So I’ve been covering Bari Weiss’s nascent and controversial tenure at CBS News pretty regularly. And, as most of you dear things know who so kindly read my work on a regular basis, it’s been as much from a personal interest level as professional, as hubs and I have been long-suffering but nightly CBS Evening News watchers for what seems like forever.
As with some of the comments I’ve read from you all, the changes in the Evening News started slow and subtle – new anchor Tony Dokoupil did have to find his footing, no doubt, and the tremendous resistance from entrenched staff didn’t help – but the broadcast has changed and so much for the better.
Yeah, they will always have a lefty tilt to their rigging, but if you go by the rage foam-flecked spittle spewed in these comments on their piece about Platner last night, you know the progressive base no longer sees them as a reliable ally and propaganda mouthpiece.
Bari Weiss has our enthusiastic vote to keep doing whatever voodoo it is that she’s doing so well.
Of course, the crown jewel of the network has always been 60 Minutes and, to borrow a phrase from my friend Cynical Publius, the perfumed princes who inhabited the kingdom and breathed the rarified air there felt they were a realm unto themselves. Understandably so, having been a sacrosanct property for so long.
When the announcement of Weiss’s hiring was made, the royalty of the broadcast sent not-so-subtle warning signals to their minions in print media that Weiss was to consider them as off-limits for her pedestrian touch.
THIS HAS MADE US VERY ANGRY
Others said Weiss’s hiring is “offensive” because—unlike the network’s existing staffers who “have dedicated their entire careers to understanding and developing the skills that are needed”—she “has zero experience in television.” (CBS is reportedly losing $50 million a year.)
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) October 7, 2025
Weiss wasn’t in the least bit impressed by the palace intrigue. She marched into a meeting with the haughty doyens of the venerated program and threw a simple curveball by asking one question:
WHY DOES THE COUNTRY THINK YOU’RE BIASED?
Stunned silence met the new boss.
60 Minutes staff were clueless.
And the tiny people who move about unnoticed and unappreciated behind the scenes began to have a glimmer of hope that, just maybe, there’d be a bit of a shake-up.
The news division felt it first, and some at 60 Minutes took that as a signal that their ‘hands off’ messaging had been received, digested, and accepted.
They couldn’t have been more wrong.
Correspondent Sharon Alfonsi found that out when her sleight-of-hand piece on the CECOT prison in El Salvador was spiked by Weiss, for what turns out to have been purposeful malfeasance on Alfonsi’s part.
In a towering fit of rage, Afonsi fired off a grievance note that CC’d everyone in the news division, and, while she wasn’t fired right off the bat, her employment at 60 Minutes was spiked all the same, as they chose not to renew Afonsi’s contract, which expired last week.
60 Minutes executive producer Tanya Simon and correspondent Cecilia Vega were released at the same time.
She also named a new executive producer for the program.
…The Bari broom is out, and everyone’s wondering who gets swept up next.
CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss shook up the TV-news industry’s most-watched and best-regarded property Thursday, ousting the program’s two most senior executive producers, Tanya Simon and Draggan Mihailoivich, along with correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, according to two people familiar with the matter.
CBS News named Nick Bilton, a former technology columnist at The New York Times and a contributor at Vanity Fair as the new executive producer of the program, adding a degree of uncertainty to the next steps of a series that generated $206.3 million in advertising in 2024, according to Guideline, a tracker of ad spending. It remained unclear on Thursday whether others among the show’s production and correspondent staff might be cut in future days.
The general reaction was, ‘WHO?’
This has made the venerated program’s most pedantic, princely plumed peacock, Pelley, very agitated.
And very angry.
As one who feels entitled to emote, I guess by virtue of his station in life every Sunday, Scott Pelley indulged himself in a massive tantrum during the first ‘meet-the-boss‘ get-together.
In a Monday-morning meeting, veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley ripped into his new boss, Nick Bilton.
“What qualifies you to be in this position?” Pelley demanded.
Thus spaketh one of television’s last remaining Grand Inquisitors.
I would have been nicer, of course. The young guy brought bagels, for crying out loud.
And there’s that ‘boss’ thing, but then again, I’m not a complete dumbass.
…It was a hostile greeting for Bilton during his first meeting with the full “60 Minutes” staff since the technology journalist was announced Thursday as the show’s new executive producer. That same day, CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss fired two of the show’s seven correspondents — Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega — and four of its top producers, including its respected executive producer, Tanya Simon.
“She’s murdering ’60 Minutes,’” Pelley said of Weiss. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that. She has no qualifications for her job.”
He continued by interrogating Bilton: “You have slender qualifications for this job. The changes that she’s made at the ‘Evening News’ have been catastrophic. So why should we expect that any of this is going to be any better?”
