60 Minutes in the age of Trump 2.0

[FiveNews 483]

And.....scene for CBS News! That is a wrap! CBS will still have viewers for NFL and other big events. Today's firing of Scott Pelley is the proverbial nail in the coffin. Walter Cronkite himself could come back from the dead and viewers wouldn't watch.

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

Your turn, Lesley Stahl....
 

I can't ever recall such a disastrous and destructive tenure of a news organization than what Bari Weiss has done to CBS News.  The only thing that seems to come close is when Joel Cheatwood took over WMAQ in Chicago....and Carol Marin and Ron Magers resigned in protest.

In fact, this eventually led Carol Marin over to WBBM, and even did some work at 60 Minutes with her ties to CBS at the time.

[EVVTV12 204]

This photo was taken at the start of Season 58 in the fall of 2025. 60 Minutes has never seen this type of downfall this fast. 

[AKA 73]

Scott Pelley’s statement in full:
 
There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.
 
The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58th season, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS. 
 
“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.
 
The waste is heartbreaking.
 
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. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.
 
For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all. 
 
At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.
 
I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.
 
Scott Pelley

Edited yesterday at 04:29 AM by AKA

[brianpr3 201]

3 hours ago, FiveNews said:

And.....scene for CBS News! That is a wrap! CBS will still have viewers for NFL and other big events. Today's firing of Scott Pelley is the proverbial nail in the coffin. Walter Cronkite himself could come back from the dead and viewers wouldn't watch.

Well a Wiseman once said it before but we will say it again,

Goodnight and good luck mo*********rs

[AKA 73]

Another statement from Scott Pelley:

 

I'm saddened to see the transcript of the CBS News morning editorial meeting.

 

Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true. In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to "find a way back," as Weiss said in the editorial meeting. At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution. Weiss and Tom Cibrowski were openly hostile from the start. "Firing" was raised by Cibrowski in the first 15 seconds. No CBS executive, at any time, suggested "a way back." To say so now is disingenuous. And they know it.

 

In fact, Weiss, Cibrowski and Nick Bilton refused to answer my questions. I asked Weiss a number of questions about why she fired the entire senior staff of 60 Minutes a few days before and without cause.

 

"I'm not answering that question," she said.

 

I asked why she did not come to 60 Minutes' offices to explain her actions.

 

"I'm not answering that question."

 

Why did she fire 60 Minutes Executive Producer Tanya Simon?

 

"I'm not answering that question."

 

Why fire correspondent Cecilia Vega?

 

"I'm not answering that question."

 

Why fire correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi?

 

"I'm not answering that question."

 

Throughout the meeting, the CBS executives were abrupt, dismissive and uninterested in dialogue.

 

Suddenly, and to my surprise, Cibrowski declared, "This conversation is over!"

 

"Why?" I asked. "I'm happy to answer your questions."

 

"This conversation is over!" Cibrowski repeated, raising his voice and standing to show me the door.

 

"I'm happy to keep talking," I added.

 

No constructive dialogue was allowed by the CBS executives at any point. I was stonewalled for about 10 minutes and then, for no apparent reason, "This conversation is over."

 

I am pained that the staff of CBS News was misled in the Wednesday morning conference call. These executives cannot gain the trust of the staff with lies. This is antithetical to everything we stand for and reveals contempt for what journalists do.

[MediaZone4K 2664]

It's painful to see arguably the best but most struggling network news organization in this country reduced to a heaping pile of of .

 

What is the goal here? I know the rightward turn is to appease the Trump administration, but doesn't it affect their bottom line if their news department loses ratings???  

 

Are are any conservatives actually turning CBS News----are they aware of the editorial change?

 

It doesn't make sense to destroy your base viewership to chase an audience you probably won't get.

 

It's one thing to mess with the long time failure CBS Evening News but it's another to  play with their bread and butter---60 Minutes, and (not yet) Sunday Morning.

Edited yesterday at 08:11 PM by MediaZone4K

[MorningNews 1711]

2 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

It's painful to see arguably the best but most struggling network news organization in this country reduced to a heaping pile of of .

 

What is the goal here? I know the rightward turn is to appease the Trump administration, but doesn't it affect their bottom line if their news department loses ratings???  

 

Are are any conservatives actually turning CBS News----are they aware of the editorial change?

