Former "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley accused CBS News chief Bari Weiss of tilting the network's news coverage in favor of the Trump administration.
The accusation came in an interview published by The New York Times on Sunday, June 7, 2026.
>>> Tim Hofman Says Final Goodbye to Cancer Patient Marit on Over Mijn Lijk
Pelley was terminated on Tuesday following a heated staff meeting.
He claimed that Weiss pressured production teams to alter a February 1 report concerning a federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis where two protesters were killed.
The dispute centers on allegations of political influence within CBS News after the acquisition of its parent company, Paramount, by Skydance Media.
Skydance CEO David Ellison is a close ally of President Donald Trump.
"CBS News is on fire," Pelley said.
Pelley stated that leadership at the network has lost its way after a series of high-profile firings that disrupted the long-standing news magazine program.
"My hope is that the leadership of Paramount will say to themselves, this isn’t working," he said.
The veteran journalist claimed that the editorial notes received from management directly mirrored how the White House chose to frame the civil unrest.
He said it was "not any kind of political influence. The problem was the incompetence."
According to Pelley, the network management team lacked the necessary background required to navigate a major television news division.
He said he "was completely blindsided by this."
Pelley noted that executive producer Tanya Simon was unexpectedly forced out alongside multiple top producers and correspondents in late May.
An anonymous source close to Weiss argued that "60 Minutes — and its DNA of hard-hitting interviews, probing investigations, deep journalism — is built to survive a changing media landscape."
The management team argued that the internal structural shakeup was essential to modernize the legacy broadcast program for streaming audiences.
Pelley called it "unheard-of in broadcast television."
Pelley defended the program's performance by citing a nine percent increase in ratings during the previous television season.
"We started our first ’60 Minutes’ online show, ‘60 Minutes Overtime,’ in 2010," he said.
He rejected claims that the team resisted digital advancement, pointing out their active presence across multiple digital media platforms.
"I shoot TikTok verticals, or I used to shoot TikTok verticals on every assignment. We’re there.
We’re everywhere," Pelley said.
Pelley further argued that the newly appointed executive leadership lacked the fundamental credentials to run a broadcast network of this scale.
He described Weiss as "a lovely person. And her Free Press organization that she founded has been very successful, she’s proven that.
Great for her. But television’s not her thing."
He expressed that bringing an external ideological agenda into the traditional newsroom disrupted the standard operating procedures of the organization.
"She brings an ideology into CBS News where that is just anathema. It’s a terrible fit," Pelley said.
Pelley claimed that the incoming management did not comprehend the functional mechanics or daily operations of television journalism.
"She doesn’t know television, she doesn’t understand how it works. She doesn’t have management experience for a large organization like CBS News," he said.
He compared the current executive appointment to asking an untrained individual to operate a commercial airliner without prior technical training.
"This is like somebody walking up to me and saying, ‘There’s a 747, there are 400 people on it, we need you to fly it to Paris.’
I’m going to decline because I don’t have a clue," Pelley said.
>>> Fargo Firefighters Extinguish House Fire Caused by Overheated Electronic Device
Pelley detailed that specific directives were given to alter facts regarding the actions of federal officers during the Minneapolis protests.
"Calls grow for independent probe into Minneapolis shootings," he said.
According to Pelley, specific email directives requested that the visual presentation of the demonstrators be modified before airtime.
"Can we make the protesters look more violent?" he quoted.
Pelley noted that the editorial notes also requested a change to the description of how motorist Renee Good died during the law enforcement operation.
"And the other thing, Renee Good’s car. You need to describe her as driving toward the officer," he said.
Pelley stated that he and his team reviewed the available video evidence and chose to reject the requested changes because the footage did not support that narrative.
"New management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story," he said.
A network representative countered these claims, stating that the editorial feedback was part of standard newsroom collaboration to ensure balanced reporting.
The representative said the feedback "had no political motivation and were proposed solely to make the piece as strong, fair, and accurate as possible."
The network stated that editorial back-and-forth is common and that not all proposed points are integrated into a final broadcast.
"As is frequently the case in any newsroom that operates with collaboration, not everything she raised made it into the final piece," a CBS News spokesperson said.
Pelley asserted that the pressure felt different from standard editorial oversight due to the ongoing corporate ties to the administration.
"My impression at the time was that she was putting a thumb on the scale on behalf of the administration," he said.
He linked the internal friction to a broader corporate strategy, referencing a July 2025 legal settlement between Paramount and Trump.
"There was a thumb on the scale for the president’s version of events that I felt was a level of political influence that I had never seen in 37 years at CBS News," Pelley said.
Pelley described confronting the newly installed executive producer Nick Bilton during a staff meeting regarding upcoming changes to the correspondent lineup.
"And when I saw that, I thought, ‘They’re going to fire all of us, eventually,’" he said.
Bilton subsequently terminated Pelley, citing a lack of collaboration and open hostility toward the new leadership team.
Bilton said Pelley had "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 stated that the sudden departure of anchor Anderson Cooper also contributed to the sudden ouster of executive producer Tanya Simon.
"My understanding from people directly involved in that interaction is that Bari Weiss was quite livid that Anderson Cooper was allowed to say those things and that she, Bari, was not consulted beforehand, which in our normal course of business would not have been done anyway," Pelley said.
He concluded that the internal trust within the network has been deeply compromised by the rapid management restructuring.
"I believe that was part of the reason Tanya was let go," he said.
The network has denied all allegations regarding political bribes or structural appeasement linked to its regulatory corporate acquisitions.
"They don’t know what they’re doing," Pelley said.
Pelley maintained that while recovery is possible, immediate leadership adjustments are necessary to stabilize the news division.
"And there’s a subtle political bias that I’ve never seen at ‘60 Minutes’ before, or at CBS News before.
So that is my hope: a return to sanity. We can save this.
>>> Air Canada Launches Three New Long-Haul Routes in 72 Hours
It’s possible to land this plane. But right now, CBS News is on fire," he said.
