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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr slammed former “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley on Sunday after Pelley said he did not expect to be fired from CBS News following a heated clash with the program’s new leadership.
Carr responded to Pelley’s remarks in a post on X, where he argued the longtime CBS journalist’s reaction reflected a broader problem inside legacy media.
“One of the reasons why trust in media is so low is because many legacy journalists are completely out of touch,” Carr said.
He also said Pelley’s conduct would not be tolerated in a typical workplace.
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“You could not get away with that behavior at any run of the mill job,” Carr said. “It is revealing to see how blind some are to that.”
Pelley was fired after 37 years at CBS News, where he served as a White House correspondent, anchor of the “CBS Evening News” and correspondent for “60 Minutes.”
In an interview with The New York Times, Pelley said he did not believe he was walking into a termination meeting after his confrontation with new “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton.
“Oh gosh, furthest thing from my mind,” Pelley said. “It hadn’t occurred to me.”
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Pelley acknowledged that the meeting with Bilton had been tense, but he defended the tone of his questioning by pointing to the program’s history.
“‘60 Minutes’ is known for two things: a ticking stopwatch and hard questions,” he said.
Pelley said the confrontation came after senior staffers and several correspondents were dismissed, and after Bilton was introduced to the newsroom as the program’s new executive producer.
“No one saw the Black Thursday massacre coming,” Pelley said.
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Pelley said he was angered by Bilton’s introductory email to the staff and by the way Bilton addressed employees after the dismissals.
“It betrayed the fact that Nick Bilton didn’t know anything about us, didn’t know anything about our culture, and yet was being imposed on us as our new leader,” Pelley said.
Pelley also criticized CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who was installed under new ownership after David Ellison’s acquisition of Paramount.
“She’s a lovely person,” Pelley said. “And her Free Press organization that she founded has been very successful. But television’s not her thing.”
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Pelley accused Weiss of pushing editorial changes on a politically sensitive “60 Minutes” story involving protests and an immigration enforcement shooting in Minneapolis.
He said he believed the requested changes would have favored President Donald Trump’s view of the events.
“There was a thumb on the scale for the president’s version of events that I felt was a level of political influence that I had never seen in 37 years at CBS News,” Pelley said.
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CBS News denied that Weiss acted with political motivation, saying her editorial notes were intended to make the piece “as strong, fair, and accurate as possible.”
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