Scorned Woman Pelley Shrieks Out

Adam Klasfeld @KlasfeldReports

Scott Pelley is the face of the highest-rated newsmagazine on TV, and every "60 Minutes" staffer in the room reportedly gave him a standing ovation after this exchange.

The idea that Bari Weiss can blithely fire him without also committing institutional arson is naive.

Pelley did this because he has integrity-- but also because he has power.

Does he though...?

Dylan Byers @DylanByers

#SCOOP: Scott Pelley had a meeting with CBS News leadership at 5pm ET to discuss a path forward after his protest in 60 Minutes all-hands. The two sides did not find common ground and it now seems likely he will either resign or be fired, though neither has happened yet.

He was given a standing ovation by the other communist cultists in the room, which they were eager to tell the media that they were sure Nick Bilton could hear as he was walking away.

John Ondrasik @johnondrasik

The fact that every staffer stood and applauded is further proof that 60 minutes needs a full tear down.

And now: the bitch has been fired.

And I mean fired. CBS didn't just let his contract lapse without renewal, which they were obviously already planning to do.

Fired for cause, invalidating whatever time is left on his contract, and ending their obligation to pay him under it.

Gross insubordination is almost always a cause for a firing under the terms of a contract, and CBS exercised their right to fire for that reason.

And Pelley left them no choice. But this wasn't bravery. Again, he knew he was being let go. This flounce is all advertising for his substack and podcast, which I'm sure will be fair and objective, because that's what Scott Pelley insists he is.

CBS News axed veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday night, a day after after the longtime network star blasted editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and challenged her newly installed leadership team in a heated confrontation that exposed the widening civil war inside the iconic newsmagazine.

In a letter obtained by The Post, newly appointed "60 Minutes" executive producer Nick Bilton blasted Pelley in informing him he was fired "for cause effective immediately."

"[Y]ou hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt," Bilton wrote, referring to Monday's heated face-off between the journo and his boss.

Bilton further accused Pelley of staging a "performative display of hostility" and claimed he 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."

By the way, Sex Machine Brian Stelter reported that Bilton had asked to meet with Pelley privately, before the meeting, to discuss next steps. Pelley refused to attend a private meeting, choosing instead this flouncing public tantrum.

Brian Stelter @brianstelter

Worth noting amid all the coverage of Scott Pelley's scathing criticism today: According to a person with knowledge of the matter, Bari Weiss and Nick Bilton sought out Pelley for a private meeting last week, but the longtime correspondent did not take them up on the offer to talk.

I think Pelley refused to attend that meeting because he expected they would tell him his contract was not being renewed "but we can talk about what your role will be as we wind down the time remaining on the contract."

And I have a source for that -- the source is It's F***ing Obvious, Jack! Open your ears, Jerky!

"I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama," Bilton wrote.

He went on to tell Pelley: "Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you."

At the meeting in question, Pelley told Bilton that the new leader had "slender" qualifications for the job and would "never be welcome here," sources previously told The Post.

Bilton fired back: "You are not going to intimidate me in front of this group of people."

The correspondent also accused Weiss of "murdering '60 Minutes'" and claimed she "was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that," according to sources familiar with the exchange.

The clash lasted roughly 15 minutes before Bilton ended the meeting and walked out.

The confrontation divided staffers at CBS News, with some insiders branding Pelley's behavior "bullying" and "grandstanding" -- and yet another reckoning that it was "a set-up," sources told The Post.

Nick Bilton had no choice. If an underling pulls bullshit like this, degrading you, undermining you, and attempting to pose as your superior, you have no choice but to fire him. Gross insubordination can't be tolerated in any organization, even as trivial and inconsequential one as television entertainment. (Which is all 60 Minutes is.)

And now -- He's quitting Twitter and he means it this time, guys!

He's written a long ranty entry in his Slam Book and he wants you all to read it!

Scott Pelley accused CBS News management under Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of trying to inject "falsehoods and bias" into reporting after the veteran correspondent was fired Tuesday.

Pelley, who spent 37 years at CBS News and became one of the most recognizable faces of "60 Minutes," leveled a series of extraordinary allegations against CBS News leadership without giving specifics.

"For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story," Pelley wrote. "I've been told to include assertions that are unverified."
Pelley claimed he repeatedly resisted those efforts.

"To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them," he said.

He also alleged that politicians had been given influence over editorial decisions.

"Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast," Pelley wrote. "Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done."

Let me translate that for you. The media decided ten years ago that Republicans were Nazis and that they could no longer report "both sides" because there are not two legitimate sides -- there is the Democrat side, and there is Evil.

Bari Weiss had previously demanded the CECOT story be held up so that she could receive comment from the targets of the hit-piece. Democrat operative Sheryl Alfonsi freaked -- You can't include comment from Trump! He is the Antichrist! His words are the lies of the Devil!

But of course getting and publishing comment or denial from the target of a hit piece had been standard ethical media practice... until ten years ago.

