“Bought His Own Hype” - Bari Weiss Fired Scott Pelley After 60 Minutes Shake-Up

**SPEAKER_1** (0:03)
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**Patrick Bet-David** (0:27)
We heard rumblings that the 60 Minutes host or reporter, Scott Pelley, who has been with CBS since 89, was not too happy with some of the things that was taking place. And apparently, if you look at the online numbers, you will see him making between five to seven million dollars a year.
And so story comes out that all of a sudden, Rob, do you have the letter that CBS gave to him? And then after giving the letter, you know, you're like, look, you come in here, you're not happy, you're making some noise, you're screaming at us, you're telling us what we're doing wrong, you're not following our vision of what we want to go next. Let's just make it easier for you. Guess what? You're fired and, you know, go do something else. You don't have to be here. Go choose to do something else. Rob, while you're looking for the letter, maybe go back to that first video that you had. Go ahead, Rob.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:15)
Yeah, this is about Scott Pelley, one of the best known stars on 60 Minutes, really one of the best known journalists in America. And he's very directly challenging his bosses at CBS News today, creating a bit of a crisis internally. Right now, it's about an overhaul at 60 Minutes, the highest rated news magazine in the country. Pelley's been a part of that program for decades, and he's claiming that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is trying to kill the show. In a staff meeting earlier today, Pelley said, quote, She was brought in to kill it, and she's been doing exactly that. Now, Weiss thinks that's ridiculous, and some of Weiss's deputies believe Pelley was being unprofessional and rude in this staff meeting. But here's what's going on. Last fall, Weiss was brought in by Paramount CEO David Ellison to remodel and renovate CBS News.

**Patrick Bet-David** (2:00)
Okay, so, Tom, what's going on there with Scott Pelley?

**Tom** (2:03)
So, first of all, that guy there on CNN is just pushing party line. What was going on inside is that people are responding positively to the change that Bari Weiss is putting there, and then you have long timers that are not.
There are quotes from people that was covered. I'm reading two different articles. One of them is from people who are saying, and I'm reading a couple of quotes from people, most people in this building are perplexed. They have jobs and want to keep those jobs, and they have thought that 60 Minutes has been an arrogant group in the corner for a while. You could see that. You could see Lesley Stahl. This is 60 Minutes, Donald Trump. Also, coming back, the arrogance is beyond reproach, but at the same time, the CBS people understand they'll be affected by Bari Weiss as she changed her plans. Remember, if you're third place in a three-network race, people that are hired are here to change and move it forward. You hear that? So there are people in there that understand that, hey, we're third place, and the 60 Minutes people were arrogant. You can't go off. Our leadership needs to be given the chance. You can't lead a place where you're told you're not welcome and you allowed old timers to stand up on a soapbox. This was a setup.
This was Scott going off for the show. That was just for show. He wants to stand up for journalism and maybe get fired, but does he really care? And what does it change for all of us that are here? The grandstanding thing is in stain. It's third grade playground bullying stuff. This is not the way you conduct yourself. And what about all of us that are still working?
There's the big one. What about the rest of us that are still here working? What did you accomplish? You're not taking down a dictator, someone committed war crimes. You're not interviewing Saddam Hussein.
It's amazing. These are comments coming from the inside.

**Patrick Bet-David** (3:52)
And by the way, Nick Bilton, how long has Nick been there? Can you pull up how long Nick's been there? Because that's not coming from Barry Weiss. So how long has Nick been with CBS?
Four minutes, I'm assuming, right?

**Brian** (4:04)