I’m of an age where I remember watching 60 Minutes, which in its heyday was sufficiently unusual to stand apart from other news offerings. Even so, I have no specific memory of any individual program, nor of any particular correspondent. I do know I eventually, long, long ago, gave up on network news, not only because it was often so poorly done, but was poorly done due to wokeness and Democrat bias before wokeness was a thing.
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With new ownership, CBS has appointed Bari Weiss head of the News Division. Weiss recently began cleaning house at 60 Minutes, firing correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon, Executive Editor Draggan Mihailovich, and producer Matthew Polevoy. I remain unaware of any of them and never saw Alfonsi and Vega on air. While Alfonsi provoked a public confrontation with Weiss over a story Weiss didn’t allow to air, the specific reasons for firing the rest remain unclear, though I have a pretty good idea, which I’ll get into shortly.
At PJ Media, Stephen Kruiser explains:
If you’re over the age of 50, 60 Minutes occupies a hallowed seat in the pantheon of TV journalism. That iconic stopwatch — Mike Wallace’s swagger, and John Madden and Pat Summerall telling us to be patient, because “60 Minutes will be shown in its entirety at the conclusion of the game” (except on the West Coast, of course) — are all etched in our psyche like a tribal tattoo. The show had gravitas, grit, guts, and gumption.
If you’re over the age of 50, there’s 60 Minutes… and everything else.
But if you’re under the age of 50, 60 Minutes means absolutely nothing. It’s a lumbering dinosaur, a relic from a forgotten age. Young people associate it with mahjong, reverse mortgages, and Gold Bond Medicated Powder.
Well, I never “hallowed” 60 Minutes, but I take Kruiser’s point. Here’s the latest 60 Minutes blowup:
Graphic: X Post
CBS News fired Scott Pelley on Tuesday, jettisoning one of the network’s best-known journalists in a clash over the future of “60 Minutes,” the country’s top-rated news program.
Mr. Pelley, 68, a “60 Minutes” correspondent and a former anchor of “CBS Evening News,” joined the network in 1989. At a staff meeting on Monday, he accused the network’s editor in chief, Bari Weiss, of “murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” citing the ouster last week of the program’s leadership team and two on-air correspondents.
“We have parted ways with Scott Pelley,” Nick Bilton, the tech journalist who was hired last week as the new “60 Minutes” executive producer, wrote in a memo to the show’s staff on Tuesday night.
Apparently, Pelley not only made the “murder” accusation during that meeting, but crudely and personally attacked Bilton and others with the power to fire him. Not a smart move. And Ben Rhodes, a high muckety muck in the Obama Administration, instrumental in funding Iranian terrorism, was exercised:
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Graphic: X Post
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.
Is the usefulness of network news and shows like 60 Minutes over? It doesn’t look good, and Weiss appears to recognize that future viability is going to require far less Democrat propaganda and hatred of Republicans. Removing people like Pelley is a good first step, but whether an organization like CBS can move from totally Democrat biased to fair and balanced seems an unlikely proposition.
In the meantime, Mr. Pelley is about to find out what he’s worth on the open market. One hopes he’s been saving most of his princely salary.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
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