cecilia vega

Both SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild East are condemning the recent firings at CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

Under the news network’s editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, on-air correspondents Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega, Sharyn Alfonsi and the program’s executive producer, Tanya Simon, have all been ousted from the legacy newsmagazine. The two unions, which represent journalists, said the recent actions appear to compromise editorial independence.

WGA East president Tom Fontana wrote in a letter to members on Thursday that the changes at CBS News “are more than mere ideological interference with the news. They display a profound contempt for the journalism profession.”

He added, “it is clear that CBS brass is engaged in a near-constant level of editorial interference that would have previously been unthinkable.”

Tom Fontana joined WGA and SAG-AFTRA members on the picket line in the strike over contract negotiation at Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery offices on Aug. 15, 2023, in in New York City.

(Lev Radin / VIEWpress via Getty Images)

SAG-AFTRA similarly said in a statement Thursday that these “decisions can only be seen as part of a broader strategy to gut the crucial independent journalism that is so important to our democratic system.”

A spokesperson for CBS News said in a statement, “There is no political interference at CBS News, not from ownership, not from Bari Weiss. The only ‘interference’ is the normal back and forth between editor and correspondent that happens in every newsroom.”

Pelley, one of the program’s most high-profile correspondents, was fired on Tuesday after speaking out during a team meeting. He reportedly said Weiss “is murdering ‘60 Minutes.’ … She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.” He also questioned the newly hired executive producer, Nick Bilton, and his ability to run the show, citing his lack of TV news experience.

Pelley accused CBS News management of favoring the Trump administration by instructing him to put “falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.”

“I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified,” he said in a statement. “To date, in every case, I have ignored these instructions or refuse them.”

“60 Minutes” is now down four correspondents, following Anderson Cooper’s departure and the firings of Vega and Alfonsi. These are only the most recent controversial moves from Weiss, who’s set on remaking the institution long defined by tradition. She arrived at CBS News in October with no television experience, installed by Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison after he acquired her digital news outlet, the Free Press, with a mandate to change the network.

Since her hiring, there was a significant round of layoffs and CBS News Radio was shut down.

“I’m only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect,” Weiss said of Pelley’s firing during a meeting on Wednesday morning. “That foundation was broken on Monday, and despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back, unfortunately we weren’t able to do so, and so we had to part ways.”

The lack of reporters means “60 Minutes” will have to line up new talent quickly to fill the correspondent roles, as production of the 2026-27 season is already underway.

WGA’s Fontana added, “To our friends and colleagues at CBS News: We see you, and you are not alone. Thousands of your union brothers, sisters, and siblings have your backs.”

SAG-AFTRA also said the union is prepared to take “legal actions related to the company’s conduct over the last several weeks.”

Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.

After a tumultuous week, CBS News took a major step in stopping the bleeding at “60 Minutes.”

In a memo sent Friday morning, the three remaining “60 Minutes” correspondents Bill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl and Jon Wertheim said they will continue with the program. The trio strongly considered leaving in solidarity with their ousted colleagues Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi , Cecilia Vega and executive producer Tanya Simon and her second-in-command Draggan Mihailovich.

Pelley — angry over the dismissal of his other co-workers — was fired Tuesday, a day after confronting the program’s new executive producer Nick Bilton at his first staff meeting. Pelley questioned the credentials of Bilton, a former New York Times journalist with no experience in television news. He also accused CBS News Bari Weiss — who oversaw the changes — of “murdering” the program.

The memo said the decision to stay should not be seen “as an endorsement of the existing power structure.”

“Here’s why we’re staying: We don’t want ’60 Minutes’ to die,” they wrote.

The dismissal of Pelley, considered the most respected journalist inside CBS News, sent shockwaves through the organization and led to speculation of an exodus by the remaining three correspondents.

In their memo, Whitaker, Stahl and Wertheim said they felt the same bewilderment and frustration that Pelley did over the firing of their colleagues.

“We want to express how sorry we are that these principled, fair and honest journalists were treated so shabbily, with such indecency,” they wrote. “Tanya deserves to be celebrated, not truly cast off. Draggan too. It was heartbreaking.”

With the program in full-blown crisis, Bilton spent the rest of the week attempting to calm the waters and retain the disgruntled correspondents. He issued a memo Thursday praising Whitaker, Stahl and Wertheim — calling them “the core of the show’s success” — and promising to uphold the editorial independence of the program.

“We will always pursue stories without fear or favor,” Bilton said.

Nick Bilton, the new executive producer of “60 Minutes,” received a hostile welcome Monday from the CBS News program’s most respected correspondent Scott Pelley as the staff is still reeling over last week’s firings.

In the first staff meeting since Bilton was named last week, Pelley accused CBS News Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the country’s most-watched news program, which recently finished the TV season with a 9 percent ratings increase. Recordings of the meeting were circulated to journalists.

“She is murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” Pelley said. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.” Pelley also attacked the credentials of Bilton, a former New York Times tech reporter and documentary filmmaker who like Weiss has no previous experience running a TV news operation.

Bilton was named to replace Tanya Simon on Thursday, an unexpected move that also came with the firing of correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. The moves were enacted by Weiss, who has targeted the prestigious program for changes since she arrived at the network last fall.

David Ellison, chief executive of CBS News parent Paramount, brought in Weiss — a skeptic of legacy media — with a mandate to move the division more to the political center. But many critics have seen the move as an attempt to placate the Trump administration while Ellison seeks regulatory approval for his deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery,

“60 Minutes,” has long been in Trump’s cross hairs. The president sued the program last year over the editing of an interview with his 2024 opponent former Vice President Kamala Harris. The suit was settled just ahead of the Federal Communications Commission clearing the way for Ellison’s Skydance Media takeover of Paramount.

One person close to “60 Minutes” said attendees at the meeting in the Manhattan West Side offices described it as something they had never witnessed in their careers. The confrontation — and the applause Pelley received from his colleagues during the meeting — also demonstrates how CBS News management may have underestimated the staff’s devotion to the program, now closing in on its sixth decade, that has long been considered the most powerful and respected platform in TV journalism.

A representative for CBS News declined comment on the meeting.

Pelley is held in especially high stature at the network due to his work over the years in dangerous war zones. When he was anchor at the “CBS Evening News,” he displayed photos of CBS News journalists who have died in the line of duty for the network going back to George Polk, who was killed during Greece’s civil war in 1948.

People close to CBS News management said both Bilton and Weiss reached out to Pelley last week to discuss the changes and their plans for the program’s future but he did not respond.

One CBS News veteran said the tense meeting “reads like Scott wants to be fired.”

Weiss has maintained she is committed to expanding the “60 Minutes” brand so it generates viewing and revenue outside of its Sunday night broadcast. But she has also clashed with producers and correspondents over the handling of stories such as Alfonsi’s report on the Trump administration’s use of harsh El Salvador prisons to hold undocumented Venezuelan migrants.

Alfonsi’s message to colleagues saying the segment was held for political reasons led to her dismissal from the program.

Vega posted a message last week claiming she had been facing pressure to insert political bias into her stories. “I very much fear what comes next for … the future of the legendary broadcast,” Vega said in a social media post on Thursday, referring to “60 Minutes.”

A CBS News representative said last week that Vega’s claims “are not based in reality.”

Bilton has tried to reassure veterans at the program that he remains committed to the program’s mandate to provide tough, investigative journalism. The words he’s used in several meetings are that next season will not be much different than the successful year the program just completed.

“He’s very much committed to continuing and extending the kind of journalism that ’60 Minutes’ has been known for.” said one person close to Bilton.