MUTINY: Legendary CBS Anchor Accuses New Boss of Murdering Top Show

Liberty Check

• CBS veteran Scott Pelley erupts in staff meeting, accusing leadership of sabotaging network’s most successful program
• Rookie mistakes pile up as untested executives take control of storied newsmagazine averaging 9 million viewers
• Internal revolt exposes deep divisions as traditional journalists push back against radical restructuring

A firestorm has engulfed CBS News as internal tensions over leadership decisions have exploded into open warfare. What started as whispers of discontent has now become a full-scale rebellion at one of America’s most iconic news programs.

Bari Weiss, the new editor-in-chief at CBS, continues to face relentless attacks from journalists and commentators, mostly from liberals convinced she represents a conservative takeover. The reality is more nuanced, but Weiss has stumbled repeatedly as someone with zero television experience tries to reinvent a network institution.

While headlines focused on President Donald Trump’s decision to drop the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund — made possible because Republicans joined Democrats in openly criticizing support for Jan. 6 defendants — Weiss was dealing with her own internal crisis.

She fired “60 Minutes” correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, along with executive producer Tanya Simon. Ratings for “CBS Evening News” have cratered under new anchor Tony Dokoupil, though CBS itself shares blame for failing to secure him a visa for Trump’s Beijing trip, forcing him to report from Taiwan instead.

But “60 Minutes” has always been different. The crown jewel operates from a separate building across Manhattan’s 10th Avenue. Its ratings have been exceptional, and the show generates over $200 million in advertising revenue for the network.

After 58 years on the air, the program averages an impressive 9.1 million viewers — a 9% jump over last season — with a substantial digital presence.

This makes Weiss’s decision to hire tech journalist Nick Bilton to run the newsmagazine all the more puzzling. Bilton may be talented, but like Weiss, he has never worked in broadcast. It’s almost as if television experience has become a disqualification in the new regime.

Bilton previously worked for the New York Times and Vanity Fair. He met Weiss while collaborating on documentary projects.

“When you take an insider and put them inside a company, nothing changes. I’m not saying that we’re going to change the show completely and drastically,” Bilton told the Times.

“If you don’t disrupt, you yourself will be disrupted. There is nothing I love more than picking a fight,” he said, according to Variety.

Yesterday, a leading member of the “60 Minutes” crew, Scott Pelley, fought back hard during a staff meeting, his voice breaking at times.

“She is murdering ’60 Minutes.’ She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that,” Pelley said of Weiss.

That’s according to a recording obtained by the New York Times.

Pelley continued his withering assessment.

“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?”

Bilton responded that he would meet with everyone individually, including Pelley himself.

Pelley pressed harder, questioning why Bilton accepted the position “knowing that you will never be welcome here.”

That drew pushback from the new executive producer.

“I have been a journalist for 25 years, Scott. I’ve sat across from incredibly powerful people like you have, and none of it intimidates me.”

Weiss was apparently asked to stay away from the meeting entirely.

Bilton may have ideas worth considering. CBS previously created “60 Minutes II,” which ran for seven seasons but collapsed after a Dan Rather segment on George W. Bush and the National Guard turned out to be based on forged documents. Both CBS and Rather apologized.

Now Weiss faces an impossible dilemma. Scott Pelley and Lesley Stahl are the most prominent anchors on the program.

If Weiss fires Pelley over his comments, it will appear she can’t handle criticism and is retaliating against free speech. The establishment media will frame it as authoritarian intolerance.

If she keeps Pelley, she must accept working with someone who has openly attacked her credibility and undermined his new supervisor.

This battle inside CBS News over its most successful franchise is far from over. The question is whether leadership can survive the backlash from veteran journalists who refuse to accept disruption for disruption’s sake.

Americans deserve better.