Scott Pelley Alleges CBS Management Asked Him To ‘Inject Falsehoods’ Into Story After ‘60 Minutes’ Firing—Full Statement

BreakingBusinessScott Pelley Alleges CBS Management Asked Him To ‘Inject Falsehoods’ Into Story After ‘60 Minutes’ Firing—Full StatementBySiladitya Ray,Forbes Staff. Siladitya Ray is a New Delhi-based Forbes news team reporter.Follow AuthorJun 03, 2026, 04:49am EDTJun 03, 2026, 04:50am EDTToplineOusted “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley called out CBS News and Paramount’s new leadership and accused them of harming the weekly news show’s reputation in a bid to curry favor with the Trump administration in a statement issued early on Wednesday, hours after he was fired by the network for clashing with management.Scott Pelley was fired from 60 Minutes by CBS News on Tuesday.CBS via Getty ImagesKey FactsIn his statement shared with several outlets, Pelley hailed “60 Minutes,” calling it the “most successful program of any kind in history,” and touting its recent ratings successes.The senior journalist said the weekly show’s success was a result of the audience finding “integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories,” before accusing CBS’s new owner—Larry Ellison’s Skydance Media—of casting this aside to “curry a moment of favor” with the Trump administration.Pelley was fired “for cause” by the show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, after clashing with him over the firing of his long-time colleagues and telling Bilton he had “slender” qualifications for the job.In his statement, Pelley lamented the “waste is heartbreaking,” and said “60 Minutes” lost its DNA after its entire senior leadership and two of his on-air colleagues— Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega—were “cruelly fired without cause.”He said they were silenced for standing against “the forces of political bias” before alleging that the new management instructed him to “inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story,” which he claims he ignored. if (!window.cnxel) { window.cnxel = {}; window.cnxel.cmd = []; var iframe = document.createElement('iframe'); iframe.style.display = 'none'; ifram...