US broadcaster CBS fires 60 Minutes’s Scott Pelley after clash with bosses

US broadcaster CBS has fired Scott Pelley, a longtime correspondent for its 60 Minutes programme, after he reportedly said Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was “murdering the show” and accused its new producer of having “slender qualifications” for the job.

The firing on Tuesday deepened the turmoil at the most influential TV news programme in the US, days after a leadership overhaul.

Pelley, 68, criticised management on Monday during a fiery staff meeting with Nick Bilton, the programme’s new executive producer installed by Weiss last week, according to a report on the Status website.

In a termination notice obtained Tuesday night by The Associated Press news agency, Bilton, a technology journalist and filmmaker with no traditional broadcast news experience, accused Pelley of carrying out an “ambush” against him.

“Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” the letter said.

Pelley said in a statement that 60 Minutes has lost its DNA under new management. He accused managers of asking him to “inject falsehoods and bias” into his work without sharing specific details.

“Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration,” he said in the statement.

Status, which said it had a recording of Monday’s meeting, reported that Pelley had said Weiss was brought in to kill the news outlet “and she’s doing exactly that.”