Fired 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley says CBS ordered ‘falsehoods and bias’
Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.
At a glance
- Longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley was fired by CBS News.
- Pelley accused network executives of instructing him to inject "falsehoods and bias" into his reporting.
- He also claimed that new management is sidelining the program to curry favor with the Trump administration.
Longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley has publicly accused CBS News of instructing him to inject "falsehoods and bias" into his reporting following his termination by the network.
60 has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories.
Pelley, who was fired Tuesday after clashing with new management, shared a lengthy statement on social media Wednesday. He claimed that the new owner of the network is discarding the program's legacy "to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration."
Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.
He further alleged that the new leadership has "cruelly fired" senior staff and correspondents without cause, silencing those who "stood for fairness against the forces of political bias." Pelley stated that in his own cases, he managed to ignore or refuse instructions to include unverified assertions in politically sensitive stories.
Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause.
Pelley also criticized the practice of allowing politicians to choose correspondents for interviews, calling it a departure from established norms. He concluded his statement by expressing gratitude for his 37 years at CBS and hoping for a return of "sanity, competence, and courage" to the news division.
For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.
Originally published by The Guardian. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.