LEILA FADEL, HOST:
An uncivil war within CBS News and "60 Minutes" broke into the open last night. CBS fired veteran correspondent Scott Pelley. New editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has sought to assert control of the network's news division and "60 Minutes" - its most prestigious and profitable news program. Pelley accused the show's new executive producer of being unqualified for the job and Weiss of trying to murder the show after she fired two of its award-winning correspondents and its executive producer. NPR's David Folkenflik has been covering this story and joins us now. Hey, David.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So how did these internal tensions become so combustible?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, this was a staff meeting on Monday that boiled into the open. The way to think of it from a bit of a distance is you're seeing a group of people who had previously been outsiders trying to take control of an insular culture. "60 Minutes" is the most-watched TV news show in America. You had Bari Weiss, who was brought in just last October from the news and views site The Free Press - a center-right site at that - with no experience in television, deciding she wanted to assert control of this - you know, this property, perhaps the most valuable at CBS News. She fired top executives of the show last week. She ousted two correspondents.
And concerns had bubbled up in recent months about Weiss' involvement in editing of the show - that she had been accused of holding up stories and inserting material more favorable to President Trump and to Israel. She brought in a new executive producer with no TV news experience also named Nick Bilton. And Scott Pelley at this meeting Monday told Bilton that he wasn't welcome, he wasn't qualified. And he trotted out that murder line, saying Weiss was trying to murder the show.
FADEL: Yeah. And so I'm hearing you say this is the most-watched TV news show in America. It's prestigious. It's profitable. So what is CBS actually trying to achieve here?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, you know, Weiss came in, and she had been openly concerned about what she contends is sort of anti-Trump bias in the mainstream media and CBS itself. She and Bilton said that what they're really trying to do is refashion "60 Minutes" for the digital age. But it's worth understanding also the context in which she was brought in. David Ellison only took over CBS' parent company, Paramount, last summer with the approval of President Trump's regulators. He's now seeking approval from the Trump administration for a much bigger deal to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of HBO and, not unrelatedly, CNN. And, you know, he and his father, the co-founder of Oracle, have essentially allied themselves with the president in their pursuit of doing so.
FADEL: What have we heard from CBS and Pelley since the firing?
FOLKENFLIK: So there have basically been dueling statements. Nick Bilton sent out an email to Pelley, which we've obtained. He called Pelley performatively hostile. He said Pelley had hijacked his first staff meeting with colleagues there and that he had deep antipathy towards the vision he had for "60 Minutes." Pelley put out a statement late last night that he shared with me. He's not only, of course, a correspondent at "60 Minutes," but the former anchor of the "CBS Evening News." He says "60 Minutes" has lost its DNA and, perhaps more seriously, he alleges executives sought to make him inject falsehoods, bias and unverified claims into his stories. He said he deflected those efforts.
CBS has not responded to my queries about those claims but has denied similar allegations made by the two correspondents that Weiss had previously ousted last week. At a staff meeting this morning, Weiss said simply that Pelley, although he had done admirable work for them, that work had broken trust with CBS News and that he chose his own path. That is, it was his decision to make the actions that lead to his firing.
FADEL: And really quickly, do we know what's ahead for "60 Minutes"?
FOLKENFLIK: I think there are only three correspondents left, and we don't know whether or not they'll stick around. I think we're going to hear news from them in the next day or two.
FADEL: That's NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik. Thank you, David.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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