The new head of “60 Minutes” found himself in a race against time during a meeting with staff Monday.
CBS News wanted to keep Scott Pelley and the rest of its correspondents tied to its “60 Minutes” program before reports emerged of a heated argument between longtime journalist Donnybrook and Nick Bilton, who was named to head the venerable news magazine last week, according to a person familiar with CBS News.
According to multiple reports, during Monday’s meeting, Mr. Perry lambasted Mr. Bilton and CBS News’ current management, claiming that CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, who orchestrated an overhaul of the show last week, was “killing 60 Minutes.” Mr. Perry also argued that Mr. Weiss was “not qualified for the job,” and that Mr. Bilton was “poorly qualified for the job.”
The remarks were previously reported by Status, a newsletter focused on the media sector. CBS News declined to comment on reports about Perry’s remarks.
Bilton indicated he would like to generate more content with the program. “This show airs one day a week, one night, for an hour, and for me it’s a great opportunity to do different things with it,” he told Variety last week. Bilton will succeed Tanya Simon, the program’s longtime senior manager and daughter of one of its former correspondents, Bob Simon. Her deputy, Dragan Mihailovic, was also expelled, along with two of the program’s correspondents, Sharin Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.
Mr. Perry also demanded to know why CBS News fired former Mr. Simon, Mr. Alfonsi and Mr. Vega, and asked Mr. Bilton, “Why should we expect it to get any better?” Status newspaper reported that Bilton tried to deflect questions and ended up ending the meeting prematurely. CBS News’ new senior editor, Charles Forell, who was recently hired by Weiss at the Wall Street Journal, repeatedly called Perry “disrespectful,” according to Status, which reported the remarks based on an audio recording of the meeting that it obtained.
CBS News was eager to have Perry on the show, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person said CBS News executives have reached out to Perry, Bill Whitaker, Leslie Stahl and Jon Wertheim (all former “60 Minutes” correspondents who remain on the staff) several times in the last week in hopes of persuading them to stay on the show.
Mr. Perry, Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Stahl did not respond to requests for comment last week about the show’s next steps. Wertheim did not immediately respond to inquiries sent Monday.
Mr. Perry is known for taking a stand against CBS News executives when he feels his job or the work of the programs he works on is being undermined. The anchor, a veteran of both “60 Minutes” and “CBS Evening News,” last year slammed the loss of former executive producer and close colleague Bill Owens after what many interpreted as interference with the show by his former Paramount manager.
“Paramount began overseeing our content in new ways. None of our stories were blocked, but Bill felt we had lost the independence necessary for honest journalism,” Perry said in an on-air segment on “60 Minutes.” “Nobody here is happy about it.”
Just last week, Ms. Perry came to support a young student journalist who received a scholarship at last week’s News Emmy Awards. Santiago Campos, a senior at the International School of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., said he was grateful to CBS News for the award, created in memory of former 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace, but said he wanted to “recognize how the recent direction of the program has tarnished the legacy of Mike Wallace, the namesake of this scholarship.”
Mr. Perry praised the speech. “I look forward to seeing your work in the future,” said Mr. Perry. “God, we need young men like you right behind us. I know Mike Wallace is looking down on you with pride at this very moment.”
Perry, interviewed by CNN in 2019, claimed that he was removed from the CBS evening newscast in 2017 after he filed an internal complaint about the news department’s workplace culture. “We’ve been through some dark times over the last few years of incompetent management and a hostile work environment within the news department,” Perry said on CNN’s “Trusted Sources” segment. He added: “I lost my job at the Evening News because I wouldn’t stop complaining to management about the hostile work environment.”
