Two unions with journalist members at CBS News are decrying management under new owner Paramount Skydance following the firing of journalists at 60 Minutes.
SAG-AFTRA, the labor organization representing around 75 correspondents, anchors and hosts at the news outlet, including at 60 Minutes, said it condemned leadership’s “continued assault on the foundations of CBS News” in a statement on Thursday.
The labor organization added that it was “prepared to take and support any and all legal actions related to the company’s conduct over the last several weeks,” arguing that workers have a right to speak up on behalf of colleagues regarding issues in the workplace.
The statement arrived after after CBS News fired former 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley following a clash with leadership in a tense meeting earlier this week.
Pelley was fired by CBS management after he laid into new 60 Minutes boss Nick Bilton and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss in a heated staff meeting. The journalist said Weiss was “murdering” the show. “She does not love this place, she was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that,” he said. Pelley also told Bilton he had “slender” qualifications for the executive producer role he now holds.
The meeting followed a transformation of 60 Minutes under Weiss’ leadership, with executive producer Tanya Simon and correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi all being fired in May.
SAG-AFTRA framed recent moves from the company including layoffs and the closing of CBS News Radio in late May as “part of a broader strategy to gut the crucial independent journalism that is so important to our democratic system.” The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to CBS News for comment.
The fiery remarks from the performers’ union followed an equally blistering statement from the president of the Writers Guild of America East on Thursday. Tom Fontana, the showrunner and writer leading the union, claimed “near-constant levels of editorial interference” at CBS News under new management.
“Like many of you, I have been alarmed by recent developments at CBS News,” Fontana wrote his members, citing layoffs and the shuttering of CBS News Radio. “In addition, based on a string of public reporting and confidential reports from WGAE members, it is clear that CBS brass is engaged in a near-constant level of editorial interference that would have previously been unthinkable,” Fontana said.
A CBS News spokesperson pushed back against that characterization, stating, “There is no political interference at CBS News, not from ownership, not from Bari Weiss. The only ‘interference’ is the normal back and forth between editor and correspondent that happens in every newsroom.”
The WGA East says it represents around 275 news writers, desk associates and assignment editors at the news outlet.
Of Pelley, an icon of the newsmagazine and a 37-year veteran of the network, Fontana said, “CBS management is apparently too thin-skinned to handle the honest scrutiny of their own journalists.”
To Fontana, the moves represented more than “ideological interference” in stories. He said, “They display a profound contempt for the journalism profession, for our members who have dedicated their lives to informing the public about the world, and for the ethics that underpin true journalism, chief among them honesty, integrity, and objectivity.”
The union leader concluded his message by telling CBS News workers that they are “not alone” and that “we will be there with you when this difficult time in American life passes, and we will help you build what comes next.”
June 4, 1:46 p.m. Updated to include CBS News statement.
June 4, 2:46 p.m. Updated to include SAG-AFTRA statement.
