Fired 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley has accused CBS News boss Bari Weiss of lying to her staff.
In a bombshell new statement, Pelley alleges that the MAGA-curious Free Press founder spread “lies” during a Wednesday morning editorial meeting with her claim that network brass attempted to “find a way back” with him when, in reality, there were no such discussions.
“I’m saddened to see the transcript of the CBS News morning editorial meeting,” Pelley said in a statement obtained by The New York Times. “Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true.”
Pelley, 68, claims that he was stonewalled during a Tuesday meeting with network leadership in which he tried to have an honest discussion with Weiss, 42, and others.
“In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to ‘find a way back,’ as Weiss said in the editorial meeting,” Pelley said. “At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution.”
Pelley’s statement came shortly after Weiss addressed CBS News staff to discuss the turmoil at 60 Minutes, which is America’s top-rated and most prestigious newsmagazine.
“I hope I speak, I know I speak for myself, and I hope I speak for everyone here when I say that I’m only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect,” Weiss told CBS staff on Wednesday morning. “We cannot do our work without it. That foundation was broken on Monday, and despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back, unfortunately, we weren’t able to do so, and so we had to part ways.”
She added, “We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose.”
Pelley, who has been at CBS since 1989 and anchored the CBS Evening News for six years, said that is not how things went down.
Rather, he alleged that Weiss and CBS News executive editor Tom Cibrowski were “openly hostile from the start” of the meeting and refused to answer why 60 Minutes staff, including executive producer Tanya Simon, were abruptly fired days prior.
After his questions went unanswered, Pelley claims that Cibrowski “suddenly” declared the meeting was done, raising his voice to say, “This conversation is over.”
CBS News did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Pelley’s claims.
Pelley, whose criticism Monday of Weiss’ moves at 60 Minutes appear to have directly led to his firing, said the lies must stop if CBS leadership wants the current staff to trust them.
“I am pained that the staff of CBS News was misled in the Wednesday morning conference call,” he concluded in his statement. “These executives cannot gain the trust of the staff with lies. This is antithetical to everything we stand for an reveals contempt for what journalists do.”
