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So, although the pieces are quality and the thing they're doing, when you have a medical breakthrough or a profile, they're usually great. But when it comes to politics, in my view, it's been unbalanced. And I think that Barry Weiss, who I've never met, is looking to balance it out.
So she's making some changes to not renew Sharon Alfonse, who was extremely critical when Barry Weiss said this piece is not balanced, balance it out before I air it. And Scott Pelley was extremely aggressive, basically telling the executive producer, Your resume's thin, I don't think you can do the job, you're here to burn it down. The next day he was fired. Howie Kurtz joins us right now, Fox News political analyst. Howie, your thoughts?
Number one, I expected this. After I saw that, when you saw the account that Scott Pelle basically read to the New York Times. But why do you think he did it? And then did CBS have a choice?
Well, Scott Pelley wanted to be fired. There's absolutely positively no question about it. I mean, here's a guy who's worked for the show for 20 years. And when you say that Barry Weiss, who I have interviewed and who was unfairly caricatured by the liberal press as being some kind of crazy conservative, which is untrue. When you say, well, she murdered the show.
You're burning the grid. There's no choice, there's no possibility that you're going to hold on to your job. And I think, you know, he's gotten a lot of embrace from the mainstream media as a journalistic hero. He stood up to the network and so forth. But this is the way he planned it out.
So, I want you to hear, if you want to know how Scott Pelly feels, I mean, number one, he continued to do. I'm watching three or four of his last stories that were involved politics. He clearly is against the President in almost everything he does. Here is him at the 2025 Wake Forest Commencement Address, Cut 44. But in this moment, this moment, this morning, Our sacred rule of law is under attack.
Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech. is under attack and insidious fear is reaching through our schools. Our businesses Our homes.
and into our private thoughts. The fear to speak. in America. Power can rewrite history. With grotesque, false narratives.
Obviously, very inspiring speech for the Wake Forest kids. Your thought, I mean, when I saw that, we played it a bunch of times. I go, this guy's really angry. He can't work there anymore, but he still lasted another year. He's got a good anchorman voice, though.
Sure. But at the same time, what I would say is that where he scored some points is in saying that on some of his recent stories under the new CBS management, and your audience knows the background there, that That he was asked to put in things that were unverified, that he was asked to insert bias.
Now, what he, Scott Pelleg, uses bias might just be balance. Depends on the circumstances. But, you know, there's no company in America where you can openly trash the boss and the new boss, who also like Barry Weiss, has no TV experience, and expect to keep your job. And I don't think he's going to have any trouble finding a job because of the way in which he's handled this whole thing. I think it was mishandled by CBS.
It didn't have to turn into this fiasco, but it's no question that so it wasn't like, oh, I'd really like to stay here. They wanted him gone and he was very happy to become the symbol of, you know, the grand 58-year tradition of 60 Minutes, which is the most successful TV news franchise in history.
So, maybe I missed something, but Howie, the way I understand it is: the new executive producer was introduced and had a closed-door meeting with his staff. Scott Pelley decided to engage, and then it seems as though his people leaked that right to the New York Times. After that gets exposed, and the producer leaves after being berated by Scott Pelley. I don't think they had a choice but to call him behind closed doors, at which time they have different accounts of what took place. He said Scott Pelley had no interest in keeping his job.
He said, that is not true. I did not want to be fired.
So I don't know what CBS and I don't know anybody at CBS. I have no horse in this race. I don't know what CBS could have done different. They didn't leak it to the press.
Well, somebody taped it, and a copy of that tape was leaked to the press. And that's how this went from a 9.9 to. A 27.9. And I, you know, it's just because of the other firings. And, you know, I know they're very mixed views on Sharon Alfonse, who, by the way, her story about the Salvadoran prison did air a month later.
She just couldn't get anybody from the Trump administration to come on camera. But it leaves a bad aroma. And if you're just, if you don't follow all this inside baseball about who the new producer is and so forth, and you just like the show the way it is, it's a little disconcerting that half the staff is now gone. But on the other hand, This show has survived a lot going back to uh when CBS refused to run an expose on tobacco because they were afraid of a lawsuit.
So it's survived a lot of past controversies. And I think the franchise will continue with or without a Mr. Pelly.
So Howie, I don't know if you saw the story, but they're thinking about evidently they denied it, but usually there's some truth to it, that Joe Rogan might be signed to 60 Minutes and maybe as that essayist. that we saw with Andy Rooney at the end. You think that there might be something to that?
Well, they have denied it, but I think it's actually a cool idea. I mean, Joe Rogan, you certainly could say, well, look, he had Donald Trump on and he endorsed him in 2024, but lately he's been extremely critical of the president on the handling of the war in particular.
So, you know, a fresh voice, a guy who appeals to young men. Everybody in our business likes to appeal to young men, young women too, obviously. But, you know, Rogan already has a massive audience.
So not sure I see that happening. Nearly home. Isn't home where we all want to be? Reba here for Realtor.com, the pros' number one most trusted app. Finding a home is like dating.
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I want you to hear this is this is this is where and you tell me I have no problem with you telling me, Brian, I think you're wrong. When I'm looking at the text of what he said, this is really the conservative, liberal, independent argument. They're in our schools.
Well, I view the schools as they're not teaching American history anymore. I do think that there could be less bias and less teachers telling people bad things about the country, but not cheerleaders. I look at colleges as a huge problem. And what's happened in the Ivy League, something that needs to be corrected and addressed. And I think he looked at it as an infringement on schools.
