monday morning. My wife and I had a long-planned hiking trip in the Canadian Rockies planned, and I wasn’t going to be able to be at the meeting. And she and I talked about it, realized that this was an existential moment for 60 Minutes, so we canceled the vacation so I could be there. And that was the first time that I had an opportunity to meet Nick Bilton. LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: At that meeting, you spoke up very forcefully. You asked him why he’d taken the job knowing – and this is a quote – that you will never be welcome here. Why did you decide to have that first interaction with your new boss in public and not behind closed doors? SCOTT PELLEY: It wasn’t in public. It was behind closed doors. I was with my family in a closed room. None of this was meant to be public. But Lulu, imagine I’m walking into this room with these people who have devoted their lives to 60 Minutes. They have not received any kind of explanation. They are waiting for Bari Weiss to walk in the room in the hope that she’s going to explain why this tragedy has occurred and why it was so necessary. And I’m waiting to see who comes in, and it’s Nick Bilton and one of Bari’s deputies. No Bari. People are a little shocked by this. As we’re standing in there, Nick makes his way to the front of the room and does something absolutely jaw-dropping to me. He pulls out his phone and begins reading a statement off his phone in a room full of 50 heartbroken people. The callousness, the tone-deafness of that – you could hear the groan in the room when that happened. They’d put out a big spread of bagels like we were all going to feel better. And also, if I can give you a little bit of context, please: What had happened a couple of days before the meeting was so critical. Nick Bilton wrote an email to the staff sort of introducing himself, and it was so insulting to the staff and so insulting to the history of 60 Minutes. He told us in that email that it wasn’t 1968 anymore, and he helpfully noted that gasoline doesn’t cost 32 cents anymore, and suggested that we had all been frozen in amber in 1968 when the program first went on the air and that nothing had improved. And he said in his email that it was, quote, strange, end quote, that 60 Minutes is only on the air at 7:00 Eastern time on Sunday once a week, when we’ve been on the air 24/7 globally online for well over a decade. It betrayed the fact that Nick Bilton didn’t know anything about us, didn’t know anything about our culture, and yet was being imposed on us as our new executive producer, our new leader. So, people read that memo. It’s very concerning. It’s heartbreaking. It’s hard to compare this to anything other than something that actually could happen to your family. It’s a very loving and empathetic organization, and we were met with cold, callous indifference to what anyone thought. LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: Why did you feel that you were the person that needed to get the answers to the questions that you had and everyone had at that meeting? Why did you feel compelled to speak up? SCOTT PELLEY: It was fate. First of all, our entire senior staff had been wiped out. They’re not there. I looked around the room. I’m the only correspondent there, which surprised me very much. I learned that my colleagues were out shooting stories, as they should be in the month of June. But I’m the only correspondent there, which surprised me. And I looked around at my friends and colleagues in the room and realized I was the senior person. Only I could do it. None of them could be asked to take that risk. So when I saw Nick Bilton’s email and then saw him reading to my brokenhearted people off his phone, I felt that somebody had to stand up for the broadcast. Not just the broadcast, but the people. There are people in that room who go to war zones when they are pregnant. Newsrooms are sort of like the military or the police or the beautiful people at the FDNY down the street. It is a life-threatening job in many instances, and very strong bonds, very emotional bonds are found or are developed in that kind of setting. And to have people running CBS News who don’t know that, have never felt that, and don’t understand it is a tragedy I never expected to see. LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: You know, Bari Weiss came into the job with a mandate to evolve and modernize CBS News, to reinvent legacy media. … SCOTT PELLEY: One of the things Nick Bilton said in that ill-fated email to the staff was that he was excited to tell – I’m paraphrasing here – he was excited to tell the staff about the new crop of correspondents. And when I saw that, I thought, Okay, they’re going to fire all of us eventually. That’s the plan. He put it in writing for all of us to see. And so that’s why I use these, admittedly for a journalist, hyperbolic terms. They capture the scale of what happened. LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: You then do have a meeting with CBS leadership after this very contentious interaction. Can you tell me about that meeting and if you were, at that point, going in expecting to be fired? SCOTT PELLEY: Oh, gosh. Furthest thing from my mind. It hadn’t occurred to me. The president of CBS News, Tom [unclear], sent me a note and said, Can you come by and talk to us? And I said, Absolutely. I scheduled about an hour on my calendar for the meeting. I didn’t know who was going to be there in the meeting. So, I walk in the door, and I see Bari Weiss is sitting in there, and I think, This is terrific of her. She’s come to this meeting, and now I’m going to be able to ask her these questions. She’s going to be able to explain what happened. LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: But it really didn’t occur to you that you could be fired after so many of your colleagues had been let go, after you’d had this very contentious interaction with your new boss? SCOTT PELLEY: You know, some reporter I turned out to be. I just didn’t connect the dots. I mean, was this meeting contentious? Yes. But 60 Minutes is known for two things: a ticking stopwatch and hard questions. And we ask ourselves those hard questions in the shop because they sharpen us and make us better. There was a screening once with Mike Wallace, and Mike and the executive producer and founder of 60 Minutes, Don Hewitt, got into a big argument about a script. Wallace jumps up in the middle of the screening, throws his script up in the air, and yells at Don, Well, then you write the effing thing. One of those pieces of paper comes down and slices an associate producer across the face. He’s bleeding now. He’s got a paper cut on his face. That was about a story.

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