In an emotional hour-long interview (video below) with the New York Times, Scott Pelley shares what it was like being fired, and the pressure he felt covering Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota.
Pelley sat down with Lulu Garcia-Navarrao with the New York Times, explaining the pressure he felt from the new CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weis while covering the ICE operation. He also talked about the protester's response as well as the shooting death of both Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
He said he was asked to make the protesters look more violent, and to insinuate that Good's vehicle was trying to run over an agent. "The story was not out of balance," said Pelley. "It's not out of balance, but there was a thumb on the scale to push the balance a little further in another direction."
He said Weis told him how he should write the story, something he had never experienced in his time with CBS.
"Can we make the protesters look more violent? Now I'm paraphrasing, I don't have the quote, but that's what was communicated to me," Pelley told the NY Times. "And the other thing was Renee Good's car. You need to describe her as driving toward the officer."
Pelley said they had already reviewed hours of footage, but he told his producers to comb through the video again to make sure they didn't miss anything. They found nothing that changed the story, and nothing the proves Good had turned toward the ICE agent.
"We were being told to write a version of events that conflicted with the video account," says Pelley. "I couldn't understand that."
Pelley worked at the network for 37 years, including as White House correspondent, anchor of the “CBS Evening News” and “60 Minutes” correspondent. He was fired after Weis had let go of other colleagues, including two correspondents and the show's executive producer, despite the show coming off a year where ratings and digital reach grew dramatically. He called the show's staff a family, with the time, travel and intense situations they share together coving stories across the globe.
Weis hired Nick Bilton, whom Pelley clashed with in a staff meeting claiming he had no television experience, and no traditional newsroom experience. Bilton came from the NY Times where he specialized in tech and society stories. Pelley also detailed an email from Bilton before that meeting to staff he described as insulting, and says emotional meetings and interactions were nothing new at "60 Minutes."
Pelley went on to talk about being called into a meeting after his interaction with Bilton, involving both Weis and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski. Pelley said he thought that meeting would be "a way forward.:. But instead he left that meeting, where his questions about previous firings were stonewalled, knowing he was likely to be fired. Pelley said it was hostile from the start.
Pelley and others are accusing Weis of editorial interference and bias, charges that CBS News and Weis deny. Pelley has gone so far as saying Weis is "murdering the show," which has been on CBS since 1968 and has long been thought of as one of TV's highest standards of news and journalism.
In a memo announcing changes to "60 Minutes," Weiss and Cibrowski said their goal was “building a show that thrives in the 21st century.”
“That requires a new approach,” they wrote, defining that approach as “expanding ‘60 Minutes’ beyond a one-hour television broadcast, deepening its role across CBS News, and holding everything we produce to the ambition, fairness, and fearlessness that have defined ‘60 Minutes’ at its best.”
Bilton, they said, “embodies the energy and ambition that animated the founders of the show. We cannot imagine a better fit.”
Pelley says CBS editor-in-chief told him to find "more violent" protesters in Minneapolis
Pelley says CBS editor-in-chief told him to find "more violent" protesters in Minneapolis
