Bari Weiss Addresses CBS Staff After Firing of Scott Pelley: ‘The Path He Chose’

(Sipa via AP Images)

CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss reportedly addressed the firing of longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley during a Wednesday morning call, saying it was the “path he chose.”

Pelley was fired from 60 Minutes on Tuesday just hours after a heated meeting, where the correspondent aired his grievances with the network’s new leadership (Weiss took over in October of last year).

Pelley blasted Weiss and new 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton during the meeting, and reportedly “pointed out” that Bilton has “no relevant experience to helm television’s most prestigious news program.”

The Guardian’s Jeremy Barr first reported on a Wednesday morning staff call in which Weiss addressed Pelley’s firing.

“We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose,” Weiss said.

Check out the full comments below:

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. 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.

We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose. That unfortunate outcome does not discount from the amazing contributions and work that Scott Pelley has done for CBS and for 60 Minutes over the course of his career.

According to Barr, Weiss also “listed” stories Pelley had been behind in the last season of the show, praising them as “unbelievable stories.” Pelley spent more than 20 years at 60 Minutes.

In a letter obtained by Mediaite from Bilton to Pelley, Bilton accused the correspondent of hijacking his meeting and disparaging him in front of staff.

“Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” he wrote. “Yesterday’s performative display of hostility enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress.”

Pelley has remained defiant since the firing, claiming Weiss had no answers for recent firings. He also claimed in a statement that he was asked to “inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.”

“I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion — a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return,” he wrote.

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