At a staff meeting yesterday, June 1, 2026, Scott Pelley, correspondent for the CBS News program "60 Minutes," said the following about CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss:
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.
In addition to reporting stories for "60 Minutes" since 2004, Pelley served as anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News" program from 2011 to 2017.
Read about Bari Weiss here.
Present at the staff meeting was "60 Minutes" Executive Producer Nick Bilton. Bilton was appointed as executive producer last Thursday, May 28, 2026, replacing 25-year "60 Minutes" veteran Tanya Simon. During the meeting, Pelley said Weiss has "no qualifications for her job," and he told Bilton he has "slender qualifications."
Source:
Arkin, Daniel. (June 2, 2026). "Scott Pelley accuses CBS News' Bari Weiss of 'murdering' '60 Minutes'". NBC News. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
In an e-mail I received today, Marc Elias weighs in on Pelley's comments. The e-mail also discusses the bigger picture of Trump's attacks on law firms, and the conservative push to take control of media.
Here's the full text of the e-mail (bold added for emphasis):
I met Scott Pelley for the first time last year. He and his producer wanted to do a "60 Minutes" episode about Donald Trump's attacks on lawyers and law firms. The problem was that few lawyers were willing to speak with them.
They wanted to know if I would talk publicly. After being convinced that they would expose the capitulation and collaboration of Big Law with Trump, I agreed.
Pelley pulled no punches. He began the segment with a stark disclaimer:
"It was nearly impossible to get anyone on camera for this story because of the fear now running through our system of justice… Many firms and attorneys have been targeted. Among them is Marc Elias, a longtime opponent of Trump, who is the only lawyer the president has named who was willing to appear on '60 Minutes.'"
Over the next 20 minutes, Pelley methodically dissected Trump's unprecedented attack on the legal profession and the cowardice of the nation's largest law firms that failed to stand up to him. He laid bare the toll this was taking on individuals and the rule of law.
His presentation was professional and compelling. It was, in short, journalism at its finest.
After the broadcast aired, I received a great deal of feedback. Most of it was positive; some was predictably hateful. But among many of my peers who practice at large firms, there was mostly an awkward silence. They knew that Pelley's portrayal of their firms and the profession was accurate.
Since then, Trump has continued to wage war on the institutions of democracy. He attacks the arts, science, the courts, the states, and — of course — the media.
Like lawyers, media figures are uniquely positioned to fight back against these undemocratic efforts. After all, by definition, the media can command attention and deliver a compelling argument.
Yet, like Big Law firms, the largest media entities have chosen cowardice over defiance.
Since Donald Trump's election in 2024, ABC and CBS have settled bogus lawsuits by paying millions to Trump. NBC's parent company contributed to his ballroom. The Washington Post has shifted to a conservative editorial stance at the behest of its owner, Jeff Bezos.
Sadly, these are just the most obvious manifestations of media capitulation. Every day brings subtle new signs of media deference — in the framing of a headline, the placement of a story, the false equivalency drawn between Trump and his opponents.
Like law firm partners, reporters at these media institutions are conflicted. On the one hand, they see what is happening and want it to stop. On the other, speaking out risks losing their jobs and inviting professional criticism. So even as the legacy media grows more compliant with Trump, news consumers are met with gaslighting and silence.
Nowhere has this been more evident than at CBS News. For the entirety of Trump's second term, its parent company, Paramount, has been involved in a messy sale. Its eventual buyer — David Ellison — is close to Trump and, more importantly, needed the Trump administration's approval to complete the deal.
Trump doesn't care who owns Paramount's movie division, but he cares deeply about how he is covered in the media. Conveniently for him, Ellison is focused on the entertainment assets and has little interest in the news division.
CBS News has consequently been placed under the control of Bari Weiss, a conservative commentator and founder of The Free Press, and is being remade to be more conservative and friendly to the Trump administration.
For the most part, journalists at CBS News have stayed silent. So too have those at CNN, which will also be owned by Ellison once the deal closes.
CNN had already begun pivoting away from its critical coverage of Trump before the sale. Once Ellison owns the network, it will almost certainly follow CBS News in becoming a more avowedly pro-Trump outlet.
Pelley's story is, in many ways, the mirror image of what I experienced. Just as a handful of lawyers refused to be silenced when Trump came after the legal profession, a few journalists are now willing to stand tall in the face of this assault on a free press. Pelley is one of them.
At a meeting yesterday with the new head of 60 Minutes, Pelley let loose. He accused Weiss of "murdering '60 Minutes.'" More importantly, he made clear it was intentional: "She was brought in to kill it — and she's doing exactly that."
Pelley is right. The Paramount deal was straightforward: Ellison gets Paramount and the entertainment assets he wants, and Trump gets a neutered CBS News. Killing "60 Minutes" is simply one part of that bargain.
I suspect that Pelley woke up today to the same reaction I did when I appeared on his show — plenty of praise, some criticism, and mostly frightened silence from his peers.
Democracy will not survive the next two and a half years without more people willing to do what Scott Pelley just did. But the prospects of that happening within our large institutions are dim.
I left Big Law in 2021 and started a law firm that is now litigating 87 voting and election cases in 43 states. As lawyers, we are not afraid. We will never back down.
Commentary:
I highly respect Scott Pelley, not only for his long-time commitment to "60 Minutes," but for voicing his opinions. As Elias points out in his e-mail, far too many media entities have remained silent or capitulated to the right-wing assault on media. Pelley showed his true colors and his integrity by speaking out!
Conservatives already have, by far, the most potent right-wing propaganda machine ever created in Fox News. Are you aware of how many different pundits and programs air each and every day, and weekends on Fox?
Take a look at the FOX News Channel Programming schedule. Note that the weekday schedule runs from 4:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. That's 20 hours of right-wing content being spewed out each and every day! Note also that the weekend schedule has three hour-long programs.
Why is it that conservatives need more?
The answer, of course, is that they are insatiable, power-hungry zealots who are hell-bent on destroying liberal values.
If you're a conservative who supports Trump and you disagree with me, then let me ask, "Why do you support Donald Trump?"
Trump is, unequivocably, on a mission to destroy liberals. Trump is the most power-hungry president of my lifetime. If you support Trump, then you obviously support his values.
On December 19, 2024 I posted an HWR Op-Ed entitled "Op-Ed | America Needs a Liberal Alternative to Fox News". I reiterate this crying need today, and I hope and pray that someone with enough money and courage steps up.