CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss restructured ‘60 Minutes’ by removing the traditional staff and hiring new producers, which upset Scott Pelley. After a tense meeting with network executives, he was fired. It was clear it wouldn’t work out, so they gave him a pink slip. The other longtime correspondents are staying, but one, Lesley Stahl, described the shakeup as one of the worst experiences she’s had in journalism (via NY Post):
Veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl says the recent upheaval at CBS News is “by far the worst experience” she has witnessed in a journalism career spanning over five decades.
Stahl told Puck News that she remains furious over the recent purge that claimed executive producer Tanya Simon, senior executive producer Draggan Mihailovich, correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, veteran producer Guy Campanile and digital chief Matthew Polevoy, in addition to the subsequent firing of longtime correspondent Scott Pelley.
“It’s just been obviously the hardest chapter of my career,” Stahl said.
“This was by far the worst experience I’ve been involved in, or even witnessed.”
[…]
Stahl, 84, said she still does not understand why several of her longtime colleagues were fired.
“They fired everybody who was around Tanya [Simon],” she said. “We don’t know why.”
“He doesn’t know why. He has no idea why he was fired. None,” she added of Campanile. “And I have no idea why he was fired.”
I mean, I couldn’t care less, but when a comedian like Bill Maher pointed out that casts change on shows all the time, citing Saturday Night Live as an example, this isn’t some catastrophic event. New management, new people—it happens, Lesley.
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