CBS News fired longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday, a day after he reportedly said Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was murdering the show and accused its new producer of having slender qualifications for the job .The move deepened the turmoil at the nation's most influential TV news program, days after a leadership overhaul.Pelley, 68, criticized management Monday during a fiery staff meeting with Nick Bilton, the program's new executive producer installed by Weiss last week, according to a detailed report on the Status website.RELATED STORY | Bari Weiss named editor-in-chief of CBS News after Paramount buys her websiteIn a termination notice obtained Tuesday night by The Associated Press, Bilton, a technology journalist and filmmaker with no traditional broadcast news experience, accused Pelley of carrying out an ambush against him.Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt, the letter states.Pelley said in a statement that 60 Minutes has lost its DNA under new management. He accused them of asking him to inject falsehoods and bias into his work, without sharing specific details.Pelley is accused of a performative display of hostilityStatus, which said it had a recording of the Monday meeting, reported that Pelley had said Weiss was brought in to kill the news outlet, and shes doing exactly that. Weiss was not present for the meeting.Pelley reportedly grilled Bilton about the firings last week of Biltons predecessor, Tanya Simon, and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.Alfonsi had criticized Weiss last year for postponing a segment about deportees sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador as part of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.RELATED STORY | CBS stopped Stephen Colbert from airing interview with Texas Democrat, host saysPelley said in his statement that those colleagues stood for fairness against the forces of political bias. He also accused CEO David Ellison of casting aside the show's reputation apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration. Ellison, an ally of the Republican president, has owned CBS since 2025, when its parent company, Paramount, merged with Skydance Media.In the dismissal letter Tuesday, Bilton said Pelleys performative display of hostility demonstrated that he has no interest in contributing to the future success of the show.An uneasy stretch for CBS NewsSince Weiss took over the network's news operation last October, it has traveled a bumpy road.Pelley's termination came just five days after Weiss, who has become a polarizing figure in the media world since taking the reins, told staff in a memo that it was time for a new approach at the top-rated newsmagazine.In the memo, Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski said their goal for 60 Minutes was building a show that thrives in the 21st century. That could include extending the show beyond a 60-minute broadcast, they said.60 Minutes first aired in 1968 and is the longest-running prime-time show in TV history. Its investigative journalism and probing interviews, sometimes with unwilling subjects, have given it the reputation of uncompromising journalism precisely the trait that Pelley said he feared was under assault.Pelley started working for CBS in 1989. He was its chief White House Correspondent from 1997 to 1999, during Bill Clinton's presidency, and anchored CBS Evening News from 2011 to 2017. He has won 51 Emmy Awards, according to his CBS bio. ...read more read less