WOOF
So Pelley savaged both the young guy in front of him AND the big boss who wasn’t at the meeting.
Okay.
SMOOTH MOVE
And smirked about it.
…As Pelley continued to press Bilton, Charles Forelle, managing editor of CBS News, repeatedly intervened to try to quash it. Staffers also demanded to know why Weiss was not in attendance, and why she has not met with them.
“Scott, this is getting — this is just getting rude,” Forelle said. “It’s getting a little rude. This is not actually productive. This is not an interview for a television audience.”
“It’s working for me,” Pelley shot back.
See that attitude?
There’s the problem.
Scott Pelley, a CBS EMPLOYEE, owns the dialogue, verbally chastises at will, and sets the terms for discussion over the show.
This goes to an interesting interaction with a comment on the situation made by Salena Zito, one of the best, most honest print journalists I know, about ripping the BOSS to his face in a room full of other employees.
It’s unthinkable.
There are hundreds of journalists out there who have never risen to this level of arrogance in our profession; just doing their job, grinding it out every day, covering city councils & water authorities school boards & the cops beat.
None of them, including me, would ever… https://t.co/757KcCzW1d— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) June 2, 2026
…None of them, including me, would ever consider this appropriate.
One of the answers to Salena crystallised the stunned silence that met Bari Weiss’s initial question to the 60 Minutes crew.
The plot was lost when the media began believing that Trump is the reason for their ‘destruction’ vice their own inherent, insufferable arrogance, and open disdain for opinions and the people who hold them, who do not exist within their rarified bubble.
Like, quite apparently,…
— tree hugging sister 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) June 2, 2026
…Like, quite apparently, you.
They do not hear themselves and are incapable of seeing what they have become.
LESS PEOPLE CULTURALLY CONNECTED
My goodness, the president hasn’t destroyed the media our problem began long before he came along and has largely to do with the collapse of small town news organizations during the rise of the Internet. Less people culturally connected to the people they cover now, came out of…
— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) June 2, 2026
…Less people culturally connected to the people they cover now, came out of of DC in New York–where it used to be people that lived in their own neighborhoods that covered stories are now covering people they had very little connective tissue to–if you don’t understand who you’re covering they become “other” and that began our decline. Also, if you’re gonna drop in my timeline keep your snark at a minimum please I have very little patience for it.
THE PERFUMED PRINCES
Scott Pelley, a man who has made a career of talking about how impressive he is…
Used a college graduation to whine that the world is changing and he doesn’t like it pic.twitter.com/5lcRZybAsc
— kevin smith (@kevin_smith45) May 28, 2025
I’m not sure when Pelley’s contract is up, but his time is – of that I have no doubt.
“I look forward to talking to you in a one-on-one setting as these meetings are scheduled. And enjoy the bagels.”
The “60 Minutes” staff applauded Mr. Pelley after Mr. Bilton departed. https://t.co/p8R2i7DG37
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) June 1, 2026
He will become the next martyr to the progressive cause, maybe even get a bigger Profile in Courage award than Alfonsi got.
Perhaps start his own Pelley podcast…who knows?
But the day is coming when this insufferable, pedantic, proselytising ass will be unemployed, and his plaster, brittle stature diminished even further than he’s currently managing to do all on his own.
I’m so here for it.
Beege UPDATE: I have to thank JeffS for this heads up – holy CRAP, that didn’t take long. And the new boss BLISTERED Pelley’s entitled behind as he showed him the door.
Oh. It’s a beauty.
#BREAK: CBS NEWS has terminated Scott Pelley’s contract. pic.twitter.com/vbXyX8PBBv
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) June 3, 2026
And, in a perfectly attuned note to EVERYONE on the 60 Minutes staff, Bilton let them know Pelley was G-O-N-E, why, and he was THA BOSS.
ANY QUESTIONS?
More: Nick Bilton’s letter to CBS News:
Team,
You should hear this from me first. We have parted ways with Scott Pelley.
I know how much Scott meant to many of you, and I don’t say this lightly. I made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with him over the weekend,…
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) June 3, 2026
…I know how much Scott meant to many of you, and I don’t say this lightly. I made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with him over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground. That was not the path Scott chose.
What I regret most is that this situation interfered with the conversation I had hoped to have with you about Season 59 and the future of this show. I realize this is a great deal of change in a very short time, and I wouldn’t pretend otherwise.
I won’t relitigate the last week with you here. What I will commit to is this: My unyielding support for each of you, the journalism that you do and what we will do together going forward.
Nick
Perfection.
And ZOMG, this is so awesome!
There may be hope yet.
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