The situation at CBS took a dramatic turn when renowned 60 Minutes journalist Scott Pelley was dismissed by the network’s new power duo, Bari Weiss and Nick Bilton. Pelley was reportedly let go for voicing concerns about CBS’s leadership, which he felt was filled with sycophants. In a surprising move, correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim chose to remain with the show, asserting in a staff memo their commitment to preventing its collapse. “We don’t want to see 60 Minutes die,” they stated, echoing a sentiment akin to the characters in Weekend at Bernie’s.
The state of the media industry is not just alarming; it’s in disarray.
The trio of remaining correspondents expressed their dismay over recent terminations, their tone reminiscent of Senator Susan Collins’ habitual “deep concern” over political turmoil. They emphasized, “Newsrooms are not supposed to be run like dictatorships,” a sentiment hard to argue with. A well-functioning newsroom should elevate its journalists during triumphs and support them through challenges. Anything less is a disservice to the profession.
Pelley’s protest against what he deemed a dictatorial atmosphere was highlighted when he confronted management, accusing editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of “destroying 60 Minutes.” Weiss, already controversial in journalistic circles, seemed to share the spotlight, allowing newly appointed executive producer Nick Bilton to emerge as a focal point of criticism.
Best known for his book Hatching Twitter, Bilton has a background that includes roles at The New York Times and Vanity Fair, as well as experience as a screenwriter. His foray into traditional broadcast journalism began only when Weiss brought him to 60 Minutes. Despite his credentials, Bilton’s lack of direct experience in broadcasting became glaringly evident in his awkward termination letter to Pelley.
Respect cannot be commanded simply by holding a title—an error Bilton seems to have made. His letter to Pelley was filled with excessive flattery and desperation, evoking secondhand embarrassment. Bilton complained about Pelley’s “remarkable incivility and contempt,” suggesting he felt “ambushed.” Such complaints fall flat in the demanding environment of a newsroom, where challenging questions should be expected and addressed with confidence.
The budding incompetence on the front lines at CBS is definitely a trickle-down situation. If Nick Bilton is a rotten egg, it’s because he ladders up to even bigger ones — like a matryoshka doll of failure whose final form is David Ellison, son of Larry Ellison and CEO of CBS parent Paramount Skydance. (Ellison reportedly signed off on Pelley’s firing.) This family is so bad it makes me wistful about the old-fashioned mendacity of the Murdochs.
Disclosure: James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, just bought half of our parent company, Vox Media. Which brings me to the real point — we are in big, big trouble if media continues to be consolidated by an extremely small and powerful group of oligarchs. Especially when they cozy up to an administration that favors loyalty and patronage over things like free speech. ABC and Disney are fighting back, for now, but CBS has totally caved. There’s no good explanation for why the network canned Stephen Colbert, who is one of the kindest and most profitable people in television, unless you consider that his bosses are simply sucking up to Donald Trump. By the way, that’s a very stupid long-term strategy, but maybe these guys are only looking at how much loot they can get in next few years before this empire of incompetence crumbles. Or maybe they just want to get past the Warner Bros. acquisition.
Pelley didn’t mince words in a statement he posted after his firing. He claims the new owner of the network is squandering the legacy of 60 Minutes “apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.” Far more damning: Pelley says management instructed him to “inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story,” and to “include assertions that are unverified.” Curiously, none of this is addressed in leadership’s memos to CBS staff.
This all comes as broadcast media is on life support nationwide. Even local channels are becoming creepy echo chambers for Trumpian propaganda, especially thanks to the Nexstar-Tegna deal — something that was enabled by an FCC that’s completely lost the plot. You know what’s even worse than corporate media consolidation? Government speech regulation. The FCC is now very happy to regulate speech as long as it’s meant to intimidate speakers who aren’t favored by the Trump administration.
Institutions like The Late Show and 60 Minutes are no longer untouchable. That should frighten every single American. If scale and profit can’t save our most powerful voices, what happens to the rest of us?
