CBS management announced the dismissal of Scott Pelley, one of the journalists most identified with the investigative program 60 Minutes and a senior CBS reporter for decades. The firing followed a sharp confrontation between the correspondent and the program's new management.
According to reports in the U.S., Pelley confronted the program's new executive producer, Nick Bilton, on Monday during a meeting with staff.
A day later, on Tuesday evening, Bilton informed Pelley of the termination of his employment, stating in a letter that the work was ended "for cause and effective immediately."
The confrontation occurred earlier in the week when Pelley sharply criticized changes in the newsroom, saying that the network's chief news editor, Bari Weiss, "is killing '60 Minutes'." Pelley added in that meeting, "She doesn't like this place - she came to kill it, and she's doing exactly that."
During the meeting the correspondent also attacked Bilton, a veteran technology journalist who previously worked at The New York Times and Vanity Fair, claiming he has "limited" skills for the role of executive producer. The dismissal itself comes against the backdrop of a broad overhaul led by Weiss, under which Bilton was appointed to his post last month.
After the firing, Bilton sent a message to program staff in which he wrote, "I thought it important that you hear this from me first. We have parted ways with Scott Pelley." The producer added that he is aware of Pelley's significance to the staff, noting that he tried to find common ground with him during the weekend and the afternoon, but "this was not the way Scott chose."
In another message directed specifically at Pelley, Bilton accused him of inappropriate conduct and wrote, "Yesterday you hijacked my first meeting with the team to smear me, my skills and my intentions, displaying extraordinary rudeness and contempt." The producer concluded that he welcomes respectful discussions within the team, but, he said, "this was not that."