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Right-wing media celebrate CBS News gutting 60 Minutes and firing Scott Pelley

Written by Gideon Taaffe

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Right-wing media have celebrated CBS’ recent ouster of 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, castigating the veteran journalist — who had criticized decisions at the newsmagazine under new CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss — as “arrogant,” “irredeemable,” and biased against President Donald Trump, and they have praised his firing as “courageous,” calling for CBS to “clean house.” 

  • CBS News fired 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley after he questioned the new leadership’s recent personnel decisions

    • After Trump ally David Ellison took control of CBS he appointed conservative journalist Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News. Since Weiss took over, the news division has seemingly cut back on coverage of the climate crisis, inverted the network’s own reporting on Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrestees’ low rates of violent criminal histories, and failed to cover a possible corruption story regarding President Donald Trump. [Media Matters, 3/25/26, 3/4/26, 2/11/26, 10/24/25]
    • Many high-profile journalists either have left CBS News in protest or have been fired by the new leadership. Longtime CBS News producer Mary Walsh reportedly wrote a memo as she left the organization, saying, “We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that.” [People, 6/3/26]
    • CBS fired 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley after he got into an argument with newly installed executive producer Nick Bilton and accused Weiss of “murdering” the newsmagazine. Pelley also said Weiss had “no qualifications” to run CBS News and said, “She does not love this place.” [NBC News, 6/3/26]

  • Right-wing media attacked Pelley as “arrogant” and praised his bosses as “courageous” while calling for the network to “clean house”

    • The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro praised Pelley’s ouster as a “courageous act” by 60 Minutes producer Nick Bilton. Shapiro said, “This is how you should treat insubordination,” adding, “When Bari was made head of CBS News, the only mistake I think that Bari made was not firing more people.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 6/3/26]
    • Fox News’ Sean Hannity said on his radio show: “He made the decision. He made the choice. I don't think you can blame anyone here but Scott Pelley.” He also said, “Scott Pelley gives his big statement and he feels like he is a martyr and a victim in all of this.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 6/3/26]
    • On Fox, Hannity said Pelley “rightly got fired” and is “nothing but a left-wing hack.” Hannity closed, “Now his time at CBS is over. Scott, good night. Good luck.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/3/26]
    • On Hannity’s show, Fox News contributor Joe Concha said, “When you look up three words in the dictionary, Sean, whether it’s 'sanctimonious,' whether it’s 'arrogant,' whether it’s 'self-entitled,' in every instance you will see a photo of Scott Pelley next to that definition.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/3/26]
    • On The Five, Fox News host Jesse Watters said CBS is “woke” and has “got to clean house.” Watters: “They’re bloated, they’re woke, and they’re stuck in the past. And if they want to reinvent themselves, they have to do a little bit more than bring Bari Weiss in. They got to clean house and change the culture because if you don't change with it, you’re dead.” [Fox News, The Five, 6/3/26]
    • Watters later said “Poison Pelley” was “not a middle-of-the-road journalist. He has an agenda.” Watters continued, “He never, ever crosses the Democrat machine. He always slants the news to hurt Republicans.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/3/26]
    • Fox News' Kayleigh McEnany said 60 Minutes losing its entire staff “may be a good thing.” [Fox News, The Five, 6/3/26]
    • Fox’s Greg Gutfeld attacked Pelley as a “drama queen,” saying Pelley “throws a tantrum in a public view, then he leaks it to everyone to amplify his, like, appearance as some kind of hero.” Gutfeld added, “A 24-year-old guy named Nick Shirley ran 100 laps around 60 Minutes on a story that they, like many big stories, missed. If you look at people like Nick Shirley and Chris Rufo, Bill Melugin’s border coverage, Shellenberger on homelessness, it reveals how far 60 Minutes has fallen.” [Fox News, The Five, 6/3/26]
    • SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly called Pelley “arrogant” and “a prick” adding, “I don't blame her [Weiss] one bit. It was the right call.” She continued, “His programming and his, just, narcissism and closed-mindedness on the air entitled him a firing long, long ago.” She also criticized CBS News management, saying, “The way this shit is going down is completely unprofessional and bush league.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 6/3/26]
    • Radio host Dana Loesch called Pelley a “fart in the wind” and “someone who's virtually irredeemable.” She continued: Pelley “has really offered nothing to the world of journalism beside for making great fodder for all of us to point and laugh at and use as a stunning example of long-term, entrenched, establishment progressive media bias.” She also praised CBS, saying, “CBS is there trying to get on the right track, and trying to right decades — correct decades — of wrong and bias and misreporting.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/3/26]
    • Newsmax host Rob Schmitt said, “There has never been a stronger case to fire someone for insubordination” than Pelley’s. [Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 6/3/26]
    • Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty said: “It’s called CBS, not the Scott Pelley Network, and for that reason they can do whatever they want. Because you work for them, Scott. Not anymore.” [Newsmax, Finnerty, 6/3/26]