What To Know
- Tony Dokoupil delivered an emotional on-air tribute to Scott Pelley.
- The tribute featured a montage of Pelley’s major reporting achievements.
- Pelley was fired after a confrontation with new executive producer Nick Bilton.
On Wednesday’s broadcast of CBS Evening News, news anchor Tony Dokoupil paid tribute to his former colleague, Scott Pelley, who was fired from his position at CBS’ 60 Minutes on Tuesday, June 2.
“When I started at CBS, Scott Pelley was in this very chair, and still doing a dozen stories a year for 60 Minutes. And amid all of that, still meeting every new correspondent to share his view of the mission here,” said Dokoupil. “He believed freedom of the press, to quote [James] Madison, was ‘the right that guaranteed all the others.’ And the stakes are always that high in that, if you’d made it to CBS News, you were among the best in the world. He worked every single day to live up to that standard.”
The segment then cut to a montage highlighting Pelley’s distinguished career. It featured footage of him reporting from Ground Zero during the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, where he remained for days covering the efforts of first responders. The tribute also showcased his work reporting from the front lines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as his willingness to travel to dangerous hotspots around the world in pursuit of the truth. The montage celebrated his numerous Emmy Awards, high-profile presidential interviews, and his reputation as a journalist who valued truth above all else.
Following the montage, Dokoupil continued his tribute. “There were also presidential interviews, of course, from Bush to Biden. And more than 50 Emmy awards along the way. He was, in some ways, a man from another era, and that’s not a knock. He didn’t watch the competition, he said, because he knew who he was. A journalist who valued truth at all costs. And always kept alive the memory of colleagues killed in the field,” said Dokoupil. “A reminder that his chosen line of work could be a dangerous one. But Pelley also made one major break from the past. He changed the signs around here. Under the CBS Evening News logo, where Scott Pelley’s own name would have been, he instead wrote ‘The CBS Evening News with all of us.’ Well, Scott, from all of us, thank you.”
Dokoupil was brought in by Bari Weiss to anchor the CBS Evening News. Weiss, who was appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News, selected the former CBS Mornings host to spearhead a major programming overhaul of the network. The editorial overhaul under Weiss has faced internal friction. Recent shakeups have seen the departure of longtime 60 Minutes veterans including Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi, and Cecilia Vega.
Pelley was fired following a reported confrontation with the show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, during a staff meeting. As per the New York Times, Bilton told staff that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss “loves 60 Minutes,” to which Pelley responded, “She’s murdering 60 Minutes. She does not love this place; she was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.” Pelley was reported to have told Bilton he had “slender qualifications” for his post, saying he would “never be welcomed there,” and then criticized Weiss’ takeover of CBS Evening News.
After Bilton’s termination letter, Pelley responded, “For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.” Pelley did not identify which story he was referring. A CBS spokesman responded with the statement, “There is no political interference at CBS News, not from ownership, not from Bari Weiss. The only ‘interference’ is the normal back and forth between editor and correspondent that happens at every newsroom.”
In a statement released after his firing, Pelley accused the new bosses of CBS News of trying to win favor with President Donald Trump and that 60 Minutes “lost its DNA” due to the “incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management” that has “wreaked havoc” on the show. He concluded his statement by writing, “I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to ‘keep up the good fight.’ Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.”