Media Monday: Too Scott to Handle!

**Jon Kelly** (0:01)
If you look back and try and think at some altitude about this, Barry was brought in to essentially lubricate the $110 billion transaction, and it turns out that that decision actually may be backfiring.

**Peter Hamby** (0:20)
Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Puck's podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby. It's Monday, June 8th, which means it's Media Monday. Today, Jon Kelly and I dive into the rocky waters over at 60 Minutes, after Nick Bilton and Barry Weiss fired the show's lead anchor Scott Pelley, who had blasted their leadership in a team meeting. The decision to axe Pelley went all the way to the top of Paramount. We bring you all the details and wonder how Weiss can possibly steady the ship over at CBS News.
We also explore the media meta-narrative swirling around that New York Times story about Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner and his treatment of ex-girlfriends, and how the rollout of that Times story captivated the Washington Press even before it posted online. We'll discuss all that and much more on today's episode of The Powers That Be.
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Happy Monday everybody and welcome to The Powers That Be. If it's Monday, it's Media Monday. I'm joined today by my pal, John Kelly. We're going to talk about upheaval at 60 Minutes. Nick Bilton, Barry Weiss, possibly David Ellison pushed out Scott Pelley, the front man for 60 Minutes for a very long time for cause, according to Nick Bilton's letter, calling him insubordinate at a staff meeting in which Pelley laid in to Bilton, saying that the whole crew is trying to murder 60 Minutes. We're also going to talk about some drama at the New York Times after they dropped a bombshell report on Graham Platner, the Progressive Democrat running for Senate in Maine, who's already facing a litany of scandals and stories from his past. Obviously, this got political. Graham Platner had to respond, but there are rumors about how the New York Times dealt with this story, how they treated it. We're going to talk about that with someone who knows both Nick Bilton and the inside of the New York Times, and that would be Jon Kelly. Jon, let's start with 60 Minutes. Dylan reported last week in his newsletter In The Room that on Tuesday, Barry Weiss, Nick Bilton, and Tom Zabrowski, who predated the whole Barry Weiss era, he's been at CBS for a very long time, was in Baghdad and Fallujah and Kuwait back in the day, etc. They basically confronted Pelley and said, are you committed to this? It seems like they gave him an out. Then Pelley in this meeting suggested and kept asking, Barry's trying to kill CBS or kill 60 Minutes, what's going on here? He just would not relent. They pushed him out of the room, according to Dylan. Pelley thought he's going to be fired immediately, but they stayed in the room, chewed on some pizza, got the lawyers involved. They brought in George Cheeks on a call. They brought in David Ellison on a call. Eventually, it resulted in Nick Bilton sending a letter to Scott Pelley, which he released publicly also, saying he's not interested in the future of the show, and they just dismissed him.
Was this the right move?

**Jon Kelly** (4:52)
Well, this is a fascinating story, Peter, for a bazillion reasons that we're going to talk about now. On the most microscopic level regarding that meeting, actually, I think it's a sign that there are some adults in the room at CBS News. Pelley makes a small fortune, right? He's a high seven-figure anchor, and I think that they knew that he had to go. When he spoke in that meeting and took it to a length that it didn't have to go to, right? That was clearly hostile and unnecessary. The guy can be unhappy, and there are many ways to express your concerns with your business without really trying to do so to galvanize the unhappiness of many other people who are in a different position in their lives, economically, professionally, et cetera. So he was daring them, there's no question.