What A Day - The CBS News Crisis

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

CBS News, under the leadership of Bari Weiss, continues to devolve into chaos. On Tuesday, CBS News fired longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley. It came a day after Pelley reportedly said Weiss was "murdering the show" and accused its new producer of having "slender qualifications" for the job. Here to talk about it all is Jeremy Barr, media reporter for The Guardian US.And in headlines, the House for the first time Wednesday approves a war powers resolution that would halt the US military action against Iran, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin testifies on Capitol Hill, and just how rich is Elon Musk? Tune in to find out.Show Notes: Check out Jeremy's work – theguardian.com/profile/jeremy-barr Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Thursday, June 4th. I'm Erin Ryan in for Jane Koston, and this is What a Day, reminiscing on how Barry Weiss's infamously panned New York Times column were all fascists now might actually have made some salient points. Today, Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen goes before Congress and gets apoplectic when a congressman asks if he's racist. Calm down, Mark Wayne, no need to get emotional. And some House Republicans are finally brave enough. to stand up to President Donald Trump's war in Iran. But let's start with drama and departures in the media world.

CBS News continues to devolve into chaos under the leadership of Barry Weiss. Since Weiss took over in the fall, there have been a series of brutal and seemingly arbitrary cuts that looks suspiciously like catering to the president. And her latest move, picking magazine writer Nick Bilton, who has no TV news experience, to run 60 minutes, was a bridge too far for many who remained. And so this week, CBS News has once again, found itself where no real journalist wants to be, showbiz gossip columns. Here to talk about what happens when you hand over control of a legacy TV news department

to neo-reactionary dorks with no proper experience is Jeremy Barr, media and power reporter for the Guardian U.S. Jeremy and I spoke on Wednesday afternoon. Jeremy, welcome to what a day. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. On Tuesday, veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelly was fired following a heated back and forth with the show's new EP at a staff meeting. So what happened at that meeting on Monday? Yeah, so it was supposed to be the first chance for Nick Bilton, who was hired as EP last Thursday,

to meet the whole staff. And it basically very quickly became a confrontation between Scott Pelly and Bilton, where Pelley kind of unloaded on him and asked him basically to explain all of the firings last Thursday, which included Cecilia Vega, Sharon Alfanzi, Tanya Simon, who was the executive producer, executive editor, and basically sort of, you know, grilled him on it as if he was grilling an interview subject that didn't really want to answer the questions. So it was supposed to be a more casual get-to-know-you, and Pelley obviously saw it as a chance to ask all of his toughest questions honed by decades of experience in journalism. At one point, an executive asked, you know, basically told him that he was being rude and asked him sort of to stop.

And Pelley responded that the way that CBS News had treated Tanya Simon was really the rude thing. So the meeting ended pretty quickly. And, I mean, I think it was a pretty shocking experience for everybody who was there. But I had heard that there were many shows of support for Pellie and that as it was ending, there was a round of applause. and it sounds a bit like kind of like a West Wing moment. It was maybe like a West Wing television news moment, but Pelly was obviously channeling a lot of the concerns people had about the way that they handled 60 minutes

and the idea of getting rid of the executive producer and getting rid of two of the seven correspondence. You know, it was just a huge change for the show, just a massive amount of turnover. And, you know, kind of one of these situations where it's like a, you know, if it's not broke, I fix it. The show is super successful. Everybody writes every day about how viewers are fleeing television, but still 9.1 million people watched the show last season. Can you kind of give us a

little bit of background of what led to the meeting, like what was going on at CBS News before that? I mean, things have been destabilized for maybe a year and a half now. I mean, in October, 2004 is when Trump sued the network. And he sued the network a few months after they had agreed to sell it to Skydance, which is owned by David Ellison. Essentially, people started resigning in the spring of 2025 because they were worried that CBS was going to settle the Trump lawsuit. They ultimately did settle it that summer. And then the FCC, which is run by Brendan Carr, obviously a big Trump champion, approve the merger. And then in October, Barry Weiss is appointed editor-in-chief

after Paramount's guidance buys the free press, her site for a report $150 million. And so the six, seven months of Barry Weiss's tenure have been, I guess, rocky, controversial. I mean, there have certainly been some good moments. Everybody has a learning curve here, but there's just been an incredible amount of attention on her and her stewardship of the network.

