MAGA CENSORSHIP SCANDAL! Fired CBS icon brings receipts on political interference in damning intv

[0:00] Turning to new remarks from the top of 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley has now decided to come out and speak [0:06] on camera. He had issued a statement after his unusual firing by CBS News as those MAGA clashes [0:13] continued, and he was very clear about where he stands on the newly or relatively recently [0:19] installed CBS boss Barry Weiss. Pelley said she was murdering the show. She says, he also says [0:26] she was doing something that involves bias, where she wanted to engineer more friendly coverage for [0:32] Trump than what the actual independent journalists found from their reporting, and that Weiss almost [0:39] derailed Pelley's report on the ICE shootings in Minnesota that killed Renee Good. Barry Weiss [0:46] sends an email to my boss, Tanya Simon. Two of the things in the email include, can we make the [0:57] protesters look more violent? Now, I'm paraphrasing. I don't have the quote, but that's what was [1:05] communicated to me. And the other thing was Renee Good's car. You need to describe her as driving [1:16] toward the officer. This is not what you see on the video. The video showed that the officer wasn't [1:26] standing in front of the car and she wasn't driving toward him, but that's what the president said [1:31] about that. And that's the way she wanted it described. There was a thumb on the scale for [1:37] the president's version of events that I felt was a level of political influence that I had never seen [1:48] in 37 years at CBS News. That is significant. This is 37 years. This is the top of CBS, [2:01] their most prominent anchor, one of their clearly currently, until he was fired, most prominent [2:06] members of 60 Minutes, which is their flagship program. And he has receipts. He has evidence. [2:10] He has it in writing. And it's not saying, hey, let's make sure we cover both sides. Let's consider [2:15] what Donald Trump had to say, which, by the way, is a natural part of balanced reporting. No, [2:21] he alleges quite specifically and says he has the receipts that they were asking to mislead the viewers [2:29] about the actual facts of the story about a woman who was killed by the government, by federal [2:35] officers. And to essentially, he didn't use this word, but I will. He is alleging that they wanted [2:41] to frame her to suggest that she was trying to murder with her car when she wasn't. And she's [2:46] the one who was killed by the government. So this isn't one of those things where you say, oh, [2:51] reporters, they get so dramatic. And it was just another workplace dispute. You can see why Mr. [2:56] Pelly, who has the credibility of all those decades of reporting, was concerned when the [3:03] request he was getting was to frame up or mischaracterize or make look bad this recently [3:09] deceased killed woman, this woman who was killed by the government. Now, that is very serious. [3:16] I mentioned how reporting works. We will report for you exactly what the CBS management that he's [3:21] criticizing says. They deny these allegations of interference or political bias, including in the [3:28] piece that Pelly is describing. So that's both sides of that. But you're talking about Ellison, [3:35] the new leader, and Weiss, who they put in charge, paramount under this pressure while they want to get [3:40] favorable treatment for their merger. Ellison wants and needs approval for the big, big deal, way bigger [3:47] than CBS, which is the entire Warner Brothers movie studios, CNN, HBO, all of it. Now, Trump has [3:54] continued to go after 60 minutes, even when they got the new ownership, because that's pretty much [3:59] his habit. He also got a $16 million settlement from Paramount over the news division's Kamala Harris [4:06] interview. Pelly being very clear that given the weakness of that case, it really came down to editing, [4:12] that he viewed it as a bribe. The very last thing that the previous ownership did was pay a multi-million [4:25] dollar bribe to the president to settle this frivolous, ridiculous lawsuit. And very shortly after [4:33] that, somehow, the Trump administration approved the sale. Paramount denied that those two things were [4:40] linked, that payment, and then the deal going through. He was also asked about this manager who [4:49] is seen as so close to the MAGA side, Barry Weiss, and what about her leadership? Do you think Barry [4:58] Weiss needs to be removed? Oh, gosh, yes. I do think that we would be far better off without her. Maybe [5:05] she goes back to the free press and has a sterling career. But this is like somebody walking up to me and [5:13] saying, there's a 747, there are 400 people on it, and we need you to fly it to Paris. I'm going to decline [5:22] because I don't have a clue. [5:25] Pelly discussing her lack of experience. She and her allies argue that she has media experience running a [5:35] newsletter and writing about the media. Pelly's point, and this has been echoed by more than one CBS veteran, is [5:40] that the actual structure of international television news is different, and that in her time on the job, [5:46] she showed very little interest in learning about that. That's their