I Have Been Where Scott Pelley Was
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/03/business/media/bari-weiss-scott-pelley-cbs.html
By now, most people are aware that the new owner of the CBS parent company Paramount, David Ellison, brought in Bari Weiss, who The New York Times called “an opinion journalist,” (which sounds like an oxymoron to me) to run CBS News. I was made aware by my daughter-in-law, who once worked at CBS, that CBS News has a very storied history (think Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite) and those who work there hold the major on-camera talent in high esteem. And, above all, in highest esteem, those on “60 Minutes” rule.
No show at CBS News is more important or more successful than “60 Minutes,” the weekly news magazine that has been on the air for 58 years and “holds the record as the most successful broadcast in television history.” Even in the season that just concluded, “viewership was up 9 percent.” In other words, “60 Minutes” is the jewel of CBS News. It would probably be advisable for new leadership to tread lightly in making any changes to the flagship show of the network’s news division.
The current face of “60 Minutes” along with longtime correspondent Lesley Stahl is Scott Pelley. It has now been widely reported that Mr. Pelley got severely crossways with Ms. Weiss and her new choice to run the show, Nick Bilton, “a tech journalist.” It sounds like Pelley exploded at a staff meeting earlier this week and he was subsequently fired for cause. It also sounds like he spoke up for cause. He was being asked to work for people with no real experience in TV news and Ms. Weiss had been reported to have already meddled with coverage on the show. Weiss also fired two on-air correspondents and the leadership team that brought the show to its current prominence.
I have been where Scott Pelley found himself, trying to steer in the right direction when those above me did not share my values.
I clashed with the MD Anderson president for whom I worked during the majority of my administrative career on several occasions when it came to ethical issues surrounding the performance of clinical trials when I was overseeing the infrastructure supporting those trials and the institution’s compliance with federal code. President Mendelsohn’s generation of physician-scientists didn’t really understand the difference between clinical care (not federally-regulated) and clinical research (extremely federally-regulated). Remember that this same president was overseeing the faculty who were testing the drug he invented and owned a huge piece of without the patients on the trials knowing of the president’s involvement or their potential role in padding his retirement account. This was a classic conflict of interest and was widely covered by the news media.
After my career at Anderson ended, I clashed with the leadership of the largest federally-qualified health clinic in Houston where I was acting Chief Medical Officer. I had demonstrated that the clinical care there was insufficient and I was unwilling to look the other way in the name of profit which had become considerable at this institution.
More recently, I clashed with the Catholic Church (I know what was this Jew thinking?) when shenanigans were occurring within the board of its prized clinic for the indigent. When myself and another board member alerted the church to the conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment on the board, we were both removed.
I have had a colorful history of trying to stand for something rather than fall for anything. This habit of mine tended to get me fired.
Like Pelley, I thought I was doing the right thing in all three situations. Like Pelley, I was not as politically adept as I might have been in making my point. Like Pelley, I was fired. But also, like Pelley, I believed in some underlying ethic. He believed that politics had no place in determining the content of journalism. I believed that skirting federal code or research ethics, let alone giving less than adequate patient care while raking in millions was not what medicine, academic or otherwise, is about.
I am going to watch carefully to see how this plays out at CBS. Will “60 Minutes” still be popular and who will its new on-air talent be? If that talent comes from Fox, I will have my answer. Will Scott Pelley find a new gig and what might that be? Ditto the others fired by Ms. Weiss. Finally, will the last remnants of credibility vanish from network news if those overseeing the programming are influenced by politics and, in turn, try to influence what is and isn’t covered? In other words, will the Trump agenda frame the news as it does on Fox today?
All that being said, I really commiserated with Scott Pelley. I get why he was enraged. Outsiders with no credentials or history of service were damaging a signature program and hurting people he cared about. I really get it.
This is the world of today—devoid of principles and worshipping money. It’s not surprising, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing.
