Pelley Accuses Bari Weiss Cbs of Trump Bias at CBS News
Scott Pelley said Bari Weiss CBS editorial changes at CBS News pushed coverage toward the Trump administration’s version of events. He made the accusation during an appearance on podcast The Interview.
Pelley said CBS News’ new management told him to “inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.” He said a CBS News email asked for changes to a February 60 Minutes segment about ICE operations in Minnesota, the shooting death of Renee Good and anti-ICE protests.
Pelley on the February segment
Pelley said Weiss sent an email to his former boss, Tanya Simon, asking whether changes could be made to the segment. He said the email included the request, “Can we make the protesters look more violent?” and another instruction: “You need to describe her as driving toward the officer.”
He said that request contradicted video evidence. Pelley said he reviewed video of the Renee Good killing “over and over and over again,” using “stop motion” and “slow motion,” and concluded, “the event was not as the president said and not the way Bari Weiss remembered it.”
Weiss and CBS response
Pelley said the story was “abundantly fair” to the administration, ICE officers and Border Patrol officers. He also said, “There was a thumb on the scale for the president's version of events that I felt was a level of political influence that I had never seen in 37 years at CBS News.”
A CBS News spokesperson said Weiss’ request had “no political motivation.” The spokesperson said Weiss made four points during editorial back-and-forth and that they were proposed solely to make the piece as strong, fair and accurate as possible. The statement said not everything she raised made it into the final piece.
Last week at CBS News
CBS News fired Pelley last week after a clash with Nick Bilton and critical comments he made about Weiss. Weiss later told staffers that management tried to “find a way back,” but the parties could not do so, and “we had to part ways.”
Pelley answered in a statement that Weiss “knows what she said is not true.” Paramount Skydance acquired Weiss’ news site The Free Press in October 2025, and David Ellison later appointed her editor in chief of CBS’s newsroom, a move that had already raised staff concerns about her lack of television experience and perceived political bias.
