\u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim said Friday that they planned to stay on at the newsmagazine, capping days of turmoil for the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had a hard time deciding whether to stay,\u201d the three wrote in a memo to their colleagues at the program, before adding: \u201cWe don\u2019t want to see \u201860 Minutes\u2019 die.\u201d<\/p>\n
They wrote that they were still \u201cdeeply upset by the firings\u201d of executive producer Tanya Simon and high-ranking producer Draggan Mihailovich, whom they called \u201cstrong leaders who everyone respected.\u201d Their colleague Scott Pelley was fired earlier this week after he challenged the newsmagazine\u2019s new executive producer over the recent firings.<\/p>\n
The longtime correspondents said that \u201cas far as we can tell,\u201d those leaders were fired because \u201cthey fought for our \u201860 Minutes\u2019 values and stood up to protect our independence and integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNewsrooms are not supposed to be run like dictatorships,\u201d they added in the memo, obtained by NBC News. \u201cCollaboration and argument are the way we have always worked at 60.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stahl, 84, has spent most of her career at CBS News and joined \u201c60 Minutes\u201d in 1991. Whitaker, 74, spent three decades as a CBS reporter before joining the newsmagazine in 2014. Wertheim, 55, joined three years later. <\/p>\n
The trio\u2019s statement is the latest beat in the turmoil engulfing \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d America\u2019s top-rated and most prestigious newsmagazine, which just ended its 58th season. <\/p>\n
The upheaval started last week, when several key senior staff members were let go. Tensions between \u201c60 Minutes\u201d staffers and management reached a fever pitch during a Monday meeting to introduce executive producer Nick Bilton, where Pelley openly challenged leadership and accused CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss of \u201cmurdering\u201d the storied newsmagazine that debuted in 1968.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe does not love this place,\u201d Pelley told Bilton at the meeting, according to a recording. \u201cShe was brought in to kill it, and she\u2019s been doing exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next day, Pelley was fired after a nearly 40-year run at CBS News. In a statement, Pelley expressed \u201cgratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again \u2014a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a Wednesday call with network employees, Weiss tried to temper fears and explain the decision to fire Pelley, saying newsroom leaders could not \u201cfind a way back\u201d with the veteran journalist.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope I speak, I know I speak for myself, and I hope I speak for everyone here when I say that I\u2019m only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect. We cannot do our work without it,\u201d Weiss told CBS News employees Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Shortly afterward, Pelley released his own statement disputing Weiss\u2019 characterization of the Tuesday meeting, saying that at no point did anyone \u201csuggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
As previously reported by NBC News, the turmoil within \u201c60 Minutes\u201d has left staffers grappling with questions about the program\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
On Thursday night, Bilton attempted to assuage those fears in an emailed memo to the staff, writing that the storied show \u201cwill never be instructed by the ownership\u201d of the network on its reporting. In the memo obtained by NBC News, Bilton wrote that he had spoken with Stahl, Wertheim and Whitaker and stressed that they were \u201ccore to this show\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about what makes 60 Minutes exceptional, about the traditions and legacy of the past, about how you do the work that produces such momentous pieces. We also talked about change: About new audiences, new platforms, and new ways of storytelling that these new audiences need,\u201d Bilton wrote about his conversations with the three. \u201cWe\u2019ll speak more about that in the weeks to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amid the upheaval, however, the three \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondents said they \u201cfeared that our returning might be construed as an endorsement of the existing power structure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is simply, categorically not the case,\u201d the trio said in the memo. \u201cWe have been grieving because this whole mess has wounded and damaged the broadcast.\u201d<\/p>\n
They added that they \u201cwant to stay and fight,\u201d while also working to build trust with Bilton.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard all the right things in yesterday\u2019s \u2018independence\u2019 memo,\u201d they said. \u201cIt went a long way, and now we need to see these commitments to our process and procedures put into action. If we can continue doing the work that made this show what it is \u2014 committing acts of independent, fearless journalism and storytelling \u2014 we\u2019re here for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf not, we leave,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim said Friday that they planned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-editors-pick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/decentwealthsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/decentwealthsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/decentwealthsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decentwealthsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/decentwealthsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/decentwealthsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decentwealthsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decentwealthsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}