Read exclusive excerpts from the newsman’s war journals
CBS News fired a senior employee on Tuesday for violating the sacred journalistic principles of “trust and mutual respect.” Scott Pelley, 68, got the axe after a preening confrontation with 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton in which Pelley disparaged his supervisor with “remarkable incivility and contempt.”
Pelley, best known as one of the deep-voiced commentators who helps America’s senior citizens fall asleep after football games, lashed out in response. He issued an intolerably long statement about the “heartbreaking” demise of 60 Minutes, which he hailed as a bulwark of “professionalism” standing athwart the “forces of political bias.”
Sometimes referred to as “Poison Pelley” on account of his violent temper and flair for insubordination, the newsman accused CBS executives of lying and directing him to report “falsehoods.” He shamed the network for failing to show adequate deference to his decorated career as a combat veteran.
“I have been in combat in Afghanistan,” Pelley told the New York Times. “I have been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine multiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast.”
President Donald Trump, who has also traveled to war zones, voiced support for CBS News and the network’s right as a cherished journalistic entity to make values-based personnel decisions.
“I think Scott Pelley’s got his own problems. He’s terrible,” Trump told the New York Post. “Look, Scott Pelley’s a stiff and he’s afraid and he’s part of this, you know, gang of crooked, stupid people that don’t care about our country.”
Trump is right, obviously, but his refusal to acknowledge Pelley’s combat service was a rare display of inelegance from a president who loves the troops and has tried so valiantly to end the wars his predecessors started.
In the interest of honoring our nation’s veterans, the Washington Free Beacon has exclusively obtained the following war photographs and combat correspondence from Pelley’s tours of duty in Iraq and Ukraine.
Iraq (Part 1)
Iraq (Part 2)
Ukraine
Read the full article here
