Jimmy Kimmel ripped into CBS News on Wednesday night (June 3) after the network fired veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley.
“Last night, the Trump suck-ups at CBS fired a great and deeply respected journalist, Scott Pelley, from his job at 60 Minutes, because he stood up for truth and integrity at a show that’s been the gold standard for broadcast journalism for 57 years,” the late-night host said during his opening monologue on Wednesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!
He continued, “Pelley had enough after the clowns, who now run that show in the CBS News division, fired reporter Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, along with the executive producer Tanya Simon, and replaced Tanya Simon with a guy who has no experience in TV news.”
Last week, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss announced that the show’s executive producer, Simon, would be replaced by tech journalist and filmmaker Nick Bilton. In addition, exec producer Draggan Mihailovich and correspondents Vega and Alfonsi were fired.
“That was it for Scott Pelley,” Kimmel added. “He said, ‘The collapse of values at the top has become untenable.’ And he let him have it in a staff meeting, right to the new guy’s face. So, last night they fired him.”
Pelley spoke out against the changes and Weiss’ handling of CBS News during a heated staff meeting on Monday (June 1), during which he said Weiss was “murdering” 60 Minutes and told Bilton he had “slender qualifications” for the job.
On Tuesday (June 2), Bilton sent a termination letter to Pelley, noting that he’d been fired “for cause, effective immediately.” In the letter, he accused the journalist of “ambush” and “hijacking” a staff meeting to “disparage” him.
“60 Minutes will be replaced by new episodes of Reporters Unleashed,” Kimmel quipped, referring to how The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was replaced by Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed.
The comedian also noted how President Donald Trump celebrated Pelley’s firing, in which he said the longtime reporter was “part of a gang of crooked, stupid people.”
“Different from the gang of crooked, stupid people he’s a part of,” Kimmel concluded.
You can watch the full opening monologue above and let us know your thoughts below.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Weeknights, 11:35/10:35c, ABC
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