 

It doesn't make sense to destroy your base viewership to chase an audience you probably won't get.

 

It's one thing to mess with the long time failure CBS Evening News but it's another to  play with their bread and butter---60 Minutes, and (not yet) Sunday Morning.

It’s not necessarily about building a viewership base. They want the property to destroy the institutions. 

[EVVTV12 204]

How many newsmagazines have the other networks tired over the years? NBC had many before Dateline worked. ABC had many before 20/20 worked, after the first episode almost got the series cancelled. Fox I think has tired, but never really lasted more than one year. Heck, CBS even tired to make another version of 60 Minutes and couldn’t. Outside of PBS Frontline, which is more long form investigative journalism, 60 Minutes has been the one newsmagazine that has worked, never changed the format, and has had a major impact on journalism since the start of TV. Now they have had more EPs in the past 58 weeks than in the 58 years it has been on the air. 

[MediaZone4K 2664]

1 hour ago, MorningNews said:

It’s not necessarily about building a viewership base. They want the property to destroy the institutions. 

I suppose this is a question for the Ellisons--- but what financial sense does it make for Skydance to destroy its own entity?

 

Steve Kroft speaking out on PBS Newshour.

 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by MediaZone4K

[Glimmer 340]

In what is either CBS News going rogue or trying to save face (or both?), CBS Evening News did a largely straightforward report of Pelley’s firing complete with a tribute to him 

 

[NYNewsCoverage 337]

2 hours ago, Glimmer said:

In what is either CBS News going rogue or trying to save face (or both?), CBS Evening News did a largely straightforward report of Pelley’s firing complete with a tribute to him 

 

I'm definitely surprised to see this, I figured CBS would try to somehow ignore the story or not report on it (they even mentioned pelley's part about injecting falsehoods, so now every CBS viewer will be aware of this and somehow breathe a sigh of relief?). Good for Tony for giving (what seemed like) a genuine heartfelt tribute. I'd doubt it, but Is it possible they did this behind Bari Weiss's back? I would have thought since he was fired they would be given some order to not mention him. Heck, Colbert made 1 joke about CBS News and the morning crew was ordered to not report on his last show... 

 

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv/articles/cbs-news-prez-ordered-morning-show-to-ignore-colberts-finale-because-of-late-shows-unprofessional-shot-at-tony-dokoupil-report-164619540.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKQ4ajJfqBOLiPKIhSZENwmv-k0tsmkxIdS0fvaZ5lZ9ncHDPdsKx1UuaWUpqf2sPoz8XXRfaUh15ecWXTdqQNhHc7Rav4qYCEzWtnUxWfRAvunZGuMQbejir2FHnYBVv1Ln6TRDiQ03yGQdaj8Wvf59JXcd4pCTHjqhjWnCWhxY 

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

16 hours ago, EVVTV12 said:

 Heck, CBS even tired to make another version of 60 Minutes and couldn’t. 

60 Minutes II was doomed because of their unverified and later debunked report on Dubya's military service.  It cost producer Mary Mapes her job and led to the removal of Dan Rather from the Evening News and later the network itself.

 

Today, a story like this may as well go on as planned because Bari Weiss and Skydance aren't willing to do the proper safeguards to verify the authenticity of their sources, putting their very credibility in question. 

[HanSolo 469]

31 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

60 Minutes II was doomed because of their unverified and later debunked report on Dubya's military service.  It cost producer Mary Mapes her job and led to the removal of Dan Rather from the Evening News and later the network itself.

 

Today, a story like this may as well go on as planned because Bari Weiss and Skydance aren't willing to do the proper safeguards to verify the authenticity of their sources, putting their very credibility in question. 

This runs far deeper than lax safeguards or verification. Those are undeniably bad, but we’ve crossed a point of no return. There’s a difference between not properly vetting a package and thus getting burned vs. the bosses ordering someone to willfully, purposefully tell lies.

 

Nothing in Scott Pelley’s history gives me cause to believe he’s not being accurate about what transpired. There is no salvaging an operation that is as deeply damaged as what he lays out. 

 

[mre29 1967]

Meanwhile, CBS has had to refute a really dumb rumor...that it was going to offer Joe Rogan a position on 60 Minutes as a replacement for Anderson Cooper.

 

https://thedesk.net/2026/06/cbs-no-plans-to-offer-joe-rogan-spot-on-60-minutes/