00:02The turmoil at 60 Minutes is growing this morning.
00:06Just days after a major leadership shake-up, veteran correspondent Scott Pelley is out,
00:11fired by CBS News following a heated confrontation with the show's new boss.
00:17According to multiple reports, Pelley used a staff meeting Monday to blast CBS News leadership,
00:23including editor-in-chief Barry Weiss, accusing her of, quote,
00:26murdering 60 Minutes and questioning the qualifications of new executive producer Nick Bilton.
00:32Less than 24 hours later, Bilton hit back.
00:35In a termination letter, he accused Pelley of hijacking his first staff meeting
00:40and publicly disparaging him with what he called remarkable incivility and contempt.
00:45Pelley responded with a statement of his own, taking aim at Weiss and the network's management, quote,
00:51The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable.
00:54The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.
00:59The firing comes less than a week after CBS removed correspondents Sharon Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega,
01:06along with several senior producers, as part of a broader overhaul of the network's flagship news magazine.
01:12Anchor Anderson Cooper announced in February that he, too, is leaving the show.
01:16The changes have sparked a growing debate inside CBS over the future of 60 Minutes under new ownership.
01:22Last year, Paramount's Skydance leadership hired Weiss and acquired her media company,
01:28the Free Press, as part of its effort to remake CBS News.
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