CBS Fires Veteran 60 Minutes Correspondent Scott Pelley

Veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley was fired by CBS News on Tuesday, culminating a dramatic public clash with new network leadership and exposing deep turmoil within the storied newsmagazine. The termination followed a heated staff meeting on Monday where Pelley confronted the program’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton.

In a termination letter, Bilton informed Pelley he was being let go “for cause effective immediately.” Bilton wrote that Pelley had “hijacked” his first staff meeting to disparage him “with remarkable incivility and contempt,” and stated that Pelley’s “performative display of hostility” demonstrated he had “no interest in contributing to the future success of the show.”

The confrontation reportedly centered on Pelley’s criticism of CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, who was appointed last October. According to accounts of the Monday meeting, Pelley told Bilton that Weiss was “murdering 60 Minutes,” alleging she “does not love this place” and “was brought in to kill it.”

In a lengthy public statement issued after his firing, Pelley launched sweeping accusations against CBS management. He claimed new leadership had instructed him to “inject...