Steve Kroft says ’60 Minutes’ ‘no longer exists’

Steve Kroft, a longtime correspondent for CBS News’s “60 Minutes” who retired in 2019, said the program “no longer exists” in a new interview.

“I think basically ’60 Minutes,’ as the audience has known it, no longer exists,” Kroft told New York magazine. “The firings are too substantial.”

Kroft’s remarks come amid turmoil at CBS News related to the network’s new leader, Bari Weiss. They follow the firing of longtime correspondent Scott Pelley, who accused Weiss of “murdering ‘60 Minutes.’”

“She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that,” Pelley reportedly said during a staff meeting.

He was quickly fired after the eruption. That came after the firings of the show’s executive producer, editor and several correspondents.

New York magazine included Kroft’s comments in a profile published Thursday. Kroft dedicated four decades of his professional life to CBS and three decades to “60 Minutes” before his retirement in 2019.

Since Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of CBS, there have been a number of high-profile departures from the show. The media conglomerate’s owner, billionaire David Ellison, has pledged to direct the network toward a more politically “diverse” viewership.

The network’s leaders have fired “60 Minutes” executive producer Tanya Simon, executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Pelley was fired Tuesday after he challenged the show’s new leader, Nick Bilton, in a Monday meeting.

Kroft criticized these staffing changes, saying they were made without a “stated” or “valid reason.”

“Also there was the intimidation factor: People had become extremely nervous about what kinds of stories they could suggest, what kinds of stories they could work on, and how any story that would be critical of the Trump administration would face major obstacles to getting on the air,” he told New York magazine.

In a newsroom call Wednesday morning, Weiss told staff she fired Pelley for a breach in trust, according to a transcript of the call obtained by The Hill.

“I’m only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect; we cannot do our work without it,” Weiss said on the call.

“That foundation was broken on Monday, and despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back, unfortunately we weren’t able to do so, and so we had to part ways,” she continued. “We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose.”

Weiss noted Pelley’s decades-long career at “60 Minutes,” including his coverage of Havana syndrome and interview with former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse (R).

“And those are the kind of stories that have always, always typified ’60 minutes,'” she said. “The kind of stories that Nick Bilton is going to put on the air come September in Season 59 with the amazing team that’s still there and hopefully from some new people that are going to be joining us.”