What Scott Pelley Once Told Me About 60 Minutes And The Future Of News

BusinessMediaWhat Scott Pelley Once Told Me About 60 Minutes And The Future Of NewsByAndy Meek,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I report on media as well as its intersection with news and culture.Follow AuthorJun 03, 2026, 05:16pm EDTLongtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley attends an event at Paramount Studios in Hollywood in May 2024.AFP via Getty ImagesHours after CBS fired longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday, following a tense and widely reported clash with the show’s newly installed executive producer Nick Bilton one day prior, I found myself thinking back to a phone conversation I once had with Pelley as he was on his way to JFK Airport to fly out for a story.He was headed to Europe, and we eventually got around to talking about the show itself. When I asked at one point why 60 Minutes still matters today, Pelley didn’t hesitate: In an age of fragmented information, misinformation, and evaporating trust from viewers, he insisted that the program's mission had never been more important. The show “must exist today,” he told me, “because the quality of information has become so poor. People are getting information in tiny fragments. People are getting disinformation fed to them from all corners.“And 60 Minutes is a place where you can go still today, thank god, where you can see a story that is well-researched, well-edited … So I think 60 Minutes’ reason to be has never been greater in its entire history.”A tumultuous week for ‘60 Minutes’His remarks to me then obviously stand in contrast to his assertion to Bilton earlier this week that CBS News boss Bari Weiss is “murdering” 60 Minutes at the behest of the Trump administration — and also under the auspices of David Ellison, the Trump-aligned CEO of Paramount, which owns CBS News.CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. Getty Images for Uber, X and The Free PressMORE FOR YOUPelley’s abrupt firing, one of the biggest stories in m...