MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Scott Pelley is speaking out again after he was fired after decades at CBS News. Last week, he was fired from "60 Minutes," the network's most prestigious and profitable news show. In an interview posted yesterday, Pelley spoke of the disputes and confrontations at the show and told The New York Times that CBS News is on fire.
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SCOTT PELLEY: We have people who have been installed in these jobs who, through no fault of their own, have no experience in television. It's not their fault, but they don't know what they're doing. And there's a subtle political bias that I've never seen at "60 Minutes" before. And so - or at CBS News before.
MARTIN: NPR's David Folkenflik has been reporting this out, and he's with us now from Los Angeles. Good morning, David.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So tell us more about what Scott Pelley had to say.
FOLKENFLIK: Well, part of what's specific about what Pelley had to say was that he's saying after a staff meeting in which he laid into the new executive producer of the program - a longtime veteran who had led the show and two correspondents had been fired - he said he still hoped to have a path to stay at the show, despite making really tough words to his new boss and to the new editor in chief of the network. And he said that the president of the network, Tom Cibrowski, made clear he was going to be fired, regardless of his desire to stay on. A couple of folks at CBS - they weren't authorized to talk about internal matters publicly, but they told me that Pelley's account is not right and that Cibrowski did try to offer him a way to stay. And if that's true, it raises the idea that Pelley either didn't hear it or didn't want it. Pelley tells NPR that's a lie.
MARTIN: And to the question of political bias, he pointed to a specific example involving a story in Minneapolis. What did he say about that?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, this is particularly important because it echoes complaints from the two other fired correspondents, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. He talks about - particularly saying that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss wanted to portray Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an immigration officer, as driving her car toward or at him. In fact, as NPR and CBS has - and others have reported, the video doesn't show that.
MARTIN: And what does CBS have to say about that, in particular, and more broadly about the complaint that the new leadership is putting their thumb on the scale?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, and this is a point of particular sensitivity because Bari Weiss came to CBS from being an opinion journalist, first at The New York Times and then after creating The Free Press, a views and news site that's sort of from the center right and believes that the press is often biased against President Trump. The network said, essentially, this was part of editorial back-and-forth without political motivation, and the network said not everything she raised made it in the final piece. They've also more broadly dismissed and rejected the allegations of bias from Alfonsi and Vega that had been made previously.
MARTIN: Well, you know, news executives do make changes to their programs when they take over all the time. But remind us about why this is being seen as so different.
FOLKENFLIK: So Bari Weiss didn't arrive at the network in a vacuum. She was hired by David Ellison, who, with his father, Larry Ellison, took over the company last summer. They've become real allies of President Trump, and they need his support to take over the much larger Warner Bros. Discovery company despite antitrust concerns. Let's not forget Warner Bros. Discovery, you know, owns HBO, Warner Bros. Studios and, of course, CNN. And Bari Weiss really lopped off the leadership of "60 Minutes" at a time its ratings were up. Its digital traffic was way up. And there was no real description to folks of why this happened. I think that it set both "60 Minutes" and the larger news division in upheaval.
MARTIN: And what about the show's new boss, Nick Bilton? Where is he in all this?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, he's been working to patch things up. And after something of a charm offensive, the three remaining correspondents acted in unison. That's Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, John Wertheim. They received promises from him that the show would remain independent from any political bias or interference. And they said to Bilton, you have to say that publicly, and he did. And in the meantime, they said, OK. We're going to hold him to these promises he's made publicly, and we want to save the show - three of only formerly seven correspondents left - and to protect jobs of their producers.
MARTIN: And what do you think is going to happen next?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, I think we should underscore this as all fluid. It's fluid for the presence of the three remaining correspondents. It's fluid for Bari Weiss' status at CBS under the Ellisons. And it's fluid for the Ellisons' efforts to take over the parent company of CNN.
MARTIN: That is NPR's David Folkenflik. David, thank you.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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