Former “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley suggested in an interview with the New York Times that CBS News parent Paramount Skydance would remove Bari Weiss from leading the news division, arguing in an emotional exchange that “television is not her thing” and that her lack of experience with the media and belief that mainstream media is biased were undermining the journalism produced by the venerable news organization.
“We need adult supervision, and right now we don’t have it. Some of the people who are in these jobs, through no fault of their own, have no experience in television. They don’t know what they’re doing,” Perry said in an interview with the Times’ Lulu Garcia-Navarro. “And there’s a subtle political bias that I’ve never seen before on 60 Minutes or CBS News. So that’s my hope: that sanity is restored.”
Perry was fired from CBS News last week after a dramatic conflict with Nick Bilton. Mr. Bilton was appointed editor-in-chief of the long-running news magazine by Mr. Weiss following the firing of a significant portion of the program’s senior staff and on-air correspondents. Among those kicked out was former executive producer Tanya Simon. Editor-in-chief Dragaan Mikhailovich. and correspondents Sharin Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.
In an interview, Perry said Simon’s forced deportation affected him “like my spouse being murdered.” And he said “CBS News is under fire” after the news magazine’s senior staffers were fired.
CBS News said in a statement that Weiss made suggestions about Perry’s specific story, but they were part of a “back-and-forth editorial process” and were “not politically motivated and were made solely to make the story as strong, fair and accurate as possible.” CBS News also described itself as a “collaborative newsroom.”
A CBS News spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on other parts of Perry’s interview.
Mr. Weiss has presided over one of the most turbulent eras at CBS News. She believes the news sector is not only fighting for its survival, but also for new audiences, news lovers and consumers who want to be informed through social and digital platforms instead of watching television. At the same time, CBS News programming, including “CBS Sunday Morning” and “CBS Evening News,” is a cornerstone of an important part of the news diet, generating millions of dollars in advertising revenue and helping power the distribution of CBS and other Paramount properties on cable systems and streaming venues around the world.
But Perry argued that the people at CBS News are well aware of the challenges of modern media. “Of course we have to appeal to younger and younger audiences, but their discussion about joining the Internet age is completely disingenuous. It’s like Bari Weiss and Nick Bilton were sealed in a time capsule in 1990 and now it’s cracked open. They’ve just discovered the Internet and are running around telling everyone how important it is,” he said in an interview. “At CBS News, yes, join the fight. We launched the first 60 Minutes online show, 60 Minutes Overtime, in 2010. I was filming a TikTok vertical. Or every time I worked, I was filming a TikTok vertical. We’re there. We’re everywhere.”
When asked whether Mr. Weiss should be removed from her post at CBS News, Mr. Perry replied, “Oh, yeah. Look, she’s a lovely person, and the free press organization that she founded is very successful. But… Television is not her thing. This is like someone walking up to me and saying, “We have a 747 and we have 400 people on it. Please fly us to Paris.” I have no idea, so I say no. And it would have been much better if Bari Weiss had been offered this job and said, “Oh, that’s not for me, I don’t know how to do it.” ”
Perry said it was his intention to remain on the show following its recent overhaul, and that he believed three of the show’s remaining correspondents, Leslie Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim, agreed last week to stay on “60 Minutes” in order to keep it going. Correspondents said: “We have previously talked about staying to uphold the principles of the broadcast. If we leave, there is nothing we can do about it.” “There was a time when I could have quit, but that very prominent correspondent and I talked about it and decided we could work better internally and influence things for the better. And we did.” “And I was going to stay here and do just that.”
And he said the conflict with Bilton is part of a decades-long culture at “60 Minutes” where correspondents and producers passionately defend stories and decisions. “So this meeting was controversial?” he asked. “Yes, but 60 Minutes is known for two things: ticking stopwatches and tough questions.”
Mr. Perry offered details of Mr. Weiss’s proposal for a story about the killing of a protester in Minneapolis against ICE oppression, saying he felt he wanted to “give a thumbs up to the president’s version of events, which I felt was a level of political influence that I haven’t seen in my 37 years at CBS News.” And he suggested that her “intervention” after top editors reviewed the piece could result in the story being taken off the air in the period leading up to the airing of the episode in which it was scheduled to appear.
“I think inexperience is a big part of the problem,” Perry said. “The hardest part for the crew is trying to make up for all the technical failures in production and television. It was very stressful.”
