I love Scott Pelley.
He’s the real life “Jim Dial” of “Murphy Brown,” the erudite and seasoned veteran reporter at “60 Minutes.”
So, of course, today he picked a fight with the new executive producer of the news magazine during a get to know you meeting.
The New York Times and others are reporting that Pelley told Nick Bilton in front of the whole staff: “[Bari Weiss is murdering 60 Minutes.”
You have to love it. Weiss didn’t even come to the meeting.
Pelley and the staff are angry that last week Weiss fired Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, two veteran correspondents, because they questioned Weiss’s decisions.
Neither Weiss nor Bilton have any experience in broadcast television. Bilton is a freelance writer who also worked on scripts for the failed HBO fiction series, “The Idol.”
Pelley also said:
“She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.”
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?”
Pelley doesn’t care if he’s fired for insubordination, obviously. Why should he? Weiss and Bilton should not be the reward for four decades of superior journalism.
Pelley is right about the Evening News. Weiss has managed to kill it. The ratings have never been lower. Anchor Tony Dokoupil has become her puppet, as is she the hatchet man for the new CBS owners, David and Larry Ellison. They are friends and associates of Donald Trump.
But isn’t this all a set up? Trump sued “60 Minutes” and hates a free press. His heart lies with Fox News, News Nation, and OAN because they represent his cruel ideology.
Yesterday Maria Bartiromo on Fox News went out of her way to agree with Scott Bessent that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security should be cut.
Bartiromo and husband Jonathan Steinberg are worth about $300 million. She’s a total fraud, completely insincere. If there’s a revolution, she should be among the first to go.
As for Pelley, much applause came in the room after Bilton left. CBS News is going to have to a long, dark summer.
