Will CBS Fire Scott Pelley for Attacking His Bosses in Extraordinary ‘60 Minutes’ Broadcast? Disgruntled News Star Has Complained for Years

Executives at Paramount are facing a dilemma on Monday — whether to fire “60 Minutes” star Scott Pelley after he denounced Paramount, the corporate parent of CBS, in comments at the end of Sunday night’s edition of the venerable program, which has millions of viewers. Mr. Pelley, who has clashed with his bosses for years, delivered his remarks in his authoritative baritone from the iconic “60 Minutes” set. The remarks concerned the forced resignation of the executive producer of the program, Bill Owens.“Our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” Mr. Pelley said during the pointed on-air rebuke. “None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”Departing Executive Producer Bill Owens of ’60 Minutes’ Frederick M. Brown/Getty ImagesThe merger to which Mr. Pelley referred is the planned acquisition of Paramount by Skydance, a Hollywood company owned by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, the fourth richest American. The FCC is currently stalling the transaction while it pursues a “news distortion” investigation of CBS News and while CBS and President Trump negotiate a settlement to a $20 billion lawsuit Mr. Trump filed against “60 Minutes.” Both the lawsuit and the news distortion probe concern the October 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Harris. Producers edited Ms. Harris’ answer to a question about Israel in a way that made her sound more coherent than how she sounded in the original recording. Mr. Trump contends that this was unethical election interference, while CBS News says it did nothing wrong — that such editing is standard practice in the industry.“60 Minutes” has also been under fire over two virulently anti-Israel segments it aired, in January and April, that reportedly angered Shari Redstone, the chairwoman of Paramount who is anxious to complete the merger. President Trump has also expressed, on his social media platform Truth Social, anger at a series of anti-Trump “60 Minutes” segment the program has been airing. Mr. Owens’ ouster is believed to be linked to the Gaza segments, as well as to his refusal to apologize as part of the expected settlement between CBS and Mr. Trump over the Harris interview. Leslie Stahl is under fire for asking a ‘ridiculous’ question of freed American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel. CBS NewsThe spectacle of Mr. Pelley — who makes as much as $5 million a year — denouncing his corporate bosses on Mr. Owens’ behalf has led to loud calls for him to be fired, as well. “Scott Pelley should be fired. How is an employee allowed to bad mouth their employer on a show they get paid to do by that employer,” one commenter said in a post on X.“When you work for wages, you ride for the brand. Don’t like what you’re doing, quit. Scott Pelley bit the hand that feeds him and should be frog marched from the studio,” wrote another user on X.The sharp comments from Mr. Pelley underscore the increasing tension between the editorial team at the top news program and the executives of Paramount with accusations against the top brass of trying to quell Mr. Trump’s ongoing hostility as they attempt to complete a merger with Skydance entertainment, a deal that would require his administration’s approval to go through.Shari Redstone attends a NYC Special Screening Event of We Will Dance Again at Temple Emanu-El on September 18, 2024 at New York City. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Paramount+Upon Mr. Owens’ abrupt resignation, reports surfaced that Ms. Redstone had been attempting to keep “tabs” on any Trump stories the 60 Minutes team was working on.Well-placed sources within CBS News told Semafor that several executives, including Ms. Redstone had asked the production team to handover a list of all Trump-related pieces it had planned for the remainder of the current season before the show goes on hiatus in May. In January, after “60 Minutes” aired the first anti-Israel segment, in which ex-State Department staffers bemoaned U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza, Ms. Redstone also installed a rival of Mr. Owens’, Susan Zirinsky, to a new position overseeing news standards at CBS News, including at “60 Minutes,” which historically has resisted any oversight from greater CBS News.Mr. Owens, meanwhile, was reportedly concerned that Paramount was “becoming too interested” in the internal affairs of “60 Minutes.”Kamala Harris sits down with Bill Whitaker for her ’60 Minutes’ interview. CBS NewsA spokesman for Ms. Redstone denied the claims she or the company were seeking to kill stories.Mr. Pelley’s direct comments are just the latest incident in a series of moments where the journalist has gone rogue against his employer.He was removed from the anchor desk at CBS Evening News in 2017, and returned fulltime to “60 Minutes,” in what was reported to be a salary dispute. Mr. Pelley claimed publicly he left due to a “hostile work environment.” “I lost my job at the Evening News because I wouldn’t stop complaining to management about the hostile work environment,” he said to CNN’s former Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter in May 2019.Leslie Stahl is under fire for her recent segment on Jewish hostages in Gaza. CBS He also recounted how five years earlier he went directly to the president of CBS News at the time, David Rhodes, and said to him “that this hostile work environment couldn’t go on, for women and men,” and was told that if he kept being an agitator, he would lose his job.“Having exhausted the possibilities in the news division, I went to the chairman of the CBS Corporation,” Mr. Pelley said in the interview referring to then CEO Les Moonves, who was ousted from his roles in September 2018 amid sexual misconduct allegations. “[He] listened to me very concerned for an hour, asked me some penetrating questions about what was going on,” Mr. Pelley explained. “I didn’t hear back from him, but in the next opportunity in my contract, I was let go from the Evening News.”Yet according to press reports, Mr. Pelley’s exit also came after he played hardball in an effort to get a giant raise from his $5 million per year income. Mr. Pelley, whose “Evening News” was a distant third in the ratings, complained that he earned half or less than half what his counterparts at better-rated ABC and NBC were making.Scott Pelley interviews President Zelensky on ’60 Minutes’. CBSHe had hired the power agent Ari Emanuel to represent him, which backfired. The talks between Mr. Emmanuel and Mr. Rhodes did not go well, with an insider telling Page Six at the time that the agent had a “s***** meeting” with the former CBS News President.Now Mr. Pelley is speaking ill of his bosses, again.

Will CBS Fire Scott Pelley for Attacking His Bosses in Extraordinary ‘60 Minutes’ Broadcast? Disgruntled News Star Has Complained for Years

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