June 2, 2026
“She Is Murdering 60 Minutes” Veteran Correspondent Scott Pelley Eviscerates His Boss AND His Boss’s Boss
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RSS Feed An audio recording of the most explosive staff meeting we’ve ever heard was leaked to several news outlets. In the recording, there is a heated exchange between former Evening News anchor and ’60 Minutes’ correspondent Scott Pelley and newly appointed Executive Producer Nick Bilton. We go over the jaw dropping back and forth which included Pelley telling Bilton he and Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss aren’t qualified for their positions. We’ll also explain why Bari Weiss herself chose not to be at the meeting.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: It is Tuesday, June second, and apparently that clock ticking at the beginning of every sixty minutes episode is attached to a time bomb, and it appears this sucker is about to go off after a what's described as an explosive meeting between the staff and the new boss of that show. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. These are meetings, Robes we have been in plenty over the years. Never seen one quite go like this.
00:00:33
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, yes, And I think, Look, I don't know if it's just in the news business. I would imagine in most companies when you have a new boss, a new leader, a new whoever, you have a staff meeting and it's kind of a get to know the new boss meeting, and usually people are pretty kiss ass at those meetings. Best behavior, Oh, you want to think of like the best question you can ask and have a smile, make a good impression on your new boss, so things go well for you. Yet the exact opposite happened at CBS News yesterday morning during a sixty minutes staff meeting where they got to meet their new executive producer, Nick Bilton.
00:01:16
Speaker 1: Robes this.
00:01:18
Speaker 2: I have never heard of one quite like this. As you all know, the setup here is that sixty Minutes let go of three women veteran journalists, one of them the EP who was the daughter of longtime correspondent Bob Simon. Also let go of two correspondents, one of them a very dear friend at Cecilia Vega. She was fired before her contract. These folks were clearly fired and let go. So they bring in Robes. His named Nick Bilton, who's a guy who doesn't have and doesn't come from the same journalistic and certainly television journalism pedigree.
00:01:52
Speaker 3: He has no broadcast news experience period none.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: That was being nice, Yes, that's a better way.
00:01:57
Speaker 3: This is the truth. He was a technology columnist, which is fine for The New York Times, and he's a documentarian. I think he's got some shows on Netflix, respect but certainly does not have broadcast news experience. And for a show like sixty Minutes, which is basically the gold standard for investigative journalism, that's a head scratcher. To put it mildly, we.
00:02:19
Speaker 2: All understand what sixty Minutes is without having to explain. This is the longest running, it is the most respected It is the most successful news magazine on television period, and it's been that from the beginning. It created the idea of news magazines that everybody else is trying to do. It's been on the air since nineteen sixty eight, folks, and it's number one in news every single week, every month forever, done, not close, nothing else to talk about it, and.
00:02:47
Speaker 3: Its readings were up year to year. That's a huge deal here when we see nothing but declining ratings in broadcast format.
00:02:55
Speaker 2: So with that, bring us forward now to Barry Weiss, the new editor in chief who was brought in who didn't also have any broadcast experience. She's changing the place up. Fine, she has the right to do it. They now say they want to move sixty Minutes and a into a new era if you.
00:03:11
Speaker 1: Will, yes, okay, yes, okay. She could do what she wants to do. She is the boss.
00:03:16
Speaker 2: But Scott Pelly has been there a long time at CBS Robes and if anybody was going to speak up, it would be him.
00:03:23
Speaker 3: And it was him, Scott Pelly, as I'm sure most people know his name. Yes, veterans sixty Minutes correspondent and the former evening news anchor By the way, from twenty eleven to twenty seventeen, he had the most prestigious position at CBS News inheriting it from Walter Cronkite. Dan Rather, I mean, these are the folks that he assumed this position from. He left in twenty seventeen, but stayed on with sixty Minutes and is a prominent face and a respected man in that building.
00:03:53
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he is the most prominent and.
00:03:56
Speaker 3: Most respected journalists there.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: I ball and so on that show of big time journalist sixty Minutes.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: He's still the man.
00:04:02
Speaker 3: You think Leslie Stall, you think you think Scott Pelly, Absolutely go back so.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: We can read off Moy Safer, Wow, Mike Wallace, ed Frickin' Bradley. This is the show we're talking about. So those folks who have put on a successful show for fifty years, have a technology journalist who's never been in TV.
00:04:22
Speaker 1: Come in robes.
00:04:24
Speaker 2: They're going to be They're already pissed about what's been happening to the show, so this is their first chance to go face to face and have a meet and greet with the new boss.
