Scott Pelley on His Firing and the ‘Massacre’ at ’60 Minutes’

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**Lulu Garcia-Navarro** (0:23)
I'm Lulu Garcia-Navarro, and this is The Interview. It's hard to overstate the impact of 60 Minutes on journalism. Since its debut on CBS in 1968, it's been the home of some of the most famous and lauded journalists, from Mike Wallace and Ed Bradley to Leslie Stahl, Anderson Cooper, and until this past week, Scott Pelley. Pelley was fired after an explosive series of events and much turmoil at CBS, including a controversial financial settlement with President Trump, the sale of the network to David Ellison, and the appointment of Barry Weiss to lead CBS News. Pelley, along with a number of other 60 Minutes correspondents who were fired, have now accused Weiss of editorial interference and bias, charges that CBS and Weiss deny. We've included a fuller statement from CBS News at the end of the episode.
This is Scott Pelley's first sit down interview since he was fired.
Thank you so much for coming in. I know that this is a very difficult moment. You were just fired from the news organization, which you were at the heart of for 37 years.

**Scott Pelley** (1:56)
I can't believe I'm hearing those words.

**Lulu Garcia-Navarro** (1:59)
CBS News.

**Scott Pelley** (2:00)
Yes.

**Lulu Garcia-Navarro** (2:02)
I want to actually start by just asking you how you're feeling in this moment, before we start how you got here.

**Scott Pelley** (2:10)
Well, if we want to talk about it at an emotional level, the best thing that I can imagine in terms of describing it is that it's like your spouse was murdered.
There's some moments of the day I feel fine. There's some moments of the day that I just frankly fall apart. When I least expect it. Not that there's any particular trigger. But I do want to be clear that I do not feel sorry for me. I don't care about me. I'm fine. I care about these people that I left behind. The people who are still trapped there. And this institution that I love so much. You said that I've been there 37 years. I've been married 42 years.
So that's the depth of my devotion.

**Lulu Garcia-Navarro** (3:15)
Let's talk about how we got to this moment. A few days before you're firing, several high-profile 60 minutes, correspondents and leaders were fired. Leading up to that, there'd been a lot of reporting about changes that were coming to 60 minutes.
Was that the sort of change you were expecting?

**Scott Pelley** (3:40)
No one saw the Black Thursday Massacre coming. This is our entire senior staff, people beloved. Tanya Simon, our executive producer, she's the boss. This was her triumph. She's the first woman ever to be executive producer of 60 Minutes. She concluded this season with a growth in our audience of 9 percent, which is unheard of in broadcast television, and a growth in our online presence of 190 percent. Last season, we had 2.5 billion views. That's a third of humanity. So we're riding high. This management team has been brilliant. Tanya has the best first year of any executive producer, and I've worked for all of them.
And then the night before, Tanya and I and Dragan Mihailovic, her deputy, et cetera, we're all at the Emmy Awards, and we win two Emmy Awards.
Within hours, all of those people have been wiped out, and one-third of our correspondents have been fired.
And at the same moment that that happens, we are informed of our new executive producer. His name is Nick Bilton. I'm sure he must be a wonderful man, but no one had ever heard of him. He has zero experience in television news and no experience in management. So imagine how we feel when someone like that comes into a shop like 60 Minutes.

**Lulu Garcia-Navarro** (5:37)
Explain to me exactly how you felt.

**Scott Pelley** (5:42)
Shock, dismay, impossible to believe, searching desperately for an explanation, knowing that an explanation would be forthcoming and then not seeing that. No executive at CBS News, our editor-in-chief, Barry Weiss, coming over to 60 Minutes to explain, to talk with us, to sit with us.
That's a family at 60 Minutes. My colleagues and I have worked together 10, 20, 30 years. We travel together, we dine together, we go into literal combat together. My former boss and former producer, Bill Owens, saved my life in a firefight in Iraq.
So, Lulu, these bonds are pretty tight. And when somebody wipes out, murders a large number of your family members, people are hurt and shocked in disbelief and just desperate for some explanation. And as you and I sit here today, there still has been none.