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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr criticized former “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley on Sunday after Pelley said he did not expect to be fired from CBS News following a bitter conflict with the program's new leadership.
Carr responded to Pelley's comments on X, where he argued that the CBS reporter's reaction reflected a broader problem within the media.
“One of the reasons why the trust in the media is low is because many historical journalists are not available at all,” said Carr.
He also said Pelley's behavior would not be tolerated in a normal workplace.
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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr criticized Scott Pelley on X after the former “60 Minutes” writer said he didn't expect CBS News to fire him. (Bloomberg/Getty)
“You can't get away from that behavior in any mill,” Carr said. “It's revealing how blind others are to that.”
Pelley was fired after 37 years at CBS News, where he served as White House correspondent, anchor of the “CBS Evening News” and correspondent for “60 Minutes.”
In an interview with The New York Times, Pelley said he did not believe he was going to a settlement meeting after his conflict with new “60 Minutes” producer Nick Bilton.
“Oh my god, it's beyond my imagination,” Pelley said. “It hadn't occurred to me yet.”
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Scott Pelley defended his conflict with the new leadership of “60 Minutes”, saying that the show has long been known for asking tough questions. (David M. Russell/CBS via Getty Images)
Pelley admitted that the meeting with Bilton was tense, but defended the way he asked questions by pointing to the show's history.
“'60 Minutes' is known for two things: a ticking stopwatch and tough questions,” he said.
Pelley said the conflict came after senior staff and many reporters were fired, and after Bilton was introduced to the newsroom as the show's new executive producer.
“Nobody saw the Black Thursday massacre coming,” Pelley said.
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CBS News denied allegations of political bias and editorial interference following Pelley's firing and the uproar on “60 Minutes.” (Michele Crowe/CBS News ©2025; Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)
Pelley said he was upset by Bilton's email introducing himself to employees and the way Bilton spoke to employees after he was fired.
“It was disappointing that Nick Bilton knew nothing about us, knew nothing about our culture, yet he was placed over us as our new leader,” Pelley said.
Pelley also criticized CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who was brought under new ownership after David Ellison's acquisition of Paramount.
“He's a lovely person,” Pelley said. “And his Free Press organization that he founded has been a great success. But television is not his thing.”
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Pelley accused Weiss of pushing for editorial changes on a politically sensitive “60 Minutes” story that covered protests and the shooting of immigrants in Minneapolis.
He said he believed that the requested changes would favor President Donald Trump's opinion on these events.
“There was a six on the scale of the president's schedule of events and I felt like it was a level of politics that I have never seen in 37 years of speaking on CBS News,” said Pelley.
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CBS News denied that Weiss was politically motivated, saying his editorial notes were intended to make the piece “as strong, fair, and accurate as possible.”
