Letter: Scott Pelley deserved the axe at '60 Minutes'
Former "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley's rank insubordination, vicious bullying and "performative display of hostility" toward CBS management in recent meetings was so far beyond the pale that he richly deserved his firing.
Pelley claimed that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is trying to "murder" "60 Minutes." He claimed he was forced to compromise his work. He claimed that new executive producer Nick Bilton, a respected journalist, is totally unfit for the job.
Pelley charged both of them with incompetence and bias, and many "60 Minutes" staffers, just as liberal and arrogantly entitled as Pelley is, applauded.
Weiss and Bilton very properly stood up to this abuse and fired Pelley. Good riddance. Others should follow. There are many more entitled liberal activists and media celebrities masquerading as neutral journalists among the CBS ranks.
Pelley said he was "blindsided" by his firing. He said it never even occurred to him that publicly trashing his superiors in public might be a firing offense. That's clueless entitlement.
Pelley claims "60 Minutes" is "among the most important (broadcasts) in America." That's false. It's a good show. It's popular. But it's just one among many similar broadcasts. It doesn't have any special corner on the truth or the news.
The real problem for Pelley and others at CBS is that Bari Weiss is right-wing and they are left-wing. The liberals simply don't want their politically slanted coverage tampered with. It has nothing to do with how much experience Weiss or Bilton have.
Pelley claims that Weiss "brings an ideology into CBS News where that is just anathema ... a subtle political bias that I've never seen at '60 Minutes' before, or at CBS News before. We have respected journalists saying that there is a thumb on the scale for one political party over another."
This is ludicrous. It's true that Weiss brings some (much needed) right-wing perspective to "60 Minutes." But Pelley is delusional when he says that this is the first or only ideological thumb on the scale. The full body weight of liberalism has been on the scale at CBS and "60 Minutes" for decades.
What really rankles Pelley and other leftists is losing their ideological grip on the news, their control of the narrative. They dominated it for so long that they think they own it. That's why they hate Fox News. They think their own liberal opinions and world views are always correct. They consider themselves the compassionate, enlightened, progressive ones. Republicans are the deplorables.
Now, due to his own hubris, Pelley is out along with correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon and others. Liberal correspondents Lesley Stahl and Bill Whittaker should follow. Their comments on the situation mirrored Pelley.
The scales of ideology at CBS, after tilting so far left for so long, are beginning to show a little balance.
And Scott Pelley, he of the courtly manner and the coarse manners, can't hold back his tears.
Mark GodburnNorfolk
This article originally published at Letter: Scott Pelley deserved the axe at '60 Minutes' .
