Paramount chief executive David Ellison personally called Lesley Stahl over the weekend and promised to respect the editorial independence of “60 Minutes” as CBS News grapples with a rebellion sparked by the firing of Scott Pelley and the ouster of several top producers and correspondents, according to a report.
Stahl, 84, told the New York Times that Ellison phoned her on Sunday. The veteran correspondent later relayed the message to colleagues during a champagne toast at the “60 Minutes” offices in Manhattan, referring to herself and her remaining colleagues as “the survivors.”
“My toast was, ‘to us,’ meaning the survivors,” Stahl told the Times. “Maybe ‘us’ with a twinge of survivor’s guilt.”
The call came just days after Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim announced in a joint memo that they would remain with “60 Minutes” despite expressing outrage over the recent purge that has rocked the iconic newsmagazine.
The three correspondents said they had agonized over whether to stay but ultimately concluded that they did not “want to see ‘60 Minutes’ die.”
They pledged to fight to preserve the program’s reputation while stopping short of endorsing the network’s current leadership.
Stahl has remained one of the most vocal internal critics of the shakeup. In a recent interview with Puck, she said the firings represented “the hardest chapter of my career” and “by far the worst experience I’ve been involved in, or even witnessed.”
She also said she still does not know why several longtime colleagues were fired and claimed that Pelley’s confrontation with management centered on a demand for answers.
“Tell us why they were fired. That was his question. He never got an answer,” Stahl told Puck.
Stahl further alleged that former executive producer Tanya Simon entered a meeting expecting to discuss the upcoming season of “60 Minutes” and instead “was fired in the three-minute meeting.”
The turmoil erupted after CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss removed Simon, senior executive producer Draggan Mihailovich, correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, veteran producer Guy Campanile and digital operations chief Matthew Polevoy as part of a sweeping overhaul of the newsmagazine.
Weiss then installed former New York Times columnist and filmmaker Nick Bilton as executive producer, a move that was met with fierce resistance from some staffers who viewed him as an outsider with no broadcast-news management experience.
The conflict exploded into public view when Pelley confronted Bilton during a staff meeting, accusing Weiss of “murdering” “60 Minutes” and claiming she had been “brought in to kill it.”
Pelley was subsequently fired by CBS News.
Since then, Pelley has accused management of attempting to inject “falsehoods and bias” into reporting, while Alfonsi has warned that “the wall between editorial independence and corporate interest at CBS is being methodically torn down.”
Alfonsi ran afoul of Weiss and upper management at CBS News after publicly criticizing the decision to delay the airing of a “60 Minutes” report on conditions inside the notorious CECOT prison.
Vega, meanwhile, has alleged “censorship” inside the news division.
CBS News has denied the allegations of editorial interference.
The Post has sought comment from CBS News and Paramount.
