“60 Minutes” Correspondent Pelley Calls Out CBS Execs for “Murdering” Program

60 Minutes Star Accuses CBS Chief Bari Weiss of “Murdering” the Show

The fight inside 60 Minutes is tearing CBS News’s venerated broadcast to shreds.A staff editorial meeting reportedly flew off the rails Monday morning when longtime host Scott Pelley tore into Bari Weiss’s new pick to run the news magazine as its new executive producer: Nick Bilton, a former Vanity Fair writer with next to no formal experience in broadcast journalism.Weiss announced Bilton’s hire the same day that she fired a large swath of the show’s crew, which some at 60 Minutes are referring to as “Black Thursday.” The axed staff include correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi (who criticized Weiss’s decision to delay Alfonsi’s report on a notoriously brutal CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador), correspondent Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon, and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich.The meeting was intended to introduce Bilton to the show’s team, though Weiss herself was conspicuously absent. With the chief of CBS News missing, the meeting devolved into hostilities, including one particularly heated moment in which Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering” the show, according to audio of the meeting obtained by Status News.“Bari loves this institution,” Bilton told staffers during the meeting. “She loves 60 Minutes.”“She’s murdering 60 Minutes,” Pelley countered. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it—and she’s doing exactly that.”“You come into our house and expect to be welcome?” Pelley asked Bilton. “Why was Tanya Simon fired? Why was Sharyn fired? Why was Cecilia fired? Why Draggan? Do you know the names of the people that were fired?” He openly questioned Bilton’s credentials and said, “We don’t trust you.”CBS News managing editor Charles Forelle attempted to intervene in the exchange to no avail. The exchange reportedly left staffers wondering whether Pelley would resign from his post, reported Status.Bilton, nonetheless, did not have satisfactory answers for the producers and crew, according to two staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to The Washington Post. At one point, he unintentionally made staffers laugh out loud when he claimed he would bring in people who are already capable of doing the work of a 60 Minutes correspondent, one of the most revered jobs in the industry.When asked if the show could expect more layoffs, Bilton said, “Not right now.”Weiss has only been in charge of CBS News for seven months, but her business decisions have already cratered its legendary reputation. Once the “gold standard” of broadcasting, and home to some of journalism’s most venerable names, such as Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, the outlet is now making news for all of the wrong reasons.

Bari Weiss brings Trumpism to “60 Minutes”

CBS News is pushing out dissenters, replacing them with inexperienced hires

Trump drops $1.776 billion ‘weaponization’ fund, Charlie Kirk murder case opens up to cameras

President Trump is abandoning his controversial $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund after bipartisan opposition, court challenges, and pressure from Senate Republicans. Questions now remain about whether the rest of Trump’s massive IRS settlement will survive intact. Meanwhile, a Utah judge has handed down a major ruling in the Charlie Kirk murder case, allowing cameras in court...

60 Minutes meeting blow-up has CBS News reeling: 'By far the worst I've ever seen'

In the aftermath of the explosive first meeting between the remaining "60 Minutes” staffers and new Bari Weiss hand-picked executive producer Nick Bilton, executives at CBS News are picking through the rubble of the very public spectacle of a news organization in crisis.According to media watchdog Status, during the brief 15-minute Monday meeting, noted 60 Minutes co-host Scott Pelley raked Bilton over the coals as Pelley pointed out that his boss, Weiss, has "no qualifications for her job" and added that Bilton has “slender qualifications for this job."According to audio obtained from the meeting by Status, that came after Pelley accused, "She's murdering '60 Minutes'. She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it—and she's doing exactly that."Late Monday, Status reported that Weiss has since been nowhere to be seen, with Oliver Darcy reporting, “Pelley’s extraordinary remarks immediately led staffers inside '60 Minutes' to wonder whether he was leaving the program. Pelley has not commented on the matter, but I’m told he has not quit—at least not yet. Instead, it appears he is daring Weiss to fire him.""Bari may have six bodyguards but she seems afraid to stand by her man Nick and face the grilling at '60 Minutes,'" one television news executive told Status. "No other explanation for sending him [Bilton] to slaughter today and not being there."Inside CBS News and parent company Paramount, Pelley's takedown detonated like "a nuclear bomb," dominating conversations throughout the media conglomerate. Yet the silence from leadership was equally striking, Darcy wrote.Hours after Pelley's attack, CBS News had issued no statement addressing the crisis. Weiss remained notably absent, and network leadership — to whom Weiss directly reports — offered nothing beyond a Paramount spokesperson declining to comment.A veteran television news executive told Status that Pelley's confrontation was unprecedented in scale and severity. "Every new executive lives in terror of those meetings with star talent and staff, and we have all been put through the wringer by angry anchors and employees. But this was by far the worst I've ever seen. By far. A star anchor says you don't have the relevant experience, why did you even take this job, you'll never be welcome here. Savage," the executive said.Despite the apparent catastrophe, one top media executive suggested the situation could be salvaged, telling Darcy during a phone call that the best path forward is to "move Weiss back to her anti-'woke' The Free Press, pay out Bilton's contract, rehire the fired '60 Minutes' staff, and admit the recent moves had been a mistake. Then install a seasoned news manager to oversee CBS News."

