When CBS News Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has a big, tough decision to make, she runs it by her boss, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison this way: “What’s your tolerance for pain?”
Ellison’s answer, almost invariably I am told by people close to the matter, can be summed up in one word: “High.”
Reps for Ellison would not deny the aforementioned rapport with his news chief. But others with knowledge of Weiss’s thus-far controversial reign at the Tiffany Network say it gives insight into why Scott Pelley, the long-time CBS correspondent once thought to be untouchable despite his anti-MAGA views, found himself fired just hours after criticizing management.
David Ellison isn’t known to be particularly political, but the money behind his dealmaking, which includes his pending, $80 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, comes from a man who is – his dad Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle who also happens to be a longtime Trump pal.
David is, above all, battle hardened, which made Pelley’s firing rather easy for him to approve, people close to him say. His takeover of Paramount in 2024 was a hard-fought war with the controlling Redstone family, the scions of late media tycoon Sumner Redstone. Even harder fought was his recent hostile takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, which had a nearly signed deal to sell to Netflix.
He and his pops believe they have earned their mandate to change CBS, and Scott Pelley can’t stand in their way.
“There’s a new sheriff in town,” is how someone who deals with Weiss put it. “David just doesn’t give a f–k what they say about him in the media.”
As reported, Pelley, a 37-year veteran of the news division and a marquee name at “60 Minutes,” went nuclear on Monday at a staff meeting against Weiss and her team for changes planned at the network that include less lefty bias in programming.
What isn’t as well known is what happened in the lead up to the meeting. Weiss wanted Pelley to be part of her team despite the firings of top producers and talent like Sharyn Alfonsi, who accused management of meddling in one of her pieces to appease the Trump administration.
Even after the blow-up that generated massive headlines, Weiss wasn’t quite ready to pull the plug on Pelley’s employment. But she was nevertheless willing to do so, despite the obvious headline risk, because of Ellison’s high tolerance for pain.
She sought a “path forward,” one person close to her says, and would fire Pelley only if he continued what she considered his scorched-earth attack on her and Ellison’s mandate, which continued to find its way into the press through anonymous sourcing all day Tuesday.
And that’s what he did at a meeting Tuesday evening between Weiss, her team and Pelley, people close to Weiss contend. “In the first minute it was communicated to Pelley that he has a long legacy with ‘60 Minutes’ and the purpose of the meeting was to talk about how to get back on track and how we go forward,” this person said.
Pelley has since denied that Weiss and her team wanted to make amends in any way. “In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to ‘find a way back,’ as Weiss said in the editorial meeting,” he said Wednesday in a written statement.
A spokesman for Weiss declined comment as did a rep for Ellison. Pelley could not be reached for comment.
Either way, with Ellison in her corner, Weiss had carte blanche to fire not just Pelley but others who prove to be a nuisance going forward, I am told. Since taking over as head of CBS News, Weiss, a long-time print opinion journalist with decidedly non-woke opinions about news, has wasted no time implementing seismic changes in talent and programming at CBS, the citadel of independent reporting that often veers, according to critics, far to the left.
Her various firings of top people including at the famed “60 Minutes” franchise where Pelley held sway, has brought to her a firestorm of criticism from mainstream media types and internally. On Monday Pelley told Weiss’s staff including new No. 2 Nick Bilton that they are “murdering” the famed news magazine.
And yet, Weiss, with the full support of Ellison, isn’t being deterred to change course from what she believes is her mandate: To bring more balance to CBS programming and prepare a deeply entrenched bureaucracy of talent and production staff for vast changes to come.
Those changes aren’t just political of course; they involved transitioning a linear TV product, which in the case of “60 Minutes” is still profitable, into the digital arena given the viewing habits of younger demographics. De-emphasizing the news magazine format of “60 Minutes” for something that the Scott Pelleys of the world might not want is in the cards.
Politics is also at play at CBS News and, in particular, “60 Minutes,” which has long championed a progressive media orthodoxy. In recent years, CBS has become something like a crusader against all things Donald Trump, a mouthpiece for the president’s harshest critics and a sounding board for his political opponents.
No longer. Last year, the Ellisons, in seeking that balance, settled a civil case brought against CBS by Trump over a disputed “60 Minutes” interview with the 2024 Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Weiss has taken a more active role in editing “60 Minutes” programming.
“We’re playing a long game,” is how one associate of Ellison put it.
