Google unleashes 32 million mosquitoes on the US, plus Scott Pelley fallout after he bashes CBS for bias and gets fired

**Christy Strawser** (0:00)
Welcome to On Deadline, your radio news from Odyssey newsrooms across the country.
I'm Christy Strawser, Odyssey's managing editor of news. A wise man once said, there's no such thing as winning a fight with the boss. But what happens when the boss represents one of the most trusted news brands in American history? Enter the story of Scott Pelley and 60 Minutes. Here's WCCO in Minneapolis.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:24)
Tensions are growing under new management at CBS News.
Last week, CBS fired 60 Minutes executive producer Tanya Simon and correspondents Sharon Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. At a meeting to start the week, a long time anchor spoke up.

**Scott Pelley** (0:39)
I'm Scott Pelley.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:40)
According to a detailed report on the status website, Pelley said CBS News head Barry Weiss is murdering the show and accused Simon's replacement as executive producer Nick Bilton of having slender qualifications for the job. The report says Weiss was not at the meeting. Bilton insisted Weiss does love CBS News and 60 Minutes. Pelley countered by saying she was brought in to kill it and she's doing exactly that. A person close to CBS leadership tells the AP, it's disappointing Pelley's accusations were being aired publicly despite efforts to engage with him privately.

**Christy Strawser** (1:17)
And then the other shoe dropped. Here's more on the drama at Venerable 60 Minutes from Adam and Jordana.

**Adam** (1:23)
CBS never should have fired Scott Pelley.

**Jordana** (1:29)
Even though he was petulant and as you said in that meeting yesterday?

**Adam** (1:33)
Acting like a petulant child in a meeting is not cause for firing especially, sometimes it is.

**Jordana** (1:42)
Oh yeah.

**Adam** (1:42)
Sometimes it is.

**Jordana** (1:43)
If you're a low level employee.

**Adam** (1:44)
Not when you're Scott Pelley.

**Jordana** (1:45)
Not when you're Scott Pelley.

**Adam** (1:46)
Okay, it's different because he has name recognition and power and he's a celebrity and he has earned the trust of Americans over the 37 years that he has worked at CBS News. And you can have differences with management. You can not like the way the station is going.
You can disagree all you want and you get to voice your complaints.
But here's why he should not have been fired. Because it makes CBS look bad. Now, we believe him. Yeah, we believe that they're trying to kill 60 Minutes. We believe that if you disagree or you stand up or you say the truth that you get knocked down. Yeah. CBS, maybe they were right and Scott Pelley wasn't a petulant child and he just doesn't like new management. So he's complaining. But the fact that you then fired him makes it look like everything he said was true. And it makes CBS look bad. It kind of puts a chink in the armor of 60 Minutes' credibility and CBS credibility and the management's credibility. And that is why they shouldn't have done it. They should have kept him so they could have somebody that is pushing against the boundaries of what they want to create. They should have a dissenting voice in the room.

**Jordana** (3:10)
Absolutely.

**Adam** (3:10)
Now it looks like they only want people who agree with them. And whether that's true or not, I don't know what's going on behind the scenes at CBS News, but it looks bad. And they never should have fired him.

**Jordana** (3:24)
Well, I hope he tells us what's going on behind the scenes. And I hope Celia Vega and Sharon Alfonsi and we've had former executive producers come out and say that the direction is something that they don't recognize.
And Scott Pelley will get to it. He issued a statement today.

**Adam** (3:43)
It is damning.

**Jordana** (3:44)
It is absolutely damning. But like you said, and by the way, I'll just say this, I believe him 100% because I believe, and you're right, we absolutely want to hear it. And if you make statements like he is stating that...

**Adam** (3:58)
But let's tell you what he said.

**Jordana** (3:59)
Yeah.

**Adam** (4:00)
For those who haven't seen Scott Pelley's statement on his firing, it's quite long. Should I read the whole thing?

**Jordana** (4:06)
I would just go to the highlighted part.

**Adam** (4:08)
Here we go. The highlighted part says this. For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I have been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, every case I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast, giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done.