What is California’s ‘jungle primary’ – and why are Democrats calling to change the system?

Practice begun in 2012 under ex-governor Schwarzenegger could see two Republicans advance to general electionAs Californians cast their ballots in Tuesday’s primary election, voters can select any candidate among the long list of gubernatorial hopefuls, regardless of which party they have registered under.The system was put in place under former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who supported the open primary, or “jungle primary”, as a way to create more competition in races that Democrats won year after year. Schwarzenegger, who left office in 2011, was the last Republican elected to statewide office in California. Continue reading...

Morning Minute: Go Day in Cali

Trump’s shaky legal footing exposed as judge’s footnotes call out DOJ collusion

On Monday afternoon, June 1, the New York Times reported that President Donald Trump was "backing off" from his plan to create a $1.7 billion "anti-weaponization fund" for Americans it claims were unfairly targeted legally by the Biden administration and former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. And the Trump-era U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said it would abide by a federal judge's order temporarily blocking the fund. According to former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance — a law professor and frequent legal analyst for MS NOW — the fund's fate is only one of the many legal setbacks the Trump administration has suffered recently.Vance examines those setbacks in an early June Substack video as well as a Substack column. Critics of the "anti-weapon fund" are attacking it as a "slush fund" — a description that Vance agrees with. After the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agreed to settle a lawsuit from the Trump administration, DOJ announced the creation of the fund as part of that settlement. President Trump's critics are also saying it is unfair that Trump, according to the settlement, will not be audited by the IRS.Noting a federal judge's footnotes, Vance, in the video, explained, "This is Footnotes 2 and 3 in the judge's order. The second one, she points out that the settlement that Trump receives conflicts with DOJ policy. She says it may be in conflict; it absolutely is, because, you know, here he is suing over having his taxes released. And instead of a settlement that compensates him for that, there's this huge $1.776 billion slush fund —this incredible slush fund, and also the forgiveness." Vance continued, "And then, in the third footnote, she really, interestingly, points out that she's aware, because there's been news reporting, on the fact that internally, in the IRS, lawyers prepared a memo that outlined the pushback to Trump's lawsuit. It was, at best, a very weak lawsuit, like many of his cases are, and the IRS wanted to fight it. And the decision was made at a political level to let it go forward and to roll over and enter into this settlement."Vance predicted that "there's a lot more to come" legally with pushback against the "anti-weaponization fund."In her Substack article, Vance lays out other legal setbacks that Trump has suffered recently — including cases involving the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's anti-transgender policies with the Pentagon."In the Kennedy Center case," Vance explained, "Judge Christopher Cooper held that adding Trump's name to the facility violated the clear language of federal law that requires the building to honor 'President Kennedy and President Kennedy alone'…. The D.C. Circuit enjoined Pete Hegseth from enforcing his anti-trans policy Monday. It was designed to keep transgender people from serving in the military…. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed its motion to dismiss DOJ’s indictment due to vindictive prosecution last week."

(VIDEO) “I Don’t Know Who He Is” – DHS Sec Markwayne Mullin Calls Former Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino “Irrelevant” Amid Criticisms – Bovino Responds!

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin snubbed the legendary former Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino during a press conference on Monday, saying he's "never met the guy" and describing him as "irrelevant." Bovino resigned as Border Patrol Chief in March after he was pulled out of Minneapolis, following the fatal officer-involved shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The post (VIDEO) “I Don’t Know Who He Is” – DHS Sec Markwayne Mullin Calls Former Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino “Irrelevant” Amid Criticisms – Bovino Responds! appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.