Scott Pelley, former anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, was fired Tuesday night after lashing out in a staff meeting with new Executive Producer Nick Bilton, reports NBC News. In the meeting, Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering ‘60 Minutes,” CBS’s Sunday newsmagazine.
According to Associated Press, Bilton accused Pelley of using his first meeting as executive producer to carry out an ambush against him.
Tim Graham is the director of media analysis at Media Research Center. He says the complaints and leaks have been showing up online from the moment Weiss was tapped to lead CBS News.
“When you go out to war in the press with leaks or whatever, attacking your bosses, and then say ‘I'm shocked I was fired,’ nobody should be shocked,” Graham says.
Associated Press reported back in October 2025 that Weiss was hired as the editor-in-chief to give CBS News more balanced and fact-based approach.
She has been at the helm of CBS News for eight months and has methodically been restructuring the network to remove liberal bias. Graham says she's doing so at the bidding of CBS's new owner Paramount and its CEO David Ellison.
“Bari Weiss has been in charge for a while now. She tends to take on one show at a time. She's left ‘60 Minutes’ to its own devices, and it really hasn't changed very much,” Graham states.
Weiss has recently turned her attention to “60 Minutes.” The Guardian reported that the next season of "60 Minutes" would look very different and that “massive changes” were coming, causing concern from employees.
“She's come in and sacked the executive producer and some correspondents,” Graham states.
Pelley had also pressed about the firings, especially of the previous executive producer, asking Bilton why he accepted the job knowing he wouldn’t be welcomed.
Although Weiss was hired to bring about changes, Graham says the jury is still out because it’s only been eight months, and the promised changes are slow in coming.
“This is still sappy, soft to the Democrats CBS News. It's not changing under Bari Weiss,” Graham says.
