I learned that CBS had fired 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley this evening the same way a lot of media industry reporters did - by various members of the 60 Minutes family sharing the email Pelley received earlier today.
Here is that letter, in full:
Dear. Mr. Pelley:
I meant what I said in my letter last week to the 60 Minutes team: joining 60 Minutes is the honor of my career and I am grateful to be working alongside the people who have contributed to the most important television journalism brand this country has ever produced.
I started this job excited to collaborate and to benefit from the wisdom and experience of the 60 Minutes veterans, with you among them. For that reason, one of the first things I did in my new role was to call you to talk and to invite you to dinner.
It is a profound disappointment that you rejected that overture and chose ambush instead.
Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt. I welcome a diversity and respectful debate among the team, but this was nothing of the sort.
Yesterday’s performative display of hostility - enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation - demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress.
I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama. I am eager to work alongside those who share this goal.
Despite yesterday’s misconduct, I had hoped that in sitting down with you today, we could find a path forward together. You made clear that you are not interested in such a path.
Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you. I therefore write on the behalf of CBS News Inc. ("CBS) to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately. Enclosed is your formal termination letter.
Sincerely,
Nick Bilton
Executive Producer, 60 Minutes
I expect that there will be a legal battle over the “terminated for just cause” claim. And if Bilton and Weiss are expecting to intimidate anyone with this move, I suspect they are in a rude awakening, if message like this one I received from a producer on the show is any indication:
“Who the fuck do these people think they are to claim SP doesn’t care about the show. He would take a bullet for any of us and I guess in a way he did.
I’m not sure that the best way to show you’re a tough journalist is to fire the first person who hurt your feelings. They’ll probably fire all of us. But they’ll end up with a show that makes Deadline look like something produced by Edward R. Murrow”
If you have a news tip or a comment on this story, email me at [email protected]. Everything is confidential unless you tell me otherwise.