Finding “common ground” does not mean to “capitulate.” Let’s make that perfectly clear.
After Scott Pelley met with CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, 60 Minutes Executive Producer Nick Bilton, and CBS News President Tom Cibrowski on Tuesday, and was summarily fired after calling them out on dismantling and destroying CBS News and specifically 60 Minutes, this is how Bilton framed it in a memo to staffers at 60 Minutes:
“I know how much Scott meant to many of you, and I don’t say this lightly. I made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with him over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground. That was not the path Scott chose.”
Common ground? Scott Pelley, like many others who were forced to resign or simply fired, refused to capitulate to the demands of a new regime that has taken over the news department and been on a quest to alter the state of independent journalism and turn it into an information dispensary that is palatable to a political party.
Who IS Nick Bilton? Well…that is what Scott Pelley was questioning too.
Bilton was just hired by Weiss on May 28, 2026 to be the Executive Producer of 60 Minutes. Bilton has NO experience producing a weekly news broadcast, nor does he have ANY experience in broadcast news period. He was most recently a special correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine for 10 years. He did work for The New York Times as a design editor in the newsroom and a researcher in the research and development labs from 2003 to 2016.
So what background does Bilton have to run a show like 60 Minutes that has been the oldest, most-watched, and most-respected news magazine in the history of American television? NO background.
But, see, that is the sad thing. Anything that Donald Trump has influence over, is headed by someone who has not a shred of experience, no skill set, and certainly no integrity, to get the job done. We have seen that with appointments at the Department of Justice, National Intelligence, Defense Department, Education Department, Health and Human Services, and the list goes on.
And Donald Trump has influence over CBS because he has influence of Paramount Skydance Corporation…owned by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, a billionaire tech giant and huge ally of Donald Trump.
CBS ownership, if you remember, capitulated to Donald Trump to settle a ridiculous $16 million lawsuit, for no other purpose than for the Trump Administration to allow the merger creating Paramount Skydance and the ownership by Ellison.
And then once that occurred, Bari Weiss, another Donald Trump sycophant, was brought in and eliminated anyone who wouldn’t bend at the knee to her demands of altering facts and presentations in order to directly line up with the Stephen Miller propaganda machine.
Any respectable journalist, any person with morals and integrity, was sent packing. CBS News of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, and Scott Pelley is now reduced to worthless dribble.
Bilton sent Pelley note saying, “Despite yesterday’s misconduct, I had hoped that in sitting down with you today we could find a path forward together. You made clear that you are not interested in such a path. Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you.”
YOU’RE FIRED!
Pelley was blunt and forceful saying that Weiss was “ruining 60 Minutes.” Being honest is not “misconduct.” And using the word “antipathy”…woe…how long has he been waiting to use THAT word? But “antipathy” toward the future of the show? Again, Pelley was, and has been, vociferously defending the integrity of the show, what was always at the core of what made 60 Minutes special, and was fighting hard to keep that integrity alive.
He may have failed to save an icon and symbol of true unfettered journalism that has existed for nearly 60 years. But Scott Pelley succeeded in showing what a true journalist is supposed to do – stand up to those who would try to force you to compromise your integrity and capitulate to those who want to control you.
