Scott Pelley Accuses CBS News Boss Bari Weiss of ‘Murdering’ ’60 Minutes’: ‘She Does Not Love This Place’

Tensions at 60 Minutes boiled over Monday, June 1, when veteran correspondent Scott Pelley reportedly accused CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of trying to tear down the long-running news show.

The confrontation occurred during an introductory staff meeting with the program‘s newly installed executive producer, Nick Bilton, just days after a wave of firings rocked the show, according to a recording obtained by The New York Times.

When Bilton told the room that Weiss “loves ’60 Minutes,'” the most-watched news program in America, Pelley pushed back hard, according to the outlet’s June 1 report.

“She’s murdering 60 Minutes. She does not love this place, she was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that,” Pelley, the former anchor of the CBS Evening News, said, per The New York Times.

It was a sharp escalation in the growing tension between the show’s veteran staff and the people now running CBS News.

Pelley also grilled Bilton, a technology journalist and author with no broadcast news experience, about his qualifications to run television’s most prestigious news program.

The exchange reportedly grew tense as Pelley pressed Bilton on why certain 60 Minutes staffers had been fired.

CBS News managing editor Charles Forelle eventually told Pelley he was being rude.

Pelley pushed back. “I’m not being rude … you know what was rude? Black Thursday. That was the absolute definition of rudeness,” he said, referring to the firings, according to outlet. “This is a conversation. That is rude, and you were part of that.”

When Bilton suggested the conversation might be better held in private, Pelley said he preferred to speak in front of his colleagues. “They’re my colleagues, too,” Bilton argued, to which Pelley replied, “That remains to be seen,” according to The Wrap.

On Thursday, May 28, the Los Angeles Times reported that Weiss removed executive producer Tanya Simon and let go of correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, along with other senior staffers, bringing in Bilton to lead the broadcast.

Pelley’s frustration had been building for months. When Weiss pulled an Alfonsi segment hours before its scheduled December broadcast, he spoke out in a staff meeting, saying the new boss needed to “take her job a little bit more seriously,” according to The New Yorker.