A former 60 Minutes producer is speaking out after correspondent Scott Pelley was fired by the show and CBS News following an alleged confrontation with new executive producer Nick Bilton.
“People have been yelling at each other at 60 Minutes for decades,” Rome Hartman wrote via LinkedIn on Wednesday, June 3. “I know, because I was there for a lot of the shouting matches. I produced more than 160 segments for 60 Minutes over 25+ years before retiring last year. And spirited conversations among colleagues when talking about really important issues and stories have always been an essential part of making those stories — and the show — better.”
Hartman continued, “So when Scott Pelley stepped up to challenge newly-appointed Executive Producer Nick Bilton in his first all-hands meeting Monday, he was doing what he SHOULD have done. Was he angry? Damned right. Three days earlier, the entire top management of 60 Minutes had been fired in a remarkably callous and disrespectful way, and Pelley and everyone else remaining on the staff were blindsided.”
Us confirmed on Tuesday, June 2, that Pelley’s contract with CBS News was terminated after the contributor got into a verbal confrontation with Bilton during a staff meeting the day prior. In a memo to Pelley, Nilton wrote that he “chose ambush” in a staff meeting — a description that troubled Hartman.
“Nonsense,” Hartman wrote in his LinkedIn post. “Decapitating the leadership team of 60 Minutes and firing two distinguished correspondents last week … THAT was ambush. And when Bilton said in that meeting that he had no role in firing those people who had dedicated their careers to 60 Minutes, I imagine that pissed Scott Pelley off, and he said so, Did Bilton go into that room expecting a convivial welcome from the survivors of ‘Black Thursday?’ If he did, he has no business trying to run the place.”
Hartman went on to address CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, adding, “And Bari Weiss, who was the engineer of what Scott correctly called this effort to ‘murder’ 60 Minutes? She didn’t even have the courage to show up at the meeting. And by the way, when Bilton left the room, the assembled 60 Minutes staff gave Scott Pelley a sustained ovation.”
Hartman noted that he has “never met” Weiss, but understands “she’s a talented opinion writer.” However, Hartman alleged that Weiss is “demonstrably unqualified to be running CBS News and 60 Minutes.”
“She has never worked in straight journalism, and nearly every decision she has made since she took over has gone wrong,” he wrote. “Is it her mission to destroy the longest running and most successful and influential television news magazine in American history? She says no. But her actions certainly make it look like that’s her goal. In Bari Weiss’s opinion pieces she staked out positions as an anti-woke and pro-unfettered-free-speech crusader. So the irony of firing Scott Pelley for fiery free speech is inescapable.”
He continued, “Weiss didn’t have the guts to fire Pelley herself, of course. She dispatched her new hire Nick Bilton to write that letter. You will have read about the letter in the news pages, but it boils down to ‘Scott, you hurt my feelings, so after consulting with HR I have no choice but to fire you!’ The CBS P.R. machine is already hard at work selling that story line, maligning Scott Pelley and tearing down his well-earned, stellar reputation. Don’t buy it. And Nick, good luck in the 60 Minutes screening room, if you ever get there. I imagine you will have gotten rid of all the people who might yell at you.”
