The Conservative Cave

Longtime readers of mine know that I don't often do news stories. I'm the verbal bomb-throwing opinion guy here at the PJ Media Ranch; my colleagues handle the heavy news stuff much better than I do. Once in a great while, however, I come across a story that just makes me happy. Also, this one broke around 11 p.m. EDT, which is prime time in my Morning Briefing work day.

The New York Times:

Quote

CBS News fired Scott Pelley on Tuesday, jettisoning one of the network’s best-known journalists in a clash over the future of “60 Minutes,” the country’s top-rated news program.

Mr. Pelley, 68, a “60 Minutes” correspondent and a former anchor of “CBS Evening News,” joined the network in 1989. At a staff meeting on Monday, he accused the network’s editor in chief, Bari Weiss, of “murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” citing the ouster last week of the program’s leadership team and two on-air correspondents.

“We have parted ways with Scott Pelley,” Nick Bilton, the tech journalist who was hired last week as the new “60 Minutes” executive producer, wrote in a memo to the show’s staff on Tuesday night.

The only reason that I wish this story had hit during regular work hours is because the meltdown on the left over this is going to be epic. I mean, real popcorn time stuff. I only had to check X for a few seconds to get my schadenfreude really revved up:
...
Any day that Ben Rhodes has his panties cranked up to "Extra Bunch" mode is a good one. For the record, sentences like that last one are also why I don't cover many news stories.

Is there a bigger chasm anywhere in American life than the one that separates the way in which mainstream journalists perceive themselves and the way in which mainstream journalists are perceived by everyone else?

Here’s Scott Pelley, formerly of CBS’s 60 Minutes, complaining about being fired for cause:

Quote

“I have been in combat in Afghanistan. I have been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine multiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast.”

Where to start? First off, if Pelley cared about his job that much, he probably shouldn’t have behaved as unprofessionally as he did when he met his new boss, Nick Bilton. As the Washington Post reports, “Pelley laid into Bilton during a Monday morning ‘60 Minutes’ meeting, when he questioned Bilton’s qualifications” in front of a host of other staff. During that meeting, Pelley also insisted that Bari Weiss, his other boss, “has no qualifications for her job,” and, later, when Bilton organized a private meeting, Pelley continued in the same vein. In his letter firing Pelley, Bilton wrote that Pelley had

Quote

rejected that overture and chose ambush instead. Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt. Yesterday’s performative display of hostility — enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation — demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show.

Which . . . well, yeah. There is simply no circumstance in which an employee can behave like this and expect to remain employed. A lot of journalists in this country seem to believe that they belong to an elect class to which the normal rules do not apply. They do not. Journalists are protected by the First Amendment, yes, but they are not more protected than anyone else, and nor do those protections afford them the right to behave like jerks in the workplace. CBS is a private company. It is not, at root, any different than Unilever or Ford or Home Depot. Scott Pelley attacked his boss in public and private. Scott Pelley was fired. Film at 11.

An even bigger smackdown is that Trump beat Hillary in 2016. Then, after supposedly "losing" in 2020 he came back in 2024 and wiped the floor with Kamala with "too big to rig" happening in every single swing state. He's your president and king now, DUmmies.

Epstein files? Really? Not one single D gave a rat's behind about them while they lingered under Garland and Biden for four years. Then once Trump won both the EC and popular vote in 2024 the "victims" suddenly mattered again. End result: a big fat nothingburger. Not one single person of either party has been charged or indicted.

MIButterfly (3,245 posts)

My opinion - Anti-vaxxers who weren't alive when polio was rampant should STFU about vaccines
Last edited Tue Jun 2, 2026, 07:19 PM - Edit history (2)

I was born in 1953 and I remember as a child how terrifying the prospect of getting polio was and how relieved people were when there was a vaccine. I distinctly remember when the sugar cube came out and people were lined up to get it. My mother took me right away. We had eliminated polio and smallpox with vaccines and other diseases, like measles, were almost completely eradicated as well. Now they're making a comeback.

As another poster wrote a few years back, go to an old cemetery and see how many children and babies died back in the day from diseases that are now prevented with vaccines.

I just don't get people that deny the value of vaccinations. If a vaccine really gave people autism, everybody would have autism. George Soros (or whatever liberal boogeyman they're afraid of) isn't putting a tracking device in vaccines; the cellphones they're on 24/7 is where the tracking devices are. Duh.

I'm no medical or scientific genius, but I'm no idiot either. To me, the only reason not to get vaccinated is if you have an allergic reaction or have a religious objection (which I don't understand why God wouldn't want you to be healthy and live your best life but it's not my place to question anyone else's religious beliefs). It's certainly not because you did your "research" on anti-vax websites or listen to idiots like RFK Jr.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221277702

As someone who has had to take over dysfunctional orgs on a couple of occasions, my experience has been that the biggest problems will present themselves almost immediately. They will be the people who think they should be in charge and will make sure you know it right from the start, and will tell you with deep conviction that the organization can't live without them. The first step in reforming the org, in those cases, is to make an example of them, pour encourager les autres.

Looks like Scott Pelley volunteered for that duty, and the new executive producer of 60 Minutes made quick work of it:

Quote

“Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you,” “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton said in a letter addressed to Pelley, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.

“I therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately,” Bilton added.

In a separate note to “60 Minutes” staffers, Bilton confirmed that the network had “parted ways” with Pelley.

“I know how much Scott meant to many of you, and I don’t say this lightly,” Bilton wrote. “I made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with him over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground. That was not the path Scott chose.”

Actually, I said thank God President Trump beat Hillary and Kamala!