‘She’s Murdering 60 Minutes!’ Scott Pelley Reportedly Goes OFF On Bari Weiss in Fiery Closed Door Meeting

(Photo by Alberto E. Tamargo/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

Veteran anchor Scott Pelley reportedly attacked CBS editor Bari Weiss at a closed door meeting with new executive producer Nick Bilton on Monday, claiming that the network head was “murdering 60 Minutes.”

Pelley, a long time correspondent for 60 Minutes, sat down with Bilton and another executive on Monday, calling out the company for a slew of firings last week, according to The Guardian’s Jeremy Barr.

“Scott Pelley called out Bari Weiss, saying in the meeting: ‘She’s murdering 60 mins. She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that,'” Barr wrote on X.

Barr described the meeting– Bilton’s first since being appointed 60 Minutes executive producer on Thursday– as “heated,” noting that 60 Minutes producers present at the meeting “showed support” for Pelley.

The anchor also criticized Bilton himself, Puck’s Dylan Byers reported, telling him to his face that he had “scant qualifications” and asking for further details on the firings, which included Bilton’s predecessor, Tanya Simon.

“Nick suggested conversation would be better held in private, Scott countered that he’d prefer to have them in front of his colleagues,” wrote Byers of the meeting. “Nick told Scott, ‘they’re my colleagues too,’ to which Scott replied: ‘that remains to be seen.'”

Weiss has faced a slew of criticism from within and outside of CBC since she was appointed by owner David Ellison last year. 60 Minutes correspondent Cecilia Vega, also let go in Thursday’s purge, issued a scorching statement after her dismissal, describing “efforts to insert political bias” and “censorship” at the network. Long time Executive Editor Draggan Mihailovich was also fired from his post.

The firings reportedly triggered mass outrage from 60 Minutes staff. Oliver Darcy of Status reported hours after the news broke that “tears flowed openly in the newsroom.”

“They’re gutting us. It’s over. I don’t see how ‘60’ will be able to function after this,” one staffer told Status. “Goodnight and good luck, motherf**kers.”

Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who announced on Wednesday that her contract was not renewed by the network, dually slammed CBS for her removal, calling it a “deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting.” Alfonsi was at the center of one of Weiss’ first scandals at the helm of CBS when she chose to abruptly pull a 60 Minutes segment on deportations to El Salvador’s CECOT prison last year.

Weiss has also faced criticism over her initial refusal to fire the newly hired wellness guru Peter Attia over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the multiple snafus surrounding the newly hired Tony Dokoupil to anchor Evening News, and her reported choice to allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pick his interviewer when he sat down with 60 Minutes. Her time heading up the network has seen an exodus of many correspondents, including Anderson Cooper and Bill Owens. 

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