And there have another changes at CBS News. She put Tony DeCopal in charge of the evening news show. But the 16 minutes overhaul was really the first massive thing that she did. But really, you know, that I think raised the bar and raised the stakes for her tenure because the show is seen as such an institution in American broadcasting. Right. Like, as you mentioned, it's a ratings juggernaut for the network. Like, those are some Love Island USA numbers that it puts up every Sunday. But, you know, and you mentioned Barry Weiss's background is sort of, she was like an opinion columnist who ran an opinion-based substack. And she doesn't have any TV experience, you know, which is one of the complaints that, you know, I've read about in your, in your pieces and most media reporters that are covering this, talk about that. So is Barry Weiss doing what she was brought in? to do, or does she just suck at running a TV network? I mean, I've never run a television network, so I don't really, it's hard for me to say

how hard it is or not hard it is. From what I understand, television is incredibly hard to produce. It's incredibly hard to get the dynamics right. It's incredibly hard to make news and to make an impact, to get people to watch, and you have to have everything perfect, and you have to have the right charisma and the experience and the resources just to pay for it. And 60 minutes for a long time kind of existed a little bit separate from CBS News. It was across the street.

They kind of had a lot of room to operate separately. They were sort of protected by their success, I think. And I think that was one of the concerns when Barry Weiss was appointed is that she might start to sort of, I guess people would say people who are critical of her would say metal. I think, you know, the first tangible sign of that was that. this whole controversy last December, where Sharon Alfancy, a veteran correspondent, accused her of shelving her story about the Seacott Prison for political purposes. And so I guess her first intervention was viewed very negatively and became this big public controversy. I remember it

happened. I was in Missouri for Christmas break and hoping the news would quiet down. And it normally does quiet down before Christmas, but then it just kind of exploded all of a sudden. And things have been kind of exploding since then, but then the biggest of the explosions was obviously last Thursday. And then with the firing of Scott Pelly on Tuesday night, where we were able to see the actual letter that went to Scott Pelley telling him he was fired for cause and telling him basically that he was being a jerk and why he was being fired. I mean, I have never seen that before covering media to actually see the full. letter and, you know, people have pointed out that the language in it was a bit legalistic and using terms like cause and like trying to lay out a case for why he was fired. I don't know what happens here in terms of whether there's legal action, but even though we kind of expected that

Pelley would probably not stick around, I mean, the sources I talk to who were aware of what happened in the meeting basically saw the meeting as a kind of resignation of sorts or a kind of dare for them to fire him because he was obviously pushing back against management in a way that's not normally accepted in industry or any industry. I mean, another question I had was like, you know, if Pellie meant to leave in the first place, you know, if Pellie was eventually realizing that he was going to have to leave, it seems like his departure was exactly, he couldn't have scripted it better for himself. Like, he looks like the hero.

he's getting the applause. He is, you know, he's emerging as this like, you know, Je Sui, Scott Pelly type figure in, like, the popular imagination. My question about Barry Wise sucking about, like, running a network was not meant to be glib. I just, I wonder if what the Ellison's wanted to do was destroy CBS News, if they could have found somebody who knew how to destroy it in a way that also didn't embarrass them. I think that the ultimate long game is the thing that no one quite, knows for sure. And you can kind of like piece together everything. I mean, I worked at the

Washington Post for five years. People had a lot of questions about what the ultimate goal was, whereas Jeff Bezos was trying to weaken the post to help Trump? Was he trying to, you know, was he worrying about his businesses? Kind of the machinations of media billionaires and what their long game is is very hard to truly understand. I think we have to generally presume that you're not trying to tank a business you've acquired for a lot of money. I mean, I think, I think I'm not like, you know, business school graduate, but like generally speaking, destroying the value of an asset I think is supposed to be bad. So you're basically a business school graduate.

The post is worth less, you know, then right now than what it was before Bezos kind of shifted everything to the right on the opinion side. And obviously CBS News is a bit distressed in that regard as well. But I mean, in terms of whether he's doing it to appease Trump to make Trump happy, I think think what we can go off of is these, you know, these conversations between Ellison and his father, Larry Ellison, with White House officials about changes they might make it CNN. So that's the next step, obviously, is whether the Trump administration approves the merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery, which would give David Ellison control of CNN. And then the question from

there was whether Barry Weiss would be brought in to lead CNN in some capacity. and they have kind of not addressed that at all. But, you know, I think Pelley's argument and the argument of other correspondents who've been fired is that there was a deliberate attempt to soften coverage of the administration and to kind of weaken the show in a way that would help Trump.

I mean, Pelley said in a statement yesterday that, you know, there were efforts to insert kind of political bias into his stories. We don't really have more details about that yet, but there's been some pretty big, accusations made about political bias. I think that, you know, these are, these are very experienced, serious correspondence that don't normally speak out unless they feel strongly about something. I mean, Sharon Alfonzi, Cecilia Vega, Scott Pelley, they're not people that are popping off on a regular

basis on Twitter. These are people that are super experienced. You know, I've met Scott Pelley last December after an event and he shook my hand and said hi, but he was not going to chat about CBS News and gossip about Barry Weiss. That's kind of not his game. So for him to have this big blowup and then to release this statement and then another statement on Wednesday is a big deal. Yeah, he is, he's pretty mad. And as you mentioned, the Ellisons are now trying to own CNN. And how does this consolidation, what is it, how does it bowed for the future? of establishment journalism? I mean, I think media has been consolidating for a long time.

