Michael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin, reporting for The New York Times (gift link):
CBS News faced a fresh wave of turmoil on Monday after Scott
Pelley, the “60 Minutes” correspondent, laced into the show’s
newly hired executive producer during a staff meeting and accused
Bari Weiss, the network’s editor in chief, of “murdering” the
longstanding Sunday news program.In an extraordinary exchange, Mr. Pelley, his newscaster’s
baritone sometimes shaking in anger, told Nick Bilton, the new
executive producer, that he had “slender” qualifications for his
new job and questioned the network’s commitment to the future of
the program, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by
The New York Times.The 10 a.m. gathering, held at the program’s Midtown Manhattan
headquarters, was intended as a formal introduction to Mr. Bilton,
a tech journalist and filmmaker who was appointed last week as
part of a major shake-up at “60 Minutes.” CBS fired Tanya Simon,
the previous executive producer, and her deputy, along with Sharyn
Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, two of the show’s correspondents — an
event that Mr. Pelley referred to as “Black Thursday.”
It’s worth noting that the night before the firings, 60 Minutes won two news Emmys, and important to note that 60 Minutes’s TV ratings were up 9 percent year-over-year and digital video views doubled. In both quality and popularity, the show is thriving, not struggling. (See also: The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was, by far, the top-rated late night talk show.)
“Broadcast is an ice cube that is melting, OK?” Mr. Bilton said,
saying the show had to adapt. “Bari loves this institution,” he
added. “She loves ’60 Minutes.’”At that, Mr. Pelley interrupted.
“She is murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” the correspondent said. “She does
not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been
doing exactly that.”Mr. Pelley added: “She has no qualifications for her job; you have
slender qualifications for this job. The changes that she’s made
at the ‘Evening News’ have been catastrophic, so why should we
expect that any of this is going to be any better?”
Oof.
Oliver Darcy obtained a recording of the entire Bilton-Pelley exchange, and transcribed much of it, but it’s behind the (worth it!) Status paywall.