00:04:33
Speaker 3: And by the way, this is not hearsay. Someone in that staff recorded the whole damn thing on their phone and sent it. The New York Times has it, The Washington Post has it, several news outlets have it, and so we actually know exactly what was said, and we have the verbatim. I have the more contentious exchanges here that I've written down so we can we can read them, and they're joh Ra.
00:04:59
Speaker 2: To confirm as well. These two organizations haven't and every single line is matching up.
00:05:04
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, perfectly.
00:05:05
Speaker 3: I went back.
00:05:06
Speaker 1: They have the same.
00:05:07
Speaker 3: Audience to all the Actually I went through all the different articles and put it all together. So yes, all verified here. So Nick Bilton starts out as he would just introducing himself, and he's talking about journalism. He wants to dispel rumors, and so he says, for me, the journalism is the journalism. That is why I am here, that is why we are all here. The rumors people are spreading that I'm going to turn the show into sixty one minute episodes, that it's going to be like TikTok. That is not changing. The show is going to stay exactly like it is for now. But then he warned, stop y for now. The two most important words he said in.
00:05:43
Speaker 2: That Robes, that's terrifying, correct, But we are not doing something wrong here that needs to be changed.
00:05:51
Speaker 1: Now.
00:05:51
Speaker 2: I know it's a new era and things, but Robes, we've talked about this the other day.
00:05:56
Speaker 1: If it ain't broke, why are you fixed it?
00:06:00
Speaker 3: Exactly?
00:06:01
Speaker 1: And wrote, for now is the scariest thing I heard in the whole spore for now.
00:06:04
Speaker 3: And then he went on to Warren that broadcast is an ice cube that is melting.
00:06:09
Speaker 1: Okay, we hear this, We've been hearing it, understand.
00:06:12
Speaker 3: And then he told and this is what set off Scott Pelly into this unbelievable exchange. Then he told CBS told the staff that CBS News editor in chief Barry Weiss quote loves this institution, referring to sixty minutes.
00:06:27
Speaker 2: Should we take her at her word? Robes, one of my we don't know this woman at all. We see the changes happening, we see these stories come out, but they don't seem to be giving her the benefit of the doubt. And they have more of an argument than I do. And insight, I don't know Rope. She can do no right. It feels like right now right, I mean, so to say that in front of this group, everybody rolled their eyes.
00:06:51
Speaker 3: I am sure, okay, so everyone rolled their eyes, but Scott Pelly. After he said Barry Weiss loves this institution, Pelly in a rupted him and said, she is murdering sixty minutes. 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. 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?
00:07:25
Speaker 2: Whoa you know, I mean, that's a legitimate gripe, and then he gets into other things, or you could tell he's angry and he's pissed, and he is it's personal for him. I don't think that was too far in what he was saying, though. That's all those things are true based on traditional qualifications for a job. I am trying to and I have throughout Rose I'm always trying to give people the benefit of the doll give them some grace in these things. I cannot criticize what the plan is for that network is moving forward, because I don't know it. I'm not in that room. I don't know their vision and we don't know what's going on to work. All I know, Robes is I've been in that position before with a room full of people who have new folks coming in, who say they have new ideas, they're going to take a new direction, and it's terrifying, it is. But Robes, I have never worked at something that I respected and loved as much as these people have. For sixty minutes. This is just it's an institution. It's an institution, Robes. Just why people were disturbed to see construction at the White House and you're tearing down a whole wing because it is an institution to some part, and so we really want to hear a justification if you're going to dismantle or change this thing. And people aren't hearing that, and they're not hearing it from people that they trust are good stewards or who have the experience, who have done this before. So this is this is the most important news show to be protected in my general opinion, And you.
00:08:56
Speaker 3: Can hear in obviously Pelly's statements in his passion, he's willing to get fired to say what needs to be said, in his opinion, because he knows what he's saying is a fireable offense.
00:09:09
Speaker 1: He's he's almost seventy and has made his money over there.
00:09:13
Speaker 2: Fine and okay, but he's coming it's coming from a genuine blaze.
00:09:17
Speaker 1: This is real.
00:09:18
Speaker 3: Yes, and Pelly went on and I'm sure this went over very well with the staff demanding that build and explained last week's firings because yes, we've mentioned Tanya Simon and Sharon Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. They lost two of only seven correspondents with Cecilia and Sharon, but they lost four top producers, including Tanya Simon, so it wasn't just Tanya, three other of their top producers. So for this fairly small staff, given what they pull off every week, this was catastrophic. And Pelly called it. He was referring to it as black Thursday and said it was cruel, and then he this is where I thought this was really This is where I got really tense. Scott Pelly asked Bilton why he accepted a position at a show, because he said, I find it impossible to imagine that you would take this job knowing you would never be welcomed here. That is significant to say that to your new boss's face.
00:10:14
Speaker 2: I get the point. I do think this gets to a point where it does become disrespectful in front of a group. What he's feeling, his passion, that's all real, and there are ways to go about doing this. But if his attitude is effitt I don't trust you all, I don't believe in you all. You're never going to get me on your side. And I'm taking my stand right now. It seems like what he's doing, but this is not a This is not the way to go necessarily.
00:10:41
Speaker 3: He definitely did that, and I do think it was interesting how Nick Bilton responded, because he said, I have no problem taking a job in a place I'm not welcome in. I don't think that will be the case. I have been a journalist for twenty five years, Scott. I have sat and talked with incredibly powerful people like you have none of it intimidates me. Okay, you are not going to intimidate me in front of this group of people. I want that to be clear.
00:11:07
Speaker 2: And that's where I think the show is in trouble. That's the part that scares me is that the two most important people working on that show now are in a pissing match, an ego driven pissing match. To a certain degree. You got two guys. Now you're going to have two factions. Right, You're either gonna be with Pelly or are you gonna be with Builton? Absolutely, it's splitting the place apart. This is sixty minutes. I want them to be Okay.
00:11:31
Speaker 3: It gets worse, babe, because just there's sarcasm. You start to see this. This isn't just asking questions, this is firing shots. So Pelly goes, does it show good judgment to take this job under these circumstances? Bilton says, The reason it takes good judgment is because I care so deeply about this institution. Scott Pelley says, oh, please, yeah, I don't.
00:11:52
Speaker 1: This is I mean, I get it to some degree. I hope. I wish this had stayed inside.
00:11:58
Speaker 3: Oh it's internal this I wish ugly.
00:12:00
Speaker 2: This is going to get out no matter what, even if we didn't have the audio, people are going to.
00:12:05
Speaker 1: Be talking about well.
00:12:05
Speaker 3: And then Barry Weiss's top deputy, who was there, his name is Charles Farrell. He interrupts this because it's getting really bad, and he says, Scott, this is getting rude. It's just getting a little rude. This is not actually productive. This is not an interview for a television audience. Scott Pelley says, it's working for me. I'm not being rude. You know what was rude Black Thursday was rude.
00:12:30
Speaker 2: Look, it's heated. Hope it calms down. What is it like in that building? Because this is the EP of the show. Who was right now supposed to be helping the show get on on Sunday needs to be reviewing scripts, needs to be going through legal needs to be a signing new thing. Yeah, they have to work together. What's going to happen? Are they going to take action against Scott Pelley?
00:12:53
Speaker 1: No?
00:12:55
Speaker 2: Look, you've taken a lot of hits. If you want to just go ahead and take all the hits now and move Scott Pelley, you're gonna fire him?
00:13:02
Speaker 1: Is he gonna quit? Ehoo?
00:13:05
Speaker 2: Rose, you know we die? We come on, y'all, all right, all sixty minutes. I'm really begging y'all to get it together on this one. This show is too important. We are struggling too much in the news industry. We cannot have this show struggle. We can't ooh Robes, we hold on to this one, Rose, we can't.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: This is too important for broadcast journalism. We got to get this on.
00:13:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, so look it's TVD on what happens next. But the meeting, we know lasted I think about fifteen minutes. But when we come back, we're gonna tell you how the meaning ended and why Barry Weiss herself wasn't there when this all went down. There's a reason. Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We are talking about veteran CBS News sixty Minutes correspondence Scott Pelly going off on his new boss, the new executive producer of sixty Minutes, Nick Builton, and at the same time went off on the boss's boss. Yes, Barry Wise, this was unprecedented in terms of newsroom meetings that I've ever heard of. We've been in the business for three decades. Ain't never seen a meeting like this.
00:14:23
Speaker 1: Usually they're.
00:14:25
Speaker 2: You exchange notes, like you might be texting somebody across the room, one of your coworkers.
00:14:30
Speaker 1: Like can you believe she just said that? Shit? Right?
00:14:32
Speaker 2: You would never raise your hand and try to call out in front of the staff. No, your new boss, it's just not wise, I would say it's not done. He however, what I say, he's almost seventy been over there, thirty plus years. He just has He just has the he has the capital, he has the journalistic capital that's built up over there to do something like this.
00:14:57
Speaker 3: And it seems as though he has the support of the st as well because how it ended. So Bilton just basically said I look forward to speaking one on one with each of you, and then, according to almost every news outlet that heard the audio recording, he abruptly ended it with enjoy the bagels, because he had brought some food in for the staff meeting and just got up and left, leaving an absolute silence. As soon as he walked out. Different reports say people just erupted into applause, and it was either applause that he left, combined with applause for Pelly, who was there and gave a speech afterwards about just holding things together basically, but the fact that the staff broke out an applause was duly noted and heard on the audio.
00:15:45
Speaker 1: Maybe it was for the bagels.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: Maybe the bagels were exceptional.
00:15:49
Speaker 2: That was my of I don't know anything about Nick Bilton other than what we've read.
00:15:53
Speaker 1: This was my favorite part.
00:15:55
Speaker 2: Enjoy the bagels, something about walking out the room, enjoy your fucking bagel.
00:16:00
Speaker 3: Basically, the way it was described is that's basically what he did, enjoyed the effing bagels. It'd have been funnier if he had dropped the bomb. He did not. And by the way, Barry Weiss was not there reportedly, and this is according to several sources with n CBS News. She was asked Slash advised not to come to the meeting, citing these staff's ill feelings surrounding the firings, so she made a choice not to be there. But they also said that both Barry Weiss and Nick Bilden had tried repeatedly to talk privately one on one with Scott Pelly over the weekend to avoid the very scene that happened on Monday, but they were unable to connect with him. But they claimed that what they wanted to do was tell Pelly that they valued him, that they respect his passion for the show, that his commitment to the show, and they very much wanted him to stay on at the news magazine. So clearly they had heard that he was quite upset about what had happened.
00:17:02
Speaker 1: That's not a good Ropes. That sounds awful.
00:17:07
Speaker 2: It's almost like people who are getting divorced but have to stay in the same house. You have to find a way to not interact Rope. She is the boss and she's too scared to go face her own employees. I used the word scared there, but she was advised not to, Like, you can't be in the same room with the most important staff at CBS News.
00:17:25
Speaker 3: Absolutely should have been there. It was a huge misstep in my opinion, for her not to be there and face the very people she is supposed to lead. But she cannot do that. How can she lead?
00:17:36
Speaker 1: But Rodes?
00:17:37
Speaker 2: Has she not faced them in the midst of all this going on? I mean, is she really not? You have to go get this group together, put your arms around them, explain what's happening, why it's happened.
00:17:49
Speaker 3: We've watched people try to do that before. Give me remember cookies, cookies, and that's what Jea Bagels reminded me of the cookies and Kim got it. That's a whole other story.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: We went through this.
00:18:09
Speaker 2: We had a new boss at ABC News. She came in with much fanfare. She did a whole presentation presenting herself to the whole staff. Remember that we saw it on like people were in the room and others of us. We had to watch it online because we try whatever and we we didn't. We were texting each other like, what the hell is going on? What is she talking about?
00:18:28
Speaker 1: What is it? Oh?
00:18:29
Speaker 2: God, that doesn't vote. So, yes, you hear these things all the time. Your story is hilarious. Yes, she brought us cookies because she completely overlooked the success of GMA three.
00:18:40
Speaker 1: She did a different meeting.
00:18:42
Speaker 2: She did a whole presentation touting all the shows in graphics.
00:18:46
Speaker 1: Now these things were made.
00:18:48
Speaker 3: And we had been we were killing it, hing.
00:18:52
Speaker 1: It at GMA three. We were all excited waiting for the meeting.
00:18:55
Speaker 2: We wait till she gets to us. We were never mentioned that this all Lions meeting and not once. Somebody points out later that she overlooked her little darling show of GMA three. So she hooked us up and gave us some sorrykies.
00:19:09
Speaker 1: We got cookies. Didn't they say something on them?
00:19:12
Speaker 3: I don't know, but it was the worst possible move she could have made because everyone felt so deflated. It was offensive, like you think cookies We want cookies right.
00:19:23
Speaker 1: Now, what we're saying.
00:19:24
Speaker 2: And even then, I think I was the only idiot that said something crazy in the meeting.
00:19:29
Speaker 1: Oh great, you think this makes up for it? We got cookies. I was joking, but we were still mad. I didn't do a Scott Belly thing.
00:19:38
Speaker 2: I knew better and she later Anyways, anyway, this is that part is funny to me. What happens today? Robes they have to go to work, they have to go into the office. There are morning meetings happening. Barry Wise, I assume has a morning meeting that she conducts with the staff. She has to face employees today.
00:19:58
Speaker 3: What happens, Mmm, time will tell tick talk, tic talk, tic toxics and cookies. It's not a good move. It doesn't. It doesn't go over the way I both thought it was.
00:20:11
Speaker 1: I forgot about the cookies.
00:20:13
Speaker 3: All right. We will keep our eye on this situation. As always, we appreciate you listening to us, every one. I'm Amy Roboch alongside T. J. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: It is Tuesday, June second, and apparently that clock ticking at the beginning of every sixty minutes episode is attached to a time bomb, and it appears this sucker is about to go off after a what's described as an explosive meeting between the staff and the new boss of that show. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. These are meetings, Robes we have been in plenty over the years. Never seen one quite go like this.
00:00:33
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, yes, And I think, Look, I don't know if it's just in the news business. I would imagine in most companies when you have a new boss, a new leader, a new whoever, you have a staff meeting and it's kind of a get to know the new boss meeting, and usually people are pretty kiss ass at those meetings. Best behavior, Oh, you want to think of like the best question you can ask and have a smile, make a good impression on your new boss, so things go well for you. Yet the exact opposite happened at CBS News yesterday morning during a sixty minutes staff meeting where they got to meet their new executive producer, Nick Bilton.
00:01:16
Speaker 1: Robes this.
00:01:18
Speaker 2: I have never heard of one quite like this. As you all know, the setup here is that sixty Minutes let go of three women veteran journalists, one of them the EP who was the daughter of longtime correspondent Bob Simon. Also let go of two correspondents, one of them a very dear friend at Cecilia Vega. She was fired before her contract. These folks were clearly fired and let go. So they bring in Robes. His named Nick Bilton, who's a guy who doesn't have and doesn't come from the same journalistic and certainly television journalism pedigree.
00:01:52
Speaker 3: He has no broadcast news experience period none.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: That was being nice, Yes, that's a better way.
00:01:57
Speaker 3: This is the truth. He was a technology columnist, which is fine for The New York Times, and he's a documentarian. I think he's got some shows on Netflix, respect but certainly does not have broadcast news experience. And for a show like sixty Minutes, which is basically the gold standard for investigative journalism, that's a head scratcher. To put it mildly, we.
00:02:19
Speaker 2: All understand what sixty Minutes is without having to explain. This is the longest running, it is the most respected It is the most successful news magazine on television period, and it's been that from the beginning. It created the idea of news magazines that everybody else is trying to do. It's been on the air since nineteen sixty eight, folks, and it's number one in news every single week, every month forever, done, not close, nothing else to talk about it, and.
00:02:47
Speaker 3: Its readings were up year to year. That's a huge deal here when we see nothing but declining ratings in broadcast format.
00:02:55
Speaker 2: So with that, bring us forward now to Barry Weiss, the new editor in chief who was brought in who didn't also have any broadcast experience. She's changing the place up. Fine, she has the right to do it. They now say they want to move sixty Minutes and a into a new era if you.
00:03:11
Speaker 1: Will, yes, okay, yes, okay. She could do what she wants to do. She is the boss.
00:03:16
Speaker 2: But Scott Pelly has been there a long time at CBS Robes and if anybody was going to speak up, it would be him.
00:03:23
Speaker 3: And it was him, Scott Pelly, as I'm sure most people know his name. Yes, veterans sixty Minutes correspondent and the former evening news anchor By the way, from twenty eleven to twenty seventeen, he had the most prestigious position at CBS News inheriting it from Walter Cronkite. Dan Rather, I mean, these are the folks that he assumed this position from. He left in twenty seventeen, but stayed on with sixty Minutes and is a prominent face and a respected man in that building.
00:03:53
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he is the most prominent and.
00:03:56
Speaker 3: Most respected journalists there.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: I ball and so on that show of big time journalist sixty Minutes.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: He's still the man.
00:04:02
Speaker 3: You think Leslie Stall, you think you think Scott Pelly, Absolutely go back so.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: We can read off Moy Safer, Wow, Mike Wallace, ed Frickin' Bradley. This is the show we're talking about. So those folks who have put on a successful show for fifty years, have a technology journalist who's never been in TV.
00:04:22
Speaker 1: Come in robes.
00:04:24
Speaker 2: They're going to be They're already pissed about what's been happening to the show, so this is their first chance to go face to face and have a meet and greet with the new boss.
00:04:33
Speaker 3: And by the way, this is not hearsay. Someone in that staff recorded the whole damn thing on their phone and sent it. The New York Times has it, The Washington Post has it, several news outlets have it, and so we actually know exactly what was said, and we have the verbatim. I have the more contentious exchanges here that I've written down so we can we can read them, and they're joh Ra.
00:04:59
Speaker 2: To confirm as well. These two organizations haven't and every single line is matching up.
00:05:04
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, perfectly.
00:05:05
Speaker 3: I went back.
00:05:06
Speaker 1: They have the same.
00:05:07
Speaker 3: Audience to all the Actually I went through all the different articles and put it all together. So yes, all verified here. So Nick Bilton starts out as he would just introducing himself, and he's talking about journalism. He wants to dispel rumors, and so he says, for me, the journalism is the journalism. That is why I am here, that is why we are all here. The rumors people are spreading that I'm going to turn the show into sixty one minute episodes, that it's going to be like TikTok. That is not changing. The show is going to stay exactly like it is for now. But then he warned, stop y for now. The two most important words he said in.
00:05:43
Speaker 2: That Robes, that's terrifying, correct, But we are not doing something wrong here that needs to be changed.
00:05:51
Speaker 1: Now.
00:05:51
Speaker 2: I know it's a new era and things, but Robes, we've talked about this the other day.
00:05:56
Speaker 1: If it ain't broke, why are you fixed it?
00:06:00
Speaker 3: Exactly?
00:06:01
Speaker 1: And wrote, for now is the scariest thing I heard in the whole spore for now.
00:06:04
Speaker 3: And then he went on to Warren that broadcast is an ice cube that is melting.
00:06:09
Speaker 1: Okay, we hear this, We've been hearing it, understand.
00:06:12
Speaker 3: And then he told and this is what set off Scott Pelly into this unbelievable exchange. Then he told CBS told the staff that CBS News editor in chief Barry Weiss quote loves this institution, referring to sixty minutes.
00:06:27
Speaker 2: Should we take her at her word? Robes, one of my we don't know this woman at all. We see the changes happening, we see these stories come out, but they don't seem to be giving her the benefit of the doubt. And they have more of an argument than I do. And insight, I don't know Rope. She can do no right. It feels like right now right, I mean, so to say that in front of this group, everybody rolled their eyes.
00:06:51
Speaker 3: I am sure, okay, so everyone rolled their eyes, but Scott Pelly. After he said Barry Weiss loves this institution, Pelly in a rupted him and said, she is murdering sixty minutes. 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. 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?
00:07:25
Speaker 2: Whoa you know, I mean, that's a legitimate gripe, and then he gets into other things, or you could tell he's angry and he's pissed, and he is it's personal for him. I don't think that was too far in what he was saying, though. That's all those things are true based on traditional qualifications for a job. I am trying to and I have throughout Rose I'm always trying to give people the benefit of the doll give them some grace in these things. I cannot criticize what the plan is for that network is moving forward, because I don't know it. I'm not in that room. I don't know their vision and we don't know what's going on to work. All I know, Robes is I've been in that position before with a room full of people who have new folks coming in, who say they have new ideas, they're going to take a new direction, and it's terrifying, it is. But Robes, I have never worked at something that I respected and loved as much as these people have. For sixty minutes. This is just it's an institution. It's an institution, Robes. Just why people were disturbed to see construction at the White House and you're tearing down a whole wing because it is an institution to some part, and so we really want to hear a justification if you're going to dismantle or change this thing. And people aren't hearing that, and they're not hearing it from people that they trust are good stewards or who have the experience, who have done this before. So this is this is the most important news show to be protected in my general opinion, And you.
00:08:56
Speaker 3: Can hear in obviously Pelly's statements in his passion, he's willing to get fired to say what needs to be said, in his opinion, because he knows what he's saying is a fireable offense.
00:09:09
Speaker 1: He's he's almost seventy and has made his money over there.
00:09:13
Speaker 2: Fine and okay, but he's coming it's coming from a genuine blaze.
00:09:17
Speaker 1: This is real.
00:09:18
Speaker 3: Yes, and Pelly went on and I'm sure this went over very well with the staff demanding that build and explained last week's firings because yes, we've mentioned Tanya Simon and Sharon Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. They lost two of only seven correspondents with Cecilia and Sharon, but they lost four top producers, including Tanya Simon, so it wasn't just Tanya, three other of their top producers. So for this fairly small staff, given what they pull off every week, this was catastrophic. And Pelly called it. He was referring to it as black Thursday and said it was cruel, and then he this is where I thought this was really This is where I got really tense. Scott Pelly asked Bilton why he accepted a position at a show, because he said, I find it impossible to imagine that you would take this job knowing you would never be welcomed here. That is significant to say that to your new boss's face.
00:10:14
Speaker 2: I get the point. I do think this gets to a point where it does become disrespectful in front of a group. What he's feeling, his passion, that's all real, and there are ways to go about doing this. But if his attitude is effitt I don't trust you all, I don't believe in you all. You're never going to get me on your side. And I'm taking my stand right now. It seems like what he's doing, but this is not a This is not the way to go necessarily.
00:10:41
Speaker 3: He definitely did that, and I do think it was interesting how Nick Bilton responded, because he said, I have no problem taking a job in a place I'm not welcome in. I don't think that will be the case. I have been a journalist for twenty five years, Scott. I have sat and talked with incredibly powerful people like you have none of it intimidates me. Okay, you are not going to intimidate me in front of this group of people. I want that to be clear.
00:11:07
Speaker 2: And that's where I think the show is in trouble. That's the part that scares me is that the two most important people working on that show now are in a pissing match, an ego driven pissing match. To a certain degree. You got two guys. Now you're going to have two factions. Right, You're either gonna be with Pelly or are you gonna be with Builton? Absolutely, it's splitting the place apart. This is sixty minutes. I want them to be Okay.
00:11:31
Speaker 3: It gets worse, babe, because just there's sarcasm. You start to see this. This isn't just asking questions, this is firing shots. So Pelly goes, does it show good judgment to take this job under these circumstances? Bilton says, The reason it takes good judgment is because I care so deeply about this institution. Scott Pelley says, oh, please, yeah, I don't.
00:11:52
Speaker 1: This is I mean, I get it to some degree. I hope. I wish this had stayed inside.
00:11:58
Speaker 3: Oh it's internal this I wish ugly.
00:12:00
Speaker 2: This is going to get out no matter what, even if we didn't have the audio, people are going to.
00:12:05
Speaker 1: Be talking about well.
00:12:05
Speaker 3: And then Barry Weiss's top deputy, who was there, his name is Charles Farrell. He interrupts this because it's getting really bad, and he says, Scott, this is getting rude. It's just getting a little rude. This is not actually productive. This is not an interview for a television audience. Scott Pelley says, it's working for me. I'm not being rude. You know what was rude Black Thursday was rude.
00:12:30
Speaker 2: Look, it's heated. Hope it calms down. What is it like in that building? Because this is the EP of the show. Who was right now supposed to be helping the show get on on Sunday needs to be reviewing scripts, needs to be going through legal needs to be a signing new thing. Yeah, they have to work together. What's going to happen? Are they going to take action against Scott Pelley?
00:12:53
Speaker 1: No?
00:12:55
Speaker 2: Look, you've taken a lot of hits. If you want to just go ahead and take all the hits now and move Scott Pelley, you're gonna fire him?
00:13:02
Speaker 1: Is he gonna quit? Ehoo?
00:13:05
Speaker 2: Rose, you know we die? We come on, y'all, all right, all sixty minutes. I'm really begging y'all to get it together on this one. This show is too important. We are struggling too much in the news industry. We cannot have this show struggle. We can't ooh Robes, we hold on to this one, Rose, we can't.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: This is too important for broadcast journalism. We got to get this on.
00:13:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, so look it's TVD on what happens next. But the meeting, we know lasted I think about fifteen minutes. But when we come back, we're gonna tell you how the meaning ended and why Barry Weiss herself wasn't there when this all went down. There's a reason. Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We are talking about veteran CBS News sixty Minutes correspondence Scott Pelly going off on his new boss, the new executive producer of sixty Minutes, Nick Builton, and at the same time went off on the boss's boss. Yes, Barry Wise, this was unprecedented in terms of newsroom meetings that I've ever heard of. We've been in the business for three decades. Ain't never seen a meeting like this.
00:14:23
Speaker 1: Usually they're.
00:14:25
Speaker 2: You exchange notes, like you might be texting somebody across the room, one of your coworkers.
00:14:30
Speaker 1: Like can you believe she just said that? Shit? Right?
00:14:32
Speaker 2: You would never raise your hand and try to call out in front of the staff. No, your new boss, it's just not wise, I would say it's not done. He however, what I say, he's almost seventy been over there, thirty plus years. He just has He just has the he has the capital, he has the journalistic capital that's built up over there to do something like this.
00:14:57
Speaker 3: And it seems as though he has the support of the st as well because how it ended. So Bilton just basically said I look forward to speaking one on one with each of you, and then, according to almost every news outlet that heard the audio recording, he abruptly ended it with enjoy the bagels, because he had brought some food in for the staff meeting and just got up and left, leaving an absolute silence. As soon as he walked out. Different reports say people just erupted into applause, and it was either applause that he left, combined with applause for Pelly, who was there and gave a speech afterwards about just holding things together basically, but the fact that the staff broke out an applause was duly noted and heard on the audio.