I mean, I've covered media since 2014, which feels like 30 years, but I guess it's 12 years. But like, I've been covering layoffs and buyouts and contractions and mergers and everything is getting smaller, certainly. You know, the obvious result will be less people employed by CBS and CNN just by nature of a merger. But kind of what it means for CNN long term is we're just kind of speculating on that at this point. But because the first seven or so months, eight months of Barry Weiss's tenure at CBS

have been tricky, I would say. I think there's obviously a concern that some of those issues will transfer to CNN. The ratings are not particularly good right now, but the brand is still good. And it's in airports in Hong Kong and everybody knows it. So I think whenever there is an American media brand that is at risk of spoilage, which that's not the right word for it. But damage, I don't know. This happened with the Post as well.

I mean, people get very, very focused on it and are very concerned about it. And then you get lots of articles and lots of interest about it. And you have a Christmas vacation that is interrupted over and over and over again and will be forever. Right. I think that's the life of a media reporter in the Trump administration. All right, Jeremy, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for me. That was my conversation with Jeremy Barr, media and power reporter for The Guardian U.S.

We'll link to his work in the show notes. Remember, the revolution will not be televised, but it will be secretly recorded and leaked to media reporters. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What a day is? brought to you by Willey's Remedy. Are you tired of waking up hungover and worrying about what happened last night? Now you can have fun and relax without any of the regrets with Willie's THC-infused

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The concurrent resolution is adopted. Listen to those cheers. That's the liveliest I've seen Congress since the last time their per diem was increased. The House approved a war powers resolution for the first time on Wednesday that would halt the U.S. military action against Iran. A handful of Republicans defied President Trump and joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long conflict that has reordered politics. politics at home and abroad. The resolution next goes to the Senate, but Trump would likely reject any measure from Congress to limit his commander-in-chief authority. Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen was back on Capitol Hill Wednesday to testify in front of the House Committee on Homeland Security. Mullen discussed some of the latest security

concerns, including those at the upcoming World Cup games across the U.S. I feel very comfortable we're at and we feel like we have a zero-fell mission, but it's going to be complicated. We have seven. Five to seven million visitors coming in. We have some very complicated countries that are going to be playing each other that have a tremendous amount of just like against each other. Oh, it's Mark Wayne Mullen, the soccer knower. Mullen said DHS is ready to help protect security at the games,

but still has, quote, a lot of work to do ahead of the first U.S.-based game in Los Angeles on June 12th. We are restoring law and order to America. Now we're taking our next big step to defend. public safety in America. At my direction, the Department of Justice is beginning what we're calling the model cities initiative to slash violent crime in major metropolitan areas all across our country. In a video message to the American people Wednesday, President Trump announced a new $300 million initiative in an obvious effort to distract from all the chaos he's causing abroad. According to the DOJ, up to four cities will be chosen to, quote, receive awards supporting the implementation

of comprehensive and innovative strategies to reduce crime, restore law and order, and enhance public safety. Oh, we want to, we want to reduce crime and enhance public safety? What a great idea. Why didn't anybody think about that in any of these cities? Qualifying cities can apply to take part in the program within the next 90 days. On today's segment of questions I really don't want answered, but someone answered them anyway. We have just how rich is Elon Musk. Well, the Wall Street Journal crunched the numbers and found that on average, Musk has made $3.6 million every hour for 31 years. That equates to $59,492 per minute. That's a teacher's salary. $85.7 million per day, $602 million per week, $2.6 billion per month, and $31.3 billion

per year. And yet somehow he's still able to find time for racist and misogynistic posts on Twitter. And that's the news. Before we go, when's the last time you checked out the Crooked Store? They've been adding great new pieces to help you show off your progressive media supporter status. The tried and true call Congress design just dropped on a buttery yellow crew neck and a vintage Navy dad hat. So when you need a break, skip the doom scroll and head to crooked.com slash store. It doesn't update quite as frequently as Twitter, but you're also not going to read a screen about women ruining the workplace on there. That's all for today.

If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, brush up on your teenage mutant ninja turtle's lore, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just comments correcting me when I confused the supervillain shredder with Master Splinter on yesterday's show, like me, Whataday is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Aaron Ryan and Kawabunga, dude. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media.

Our show was produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily 4, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor. We had helped today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. In moments like these, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and even easier to feel powerless. But we are neither. I'm Stacey Abrams, and on my podcast, Assembly Required, I take on each executive action, legislative battle,

and breaking news moment by asking three questions. What's really happening? What can we do about it? And how do we keep going together? This is a space for clarity, strategy, and hope rooted in action, not denial. New episodes of assembly required drop Tuesdays. Tune in wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube.