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CBS News fired veteran journalist and anchor Scott Pelley yesterday. They did so today after he spoke out at a contentious staff meeting. He accused Bari Weiss, the network’s editor in chief, of “murdering” 60 MInutes.
From a report in the NY Times:
At the Monday staff meeting, which Weiss did not attend, Pelley said that Weiss had been “brought in to kill” the long-running Sunday program, “and she’s been doing exactly that.” He told Nick Bilton, the new Executive Producer, who has never worked in broadcast news, that he had “slender qualifications for this job.”
Bilton said he did not have plans to change 60 Minutes, but “warned that the broadcast television industry that incubated 60 Minutes would soon be obsolete. “Broadcast is an ice cube that is melting, OK?” Bilton said, saying the show had to adapt. “Bari loves this institution. She loves ’60 Minutes.’”
At that, Mr. Pelley interrupted.
“She is murdering 60 Minutes, she does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.”
Maybe the format of nightly news is no longer relavent, as I wonder how many people watch the weekday news wrap-ups that networks put out. Perhaps more than I realize, but they are are no longer the nightly must-see shows that we remember from before the internet. Certainly from my youth.
But 60 Minutes is something unique. It has never been nightly summary of news. Pelley, with CBS since 1989 had been a correspondant for the show for years, and it has been an important investigative television show since its inception.
There have been a lot of firings at CBS News and 60 Minutes in recent weeks, and Pelley’s words at the meeting were certain to get him fired. I can imagine he knew that and planned to go out with a purpose and with class.
Journalism is under attack. Trump has gutted the powerful institution that was CBS News and replaced those in charge with inexperienced people. My only hope is that once Trump is gone, the ground breaking CBS News and award winning 60 Minutes can be rebuilt. But because of the environment for legacy media as it exists now, I worry that that’s not possible.
I applaud Pelley for being loud.
I have been in journalism all my professional life. I grew up on journalism, living in Washington DC during the Watergate era, the Vietnam War, assassinations, Nixon’s resignation, Civil Rights, the Women’s Movement. Writers, photographers, reporters, cartoonists, anchors, photographers at their host newspapers and magazines, while not perfect, kept an eye on the world and kept leaders in check. My father was a physician, but he was close friends with David Brinkley, the co-anchor on NBC of the Huntley Brinkley Report. I felt close to journalism from when I first watched the Cuban Missile Crisis on our paneled, stand-alone television.
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I believe cartoons are journalism, at least the kind I do. They reflect what’s going on in our world and the culture. The poke at people in charge. They are at risk of being irrelevant now.
I worked at CBS News from 2016-2021 as Resident Cartoonist for CBS This Morning. The show was a serious news show, although not without fun guests from film and publishing. I live-drew the guests, the hosts, and was sent on assignment to draw political and cultural events—the White House, The DNC, Grammys, Oscars, and even Yankee Stadium and more. Unfortunately, the combination of the pandemic and the sexual harassment by the show’s host Charlie Rose of several women (not myself), and similar behavior by Les Moonves (CBS CEO), CBS went into a nose dive. Those who had hired me, my champions (Head David Rhodes, Executive Producer Ryan Kadro and Producer Kevin Prince) left for greener pastures, and I was no longer a part of the show.
While at CBS News, I met so many amazing people, one of whom was Scott Pelley. Forgive me for posting the photos below: I was genuinely star struck throughout those years I worked at CBS News. You can see it in my face.
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