00:15:45
Speaker 1: Maybe it was for the bagels.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: Maybe the bagels were exceptional.
00:15:49
Speaker 2: That was my of I don't know anything about Nick Bilton other than what we've read.
00:15:53
Speaker 1: This was my favorite part.
00:15:55
Speaker 2: Enjoy the bagels, something about walking out the room, enjoy your fucking bagel.
00:16:00
Speaker 3: Basically, the way it was described is that's basically what he did, enjoyed the effing bagels. It'd have been funnier if he had dropped the bomb. He did not. And by the way, Barry Weiss was not there reportedly, and this is according to several sources with n CBS News. She was asked Slash advised not to come to the meeting, citing these staff's ill feelings surrounding the firings, so she made a choice not to be there. But they also said that both Barry Weiss and Nick Bilden had tried repeatedly to talk privately one on one with Scott Pelly over the weekend to avoid the very scene that happened on Monday, but they were unable to connect with him. But they claimed that what they wanted to do was tell Pelly that they valued him, that they respect his passion for the show, that his commitment to the show, and they very much wanted him to stay on at the news magazine. So clearly they had heard that he was quite upset about what had happened.
00:17:02
Speaker 1: That's not a good Ropes. That sounds awful.
00:17:07
Speaker 2: It's almost like people who are getting divorced but have to stay in the same house. You have to find a way to not interact Rope. She is the boss and she's too scared to go face her own employees. I used the word scared there, but she was advised not to, Like, you can't be in the same room with the most important staff at CBS News.
00:17:25
Speaker 3: Absolutely should have been there. It was a huge misstep in my opinion, for her not to be there and face the very people she is supposed to lead. But she cannot do that. How can she lead?
00:17:36
Speaker 1: But Rodes?
00:17:37
Speaker 2: Has she not faced them in the midst of all this going on? I mean, is she really not? You have to go get this group together, put your arms around them, explain what's happening, why it's happened.
00:17:49
Speaker 3: We've watched people try to do that before. Give me remember cookies, cookies, and that's what Jea Bagels reminded me of the cookies and Kim got it. That's a whole other story.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: We went through this.
00:18:09
Speaker 2: We had a new boss at ABC News. She came in with much fanfare. She did a whole presentation presenting herself to the whole staff. Remember that we saw it on like people were in the room and others of us. We had to watch it online because we try whatever and we we didn't. We were texting each other like, what the hell is going on? What is she talking about?
00:18:28
Speaker 1: What is it? Oh?
00:18:29
Speaker 2: God, that doesn't vote. So, yes, you hear these things all the time. Your story is hilarious. Yes, she brought us cookies because she completely overlooked the success of GMA three.
00:18:40
Speaker 1: She did a different meeting.
00:18:42
Speaker 2: She did a whole presentation touting all the shows in graphics.
00:18:46
Speaker 1: Now these things were made.
00:18:48
Speaker 3: And we had been we were killing it, hing.
00:18:52
Speaker 1: It at GMA three. We were all excited waiting for the meeting.
00:18:55
Speaker 2: We wait till she gets to us. We were never mentioned that this all Lions meeting and not once. Somebody points out later that she overlooked her little darling show of GMA three. So she hooked us up and gave us some sorrykies.
00:19:09
Speaker 1: We got cookies. Didn't they say something on them?
00:19:12
Speaker 3: I don't know, but it was the worst possible move she could have made because everyone felt so deflated. It was offensive, like you think cookies We want cookies right.
00:19:23
Speaker 1: Now, what we're saying.
00:19:24
Speaker 2: And even then, I think I was the only idiot that said something crazy in the meeting.
00:19:29
Speaker 1: Oh great, you think this makes up for it? We got cookies. I was joking, but we were still mad. I didn't do a Scott Belly thing.
00:19:38
Speaker 2: I knew better and she later Anyways, anyway, this is that part is funny to me. What happens today? Robes they have to go to work, they have to go into the office. There are morning meetings happening. Barry Wise, I assume has a morning meeting that she conducts with the staff. She has to face employees today.
00:19:58
Speaker 3: What happens, Mmm, time will tell tick talk, tic talk, tic toxics and cookies. It's not a good move. It doesn't. It doesn't go over the way I both thought it was.
00:20:11
Speaker 1: I forgot about the cookies.
00:20:13
Speaker 3: All right. We will keep our eye on this situation. As always, we appreciate you listening to us, every one. I'm Amy Roboch alongside T. J. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.