And when it comes to businesses, he did want to unleash business. The president does want to at least business, and of course you risk corruption and what happened in 2008. There's a difference in philosophy with conservatives and Democrats. And I think the president said, hey, look, I was targeted. I think that's got to stop.
So there was a pushback on The press who the President thought was not giving him a fair shot. And they said, well, that is bias. You're pushing back on this and you're letting the media be controlled by a White House. And I think the President says this time around, I'm going to push back. in an effect more effective way.
And I think that there was In many cases, with the schools in particular, there was some compliance. They said, yeah, we were getting too far left. Columbia was an embarrassment. Those presidents needed to be fired. Elise Stefanik did expose this bias.
Why would the journalist Scott Pelley not see that? Uh Yeah, it's kind of interesting, Brian, when when he when um Kelly says, you know, journalism is under attack.
Well, take a number, journalism is always under attack. That's part of what we do. And sure, this president has been very, very aggressive in lawsuits against media organizations and in just rhetorically and taking on reporters, sometimes fairly, sometimes not, in my view. But. This is the world that we live in.
I know you're going to ask me, Graham Platin, so I'll just wait. Yeah, last one is this. I'll give you an example. We followed pretty closely what was going on with the Russia hoax and everything about the Mueller report and what happened and Hunter Biden's laptop, which we knew was real. Everybody knew was real.
And now everybody knows it's real. But I'm going to bring you back to October 2020. Leslie Stahl does not do her homework, in my view, sits down with the president, cut 46. I think it's one of the biggest scandals I've ever seen, and you don't cover it. You want to talk about insignificant things.
I'm telling you. Of course it can be verified. Excuse me. They found a laptop. Leslie.
So, I mean, she didn't do our homework there that can't be verified. If you've just looked at that, the authentic emails, a question to Joe Biden, which they got all the time. Joe, was that your email when you wrote your son that was on that laptop? Was that your email? That's some of the stuff we're You know, when she said to him, this is 60 minutes, you just can't say things like that.
So that's what we were talking about. Yeah. Complete embarrassment for all those who said, well, you know, how do we know this is real? And then it was like six or seven months later, Brian, that they said, oh, the New York Times and Washbus have confirmed that the laptop is real. Yes, we knew it was real.
Obviously, it was real. It was left at a Delaware repair shop. Yeah, and now when they had to interview Netanyahu, they asked Major Garrett to do the interview, not Leslie Stahl. And that was also, they considered that an outrage. But Major Garrett's more of a balanced reporter.
He's not a conservative. He's just a reporter. Like, if you listen to his podcast, he's not cheerleading for anybody.
So lastly, just about Graham Plattner. Howie, there's no way this guy lasts. There's no way this guy can be the nominee. Do you agree? After this New York Times story, in which three different women are accusing him, remember he had the sexting scandal, and in which they accused him of being rough with them, of torturing them, not torture in the movie sense, but grabbing them or leaving marks on their arms.
And he said, well, this is all politically motivated. I think the campaign has totally imploded and the Maine Democrats have a huge problem. Remember, the governor, Janet Mills, was supposed to be the nominee, but. Obviously, he has some charisma, but I don't know how he survives, and I certainly don't know how he beats Susan Collins. Does it astound you that experienced politicians like Bernie Sanders?
Yeah, RoCanna, Elizabeth Warren, the experienced. Would just say, I'm getting behind this guy. I'm putting everything behind this guy without doing their due diligence. Because this is a terrible person. This is a terrible person.
This is a terrible candidate. This is a terrible person. And he lied about his Nazi tattoo. Oh, I didn't know what that was. And that's part of the story as well.
Look, he may have his good. Oh, you know, this basically says, Brian, I had a lot of problems. I drank a lot when I came back from the military, but now I'm reformed. But as we're learning, this stuff was going on. And the source of all this was his wife, who was doing sort of self-opo.
So I don't know. I think the chances of him winning a general election are basically. Close to zero, and uh, that could make a difference in whether the uh them have any shot. I think it's a long shot anyway, of taking control of the senate. Uh, this guy, Jared Golden, I can't do his unauthorized biography, but he looks to be somewhat center Democrat.
They might greg him and make an insert him there, but we'll have to see. He's not a socialist where this guy says, I'm an AOC socialist. We'll see. Right. Um, they'll see where that goes.
Uh, all right, Howie. Uh, so we'll see what happens with CBS. We'll see what happens with Plattner. Uh, but I think Republicans should hope Plattner stays in. That's why they're staying quiet.
And in the big picture, Howie, tell me what your gut tells you. Eric Swalwell about to win the governor's race. All this stuff comes up. And in friendly newspapers like The Atlantic and New York Times, they blow up Eric Swalwell. All legitimate is gone.
And then they decide Platiner's got to go and they blow up. There's no Republican. I don't think there's any Republican behind this. Didn't even get a chance to get at him yet.
So what do you what does that tell you? Why should Republicans get involved when he's self-destructing and the press is doing a pretty good job? My objection here would be: where was this reporting like three months ago when he first started to catch on? Why wait until the last minute before the primary? And so, You know, he went on MS now, and he's, oh, this is all politically motivated and so forth.
There's a lot of details in there, and he lied about. Not knowing about this tattoo, which everybody knew was a Nazi tattoo, that's why he got it.
So, um I think the press was late to the game. They figured, oh, he's kind of a cool guy. He's been in the military, you know, just what we need, an Oysterman. Howie Kurtz, thanks so much. A lot going on in the media world.
You're the best to break it down. Appreciate it, Howie Kurtz. Yeah. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business.
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