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  "path": "/post/211210/60-minutes-pelley-cbs-bari-weiss-murdering-show",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-01T21:42:42.000Z",
  "site": "https://newrepublic.com",
  "tags": [
    "Breaking News",
    "Politics",
    "Republicans",
    "Republican Party",
    "United States",
    "Donald Trump",
    "Bari Weiss",
    "Scott Pelley",
    "Media",
    "CBS",
    "60 Minutes",
    "Black Thursday",
    "notoriously brutal CECOT mega-prison",
    "Status News",
    "The Washington Post",
    "all",
    "the",
    "wrong",
    "reasons"
  ],
  "textContent": "The fight inside _60 Minutes_ is tearing CBS News’s venerated broadcast to shreds.\n\nA staff editorial meeting reportedly flew off the rails Monday morning when longtime host Scott Pelley tore into Bari Weiss’s new pick to run the news magazine as its new executive producer: Nick Bilton, a former _Vanity Fair_ writer with next to no formal experience in broadcast journalism.\n\nShe announced Bilton’s hire the same day that she fired a large swath of the show’s crew, which some at _60 Minutes_ are referring to as “Black Thursday.” The axed staff include correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi (who criticized Weiss’s decision to delay Alfonsi’s report on a notoriously brutal CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador), correspondent Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon, and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich.\n\nThe meeting was intended to introduce Bilton to the show’s team, though Weiss herself was conspicuously absent. With the chief of CBS News missing, the meeting devolved into hostilities, including one particularly heated moment in which Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering” the show, according to audio of the meeting obtained by Status News.\n\n“Bari loves this institution,” Bilton told staffers during the meeting. “She loves _60 Minutes_.”\n\n“She’s murdering _60 Minutes_ ,” Pelley countered. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it—and she’s doing exactly that.”\n\n“You come into our house and expect to be welcome?” Pelley asked Bilton. “Why was Tanya Simon fired? Why was Sharyn fired? Why was Cecilia fired? Why Draggan? Do you know the names of the people that were fired?” He openly questioned Bilton’s credentials and said, “We don’t trust you.”\n\nCBS News managing editor Charles Forelle attempted to intervene in the exchange to no avail. The exchange reportedly left staffers wondering whether Pelley would resign from his post, reported Status.\n\nBilton, nonetheless, did not have satisfactory answers for the producers and crew, according to two staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to The Washington Post. At one point, he unintentionally made staffers laugh out loud when he claimed he would bring in people who are already capable of doing the work of a _60 Minutes_ correspondent, one of the most revered jobs in the industry.\n\nWhen asked if the show could expect more layoffs, Bilton said, “Not right now.”\n\nWeiss has only been in charge of CBS News for seven months, but her business decisions have already cratered its legendary reputation. Once the “gold standard” of broadcasting, and home to some of journalism’s most venerable names, such as Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, the outlet is now making news for all of the wrong reasons.",
  "title": "60 Minutes Star Accuses CBS Chief Bari Weiss of “Murdering” the Show"
}