CBS News Anchor Scott Pelley Claims He Was Fired Over His “Hostile Work Environment” Complaints; CBS News Responds “We Disagree”
UPDATE, with CBS News response Former CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley said today on CNN’s Reliable Sources news magazine that he was fired from his job because he “wouldn’t stop complaining to management” about a “hostile work environment” in the news division.
The remarks came after Pelley was asked about the CBS situation, where a number of top executives, including chairman/CEO Leslie Moonves, have exited for various harassment complaints.
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“I lost my job at the Evening News because I wouldn’t stop complaining to management about the hostile work environment,” Pelley said. He claimed he went to the president of the news division, David Rhodes, and told him, “that this hostile work environment couldn’t go on, for women and men. And he told me if I kept agitating about that internally then I’d lose my job”
Pelley claimed he then went over Rhodes’s head to former CBS head Moonves.
“Having exhausted the possibilities in the news division, I went to the chairman of the CBS corporation who listened to me very concerned for an hour, asked me some penetrating questions about what was going on,” Pelley said. “I didn’t hear back from him but in the next opportunity in my contact, I was let go from the Evening News.”
In a statement released on Sunday evening, CBS News said, “Scott was expressing his own opinion. We disagree. CBS News has been working hard to advocate for an inclusive, safe and dignified workplace for everyone at CBS News and Scott has been a supporter of these efforts.”
Pelley said on Reliable Sources that CBS is now headed in the right direction after several dark years. “It’s all blue sky from here,” Pelley said.
Pelley left the CBS Evening News in June of 2017.
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