Scott Pelley kicks himself out at 60 Minutes (Updated)

 

'60 Minutes' star Scott Pelley fired from CBS News after blasting Bari Weiss in heated showdown    . . . "Bilton further accused Pelley of staging a “performative display of hostility” and claimed he had “no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress.”
“I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama,” Bilton wrote." . . .

. . . “What did he accomplish?” one CBS source said of Pelley’s explosive attack. “He embarrassed the company and the leadership.”

"'The insider added: “This was a set-up. This was Scott going off for show. This was just a show. He wants to stand up for journalism and maybe get fired but what does it change?”

"A second source agreed that Pelley’s tactics were “problematic,” noting that the correspondent should have met with Weiss or Bilton to at least hear them out.

"“That grandstanding thing is insane. It’s third-grade, playground bullying stuff,” the source said. “This is not the way you conduct yourself.”

“You’re not taking down a dictator or someone who has committed war crimes,” the source added. “You’re not interviewing Saddam Hussein. It was a little bit overkill.” . . .

Rachel Maddow urges 60 Minutes veteran Scott Pelley to jump to MS NOW | Daily Mail Online    Why would anyone striving to be a professional journalist ever consider MSNOW?

Scott Pelley kicks himself out at 60 Minutes - Mike McDaniel   . . . "According to Rhodes, the remaking of 60 Minutes—ignoring Pelley’s widely reported gross and serial insubordination—was the fault of—wait for it: Donald Trump. Trump didn’t like their reporting about him so he got them all fired.

"Unfortunately for Rhodes and other Democrats, there’s every reason to think the reshaping is financial. Supposed news outlets can only afford Democrat propaganda for so long. CBS ended Steven Colbert’s late-night anti-Trump fest entirely because it was grossly over-staffed and losing some $40 million per year. There might have been a hint for 60 Minutes there, but if so, they didn’t take it.

"Apparently, Pelly and the rest of the on-air “talent” suffered from “I’m so important you can’t tell me what to do” disease. That’s not uncommon in that industry, but particularly when a property isn’t profitable because it has purposely alienated half its potential audience, management tolerance for that sort of attitude is limited, and Pelly exceeded that limit in spectacular fashion.

"I’ve been an entertainer most of my life. I’ve made a pittance compared to people like Pelley, but I’ve often been asked back because I’ve never pissed off my audience, and I understood I always needed to make my employers think I had something valuable to offer. I knew insulting my employers and acting like an entitled twerp was not the path to success or longevity." . . . 

UPDATE: Katie Couric rubs salt in Scott Pelley's wounds after his firing from 60 Minutes   . . . "She went on to address how those changes set Pelley off during a Monday meeting with the show's next executive producer.

Couric viewed Pelley's comments as tantamount to a 'tirade' and 'impolitic.'

"'I think that's also a massive understatement,' she told guest Oliver Darcy. Pelley was fired a day after the contents of his outburst were leaked to the press within hours.

"'I don't think that [CBS News Editor-in-Chief] Bari Weiss had any choice but to let Scott Pelley go,' Couric - a 60 Minutes correspondent from 2006 until 2011 - reacted.

"'I mean, I think it's a classic definition of insubordination.'". . .