Tony Dokoupil shared some heartfelt words on CBS Evening News about his former colleague Scott Pelley after the veteran journalist was fired on Tuesday.
During Wednesday’s show, Dokoupil — who was appointed anchor of the evening newscast by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss at the start of her tenure last year — took a moment to praise Pelley’s career.
“When I started at CBS, Scott Pelley was in this very chair, and still doing a dozen stories a year for 60 Minutes. And amid all of that, still meeting every new correspondent to share his view of the mission here,” he said. “He believed freedom of the press, to quote [James] Madison, was ‘the right that guaranteed all the others.’ And the stakes are always that high in that, if you’d made it to CBS News, you were among the best in the world. He worked every single day to live up to that standard.”
A compilation of some of Pelley’s work at CBS over the years, after he joined the network in 1989, was then played. The video featured the journalist’s coverage from the field of 9/11, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Russia-Ukraine War and more, as well as his many presidential interviews and the dozens of Emmys he received for his work.
“He was in some ways a man from another era, and that’s not a knock,” Dokoupil said in a voiceover. “He didn’t watch the competition, he said, because he knew who he was. A journalist who valued truth at all costs. And always kept alive the memory of colleagues killed in the field — a reminder that his chosen line of work could be a dangerous one.”
To conclude the tribute, the anchor also noted how Pelley changed the CBS Evening News logo from “with Scott Pelley” to “with all of us.” Dokoupil added, “Well, Scott, from all of us, thank you.”
On Tuesday, The Hollywood Reporter learned that the veteran 60 Minutes correspondent was fired by the network. This decision came after Pelley clashed with the show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, during a heated meeting with staff the day prior.
In the meeting, Pelley slammed Weiss, accusing her of “murdering 60 Minutes. She does not love this place; she was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.”
Following his firing, Pelley released a lengthy statement, saying in part, “Incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. … The collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.”
