TV News LIES

The end of the 60 Minutes broadcast as we know it has sickened millions of longtime viewers, colleagues, and all of us who are offended and threatened by our current administration and its cronies’ assaults on the first amendment. The news of Scott Pelley’s firing hits particularly hard. He spoke of “risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast”.

Having literally grown up with that broadcast – my father, Morley Safer, joined the program when I was eight months old and retired 46 years later – I am acutely aware of the costs of that devotion. 60 Minutes, particularly in its early days, demanded commitments of time and travel that were keenly felt at home.

I have early memories of trying to speak to my dad through the TV on Sunday niI imagine their families feel similar grief in the wake of the news from CBS, and Washington’s broader attacks on the first amendment. The most trusted and esteemed program in American journalism, the legacy of our loved ones’ hard work and its accompanying sacrifices on the home front, has, in Pelley’s words, been murdered.

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Veteran anchor Scott Pelley was fired by CBS News on Tuesday, a day after his explosive meeting with new 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton.

Bilton announced Pelley’s termination in a letter addressed to the longtime 60 Minutes correspondent, obtained by Mediaite.

“Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” wrote Bilton. “Yesterday’s performative display of hostility enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress.”

The move from the new EP comes just a day after his first meeting with 60 Minutes staff was hijacked by Pelley, who demanded to know more details on Thursday’s firings, which included Bilton’s predecessor, Tanya Simon, correspondent Cecilia Vega, and the show’s long-time Executive Editor Draggan Mihailovich.

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Increasingly outspoken "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley apparently has harsh words for his new CBS bosses.

The anchor, during a reported staff meeting, accused network Editor in Chief Bari Weiss of "murdering" the news institution, according to a recording obtained by The New York Times and reported Monday,

USA TODAY has reached out to CBS for comment.

The outlets report that the meeting was to serve as an introduction to Bilton, a former Times technology columnist and investigative journalist, who was selected to lead "60 Minutes" in late May.

In a tense reported exchange during the meeting, in which The New York Times reports Pelley called Bilton's qualifications "slender," the broadcast journalist questioned Weiss' commitment to the prosperity of the news program.

Bilton's career, which includes investigative work at Vanity Fair as well as writing and producing documentaries, has largely existed in print. He has not worked in broadcast journalism, nor led a newsroom.

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Journalists may no longer enter the Pentagon’s press office, which has been designated as a classified space amid growing moves to restrict press access to the defense department.

"This is the most transparent war department in history. No amount of spin from the Fake News media will change that,” Jose Valdez, the acting defense department press secretary, said in a social media post. “The Pentagon Press Office has been redesignated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility due to speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War sharing the facility.”

Valdez added that, because speechwriters handle classified material, “journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space”.

The move was first reported by the Washington Post, and later confirmed by Valdez on social media.

The defense department, which the Trump administration prefers to call the war department, began rolling out new restrictions to press access in September, when the military demanded journalists pledge not to gather any information – including unclassified documents – that had not been authorized for release or else risk revocation of their press passes.

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CBS News staffers sent a letter to Trump-aligned boss David Ellison to demand he uphold journalistic values, Ben Mullins, The New York Times’ media editor, shared Monday on X.

“Modernizing the show for new audiences and new delivery approaches is important – but not at the cost of editorial integrity,” part of the letter reads. “The wholesale dismissal of editorial management, without a public pledge to maintain the values, standards, and traditions of this program, puts the legacy of ’60 Minutes’ in jeopardy.”

The letter is signed by current and former “60 Minutes” staffers, as well as other prominent journalists and actors, including Dan Rather, Glenn Close, Alex Gibney and Lowell Bergman.

The letter follows a massive shakeup at “60 Minutes” and festering questions about the future of the venerable news program. HuffPost reached out to CBS News for comment.

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The segment at the center of Alfonsi's reported comments, "Inside CECOT," examined the infamous anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador. Human rights groups condemned the maximum-security facility for its dangerous conditions, and the prison has served as a symbol in President Donald Trump's controversial immigration enforcement.

A CBS spokesperson said the story was halted because it needed additional reporting. The segment eventually aired on Jan. 18 with added comments from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, details of the criminal records of those deported, and additional reporting on one with tattoos, the network said in a statement shared with USA TODAY.

Alfonsi, 53, said in an email to multiple news outlets, including Reuters, that she learned that CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss cut the segment not because of an editorial decision but "a political one."

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