allegation. One of the other [5:51] remaining 60 Minutes correspondents, Leslie Saul, says her decision to stay shouldn't be viewed as an [5:55] endorsement of the current management that you just heard criticized, and calls all of the oustings and [6:00] firings the worst experience of her long career. This is a story that goes well beyond CBS or [6:09] television media. It is about, at least according to Mr. Pelly and others inside CBS, how the government [6:16] can worm its way into the free press, no pun intended, even in 2026 in the United States, but also [6:23] how people can speak up and do something about it. [6:26] Joining me now is Molly Jong-Fast, New York Times contributing writer, MSNOW analyst. You know your [6:31] way around the media. It's really striking to see someone of Scott Pelly's level calling this out. [6:37] Here he was on something else he said, I haven't played yet, about the interference. [6:42] My hope is that the leadership of Paramount will say to themselves, OK, this isn't working. [6:53] We have broadcasts that almost don't get on the air. We have respected journalists saying that there is a [7:00] thumb on the scale for one political party over another. They don't know what they're doing. [7:05] And there's a subtle political bias that I've never seen at 60 Minutes before, or at CBS News before. [7:21] So this is a guy who is torching a 37-year career at CBS News. And so the question is, why is he doing it? [7:32] And I think the answer is like Walter Cronkite, right? He's taking this risk. He's doing this [7:39] thing. And he's doing it because he sees that Barry Weiss was not brought in to run CBS. She was brought [7:46] in to kill CBS. And that's what we're watching happen. And so I think it was an extremely brave move. [7:54] And I think the reason it's getting so much attention is because people can see that it's real. [8:00] Yeah. And the example he gives where they wanted to make this deceased [8:06] protester and driver look like she was trying to kill a cop. First of all, anyone who does that [8:12] knowingly is potentially committing defamation, which is a long way from telling a story or telling [8:18] it well, journalistically. It's the other extreme. And that's the pressure he said he resisted. And he [8:24] is telling the story that he resisted those type of things over time, but now reached his breaking point. [8:30] Yeah. I mean, look, this is so meaningful. This is like an old school news guy. And for him to come [8:36] out and break that fourth wall and talk about what's happening in the newsroom, as you and I both know, [8:42] you see very little of this. And there's a reason for that, because these organizations are usually [8:49] pretty private about how things are run. So you have to realize, like, he's come out like this [8:57] because he saw things that he was really shaken by. And when you listen to that interview, [9:02] what you hear is a person who is very shaken by what Paramount is trying to do to CBS. [9:08] And I think he's trying to appeal to corporates' better angels, if there are any, which I'm not [9:15] convinced there are. [9:15] Well, as a New York media insider yourself, how do you think this is viewed in the upper [9:21] rungs of CBS, where the people above the new management or the ownership structure like David [9:28] Ellison, they wanted to get certain things. They didn't want to pay this kind of cost. [9:32] Right. I mean, look, this is billions of dollars running. You know, this is—it still has to make [9:38] money, even if they want to make it Fox News Lite. And the reality is, Fox News Lite, as we know, [9:44] as Fox News knows, that's not for anyone, right? The Fox people don't even like it when Fox isn't [9:50] foxy enough for them. So I think that there's—it's not for anyone. So I wonder how successful it will [9:57] be. But I also think that when you look at this, you see, like, is there someone above Barry Weiss who [10:04] can say, like, this is not what we wanted? And I don't know what the answer is. But— [10:08] Or that they wanted something warmer to the current government, but not framing dead people. [10:13] Right. And what I think is interesting is that they were—you know, they lost three [10:18] correspondents, and they were able to convince the other three to stay. So the question is, [10:22] there was clearly some worry. [10:25] Yeah. And what are they promising? And do those folks following Pelley's example say, [10:29] we'll try, and then we'll hold the line? You may end up with no one. [10:31] Right. [10:31] Which is why it is different when people have some voice and willingness to fight. I want [10:34] to show you were just at the Tonys. [10:36] Yes. [10:37] Did you have fun? [10:38] I did. And actually, what you were talking about in that tease was really interesting. People [10:42] wanted to talk about politics. [10:44] I did the text. [10:52] I tried for six weeks, right? [10:56] I wondered how to be a joke. [10:59] Yeah. [11:00] I'm going to say like, what's history? [11:03] But that's so iconic. [11:05] But happened to her, she's not the way... [11:07] Fantastic. [11:09] Yeah. [11:09] Why is this a lie? [11:11] Welcome to the St. Petersburg. [11:11] Escape from this year... [11:12] We're gonna do something you love,