Bari Weiss demanded a return to the former media practice, which was still biased as hell but at least they'd include a denial at the end of the story, read with unmistakable contempt.

That's what Scott Pelley is shrieking out about -- he won't include the "lies and falsehoods" in his story, aka "the denial and comment from the Trump Administration officials he is running political hit pieces against."

Scott Pelley is so obviously a grandstanding bitch that even fired, disgraced CNN Thumb Chris Ciilizza sees through it.

Seen in the most pro-Pelley light, he chose to confront Bilton and Weiss in an all-hands gathering as a way to make his point as big and brightly as possible. Huddling behind closed doors with the bosses wouldn't properly convey his upset over the restructuring at "60 Minutes" etc etc.

Seen in a less pro-Pelley light, however, Pelley chose to do his "truth to power" thing not in hopes of actually changing anything but rather as a way to make it as performative as possible -- in a content age in which performative emotion is absolute gold.

The immediate leaking of the audio of Pelley's remarks to literally every media reporter suggests to me that the latter -- and admittedly more cynical -- explanation has real plausibility.

Because let's consider how the next few days are likely to go.

Pelley is very likely to get fired by CBS News. I mean, you can't blast both your immediate boss and your big boss and expect to keep your job. And I would assume Pelley knew that going in! Like, if/when he gets fired, he is not going to be super shocked.

And when he gets fired, Pelley will cut a video announcing he is starting a Substack where he will engage in "fearless" commentary about the capitulation of CBS (and all other media) to Trump and the almighty dollar.

And that Substack will immediately rack up lots and lots of subscribers. And Pelley will make money. Maybe lots of it. (We've seen this exact arc play out repeatedly in recent years.)

Cillizza admits that his media pals are a guild of dinosaurs who just can't accept the public has been increasingly rejecting them for ten years and that they need to change:

But there is also NO doubt that broadcast news -- and cable TV news -- are a dying product. The average age of a CBS News viewer is 62! NBC News is 57. ABC News is a "youthful" 55.

That's a problem. Because unless science figures out a way to get us all to live until we are 150, the reality is that the main clientele for what CBS News is offering -- yes, including "60 Minutes" -- is, quite literally, dying off.

Which is why I found myself vigorously nodding my head to the defense Bilton offered on Monday amid the Pelley barrage: "Broadcast is an ice cube that is melting."

YES. YES. YES.

No one -- presumably not even Pelley -- thinks that the solution to what ails big media is more of the same. Like, yes, "60 Minutes" still works! But for how long? And doesn't it make sense to look at your flagship products -- whether that's "60" or the evening news -- and say "How are we going to make this product continue to work amid massive disruption in how people want to consume content?"

To me, the answer is very obvious. Which is why Pelley's criticism -- You guys don't have decades of experience running a broadcast news division!!! -- rings false to me.

If I was Ellison -- or anyone who owns a legacy media brand -- I would want people in the decision-making room who AREN'T old hands at the thing the legacy media brand was built on. Because we know those legacy media content delivery vehicles -- linear TV, print newspapers etc. -- are dying off. And that no amount of expertise in how to make great-looking broadcast TV shows or put together a whiz-bang front page of the print newspaper is going to reverse the steep decline of people who consume their content that way.

...

But, again, the fact that neither Weiss nor Bilton have long experience in making TV seems to me more an asset than a detriment. CBS News (and every other legacy outlet) has to figure out new ways to reach people on new platforms. Why not have people -- like Weiss! -- who has done that?

Why then was there a rush to tout Pelley as a hero and Bilton and, by extension, Weiss, as the bad guy(s)?

Because I think a whole lot of journalists -- mostly tied to legacy media but also some in the independent space -- are still clinging to the idea that the way things worked up until 5-10 years ago can still work today and in the future.

They can't.

...

We've reached the "kill your darlings" stage of legacy media. The boat has already hit the iceberg. Now the only question is what we do about it. And doing the same old things -- or slight variations on the same old things -- ain't going to work.

Reminder: Scott Pelley was one of the go-to Democrat Propaganda Officers that Biden's inner circle felt would push the "return of the hitherto-unknown 'childhood stutter' which explains away Biden's Lost Time." When Biden experiences Lost Time and loses his train of thought, that's just because his Super-Ager Brain, Sharp As a Tack, is workin' extra hard to suppress that Sudden Onset Childhood Stutter and to deliver for You, The American People.

He was also part of the Covid Cover-Up:

David Burke 🇺🇸 @ConservativeTht

For those concerned about CBS @60Minutes & journalistic "integrity"after the choreographed meltdown with management by Scott Pelley, keep in mind...

• Lesley Stahl insisted the Hunter Biden laptop story was fake.

• Pelley gave a softball COVID "lab leak" interview with Peter Daszak, the since disgraced "scientist" whose firm helped finance the Wuhan lab.

60 Minutes is not the "gold standard" of journalism. It's tarnished bronze at best.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:20 PM

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