Billionaires close to Trump turn US broadcasters upside down - and fire journalism legend

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• "CBS News" is in the hands of the Redstone family: the news program "60 Minutes" is the flagship.
• In 2024, a merger with Skydance Media, owned by David Ellison, the son of Oracle founder and multi-billionaire Larry Ellison, is in the offing.
• The merger is approved under strange circumstances and the Ellisons begin to restructure the company.
• TV journalist Scott Pelley tells how tensions build up in the editorial department of "60 Minutes", resulting in several redundancies. Pelley is also fired after 37 years at the magazine.

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On August 7, 2025, an era comes to an end. Shari Redstone relinquishes control of the company that once made her family billionaires.

The Rothsteins come to the USA at the turn of the century from the small town of Kosowa in what is now western Ukraine. Shari Redstone's ancestors built cinemas in the 1960s, soon bought new ones, entered the film production business in the 1970s and in the mid-1980s bought shares in Viacom, which had emerged from the CBS network.

CBS legend Walter Cronkite interviews President Harry Truman at the White House on May 3, 1952.

Image: Keystone

CBS is a permanent fixture in the US media landscape: the station began as a radio station in 1927 and began making television in 1941. 1968 sees the premiere of a format that will become "one of the most respected news magazines on American television" - this is how the "New York Times" praises "60 Minutes", which sets the standard for serious reporting.

An eraalso comes to an end on June 2, 2026: CBS fires Scott Pelley. The Scott Pelley - the veteran of "60 Minutes". In 37 years at the broadcaster, the journalist has received various awards for the excellence of his work. In an extensive interview with the "New York Times", the American talks about what happened at CBS - here in italics from now on.

Scott Pelley (right) interviews US President Barack Obama in September 2013.

Image: Keystone

We jump back to Shari Redstone, who is struggling with the company's legacy after the death of her father and company patron Sumner Redstone in 2020. Her company National Amusement, which includes Paramount, CBS and other brands, is in financial difficulties and barely competitive: rivals such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney are ahead.

Ellison comes "with a lot of money behind him"

In 2024, David Ellison comes onto the scene: the son of Oracle founder and billionaire Larry Ellison founded Skydance in 2006, which he wants to merge with National Amusement - a merger worth eight billion dollars. David Ellison is to take the helm and set the company on a new course. And he is doing just that.

According to Forbes, Larry Ellison currently has an estimated net worth of almost 255 billion dollars and is therefore sometimes ahead of and sometimes behind Elon Musk in the ranking of the richest people in the world. The 81-year-old has also been involved in the US media business together with David for around 15 years. According to media reports, Ellison senior has issued a personal guarantee of over 40 billion for Ellison junior to finance his aggressive expansion into the media industry.

Donald Trump gives a speech in Washington on January 21, 2025 - Oracle founder Larry Ellison (right) listens.

Image: IMAGO/UPI Photo

"The company was struggling financially," says Pelley, looking back on this time. "It wasn't clear what would happen to us. Mr. Ellison came with a lot of money behind him. A young man with vision. And I thought: 'This is very good for all of us'."

On July 2, 2025, Paramount announced that it had reached an out-of-court settlement with Donald Trump. The president had sued "60 Minutes" because the magazine had allegedly manipulated an interview with Kamala Harris to make the Democrat look better.

Although lawyers have said the lawsuit has little chance of success, Paramount is paying Trump's foundation 16 million dollars. On July 17, the end for one of the New Yorker's critics is also announced: "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" is to end. On July 24, the media regulator FCC approves the merger plans.

The bribe

"They bribed the president to close the deal," thinks Pelley, who still attributes the process to the former owner Redstone. "There was a massive loss of trust."

David Ellison, who like his father is close to Donald Trump, is turning the media company upside down. The billionaire's son makes Bari Weiss editor-in-chief of "CBS News" in October 2025. A controversial decision: The 42-year-old built up the conservative US portal "The Free Press", which Paramount Skydance previously bought for 150 million dollars.

However, Weiss has no TV experience. Ellison has also appointed a conservative to other posts such as ombudsman, according to US broadcaster NPR. And the Ellisons are already reaching for the next competitors: Another merger with Warner Bros. Discovery is on the cards - in which case HBO and CNN would also be controlled by Paramount Skydance.

Pelley is not worried at first: after the merger, David Ellison is the first to visit the "60 Minutes" editorial office, gives a speech about independence and calls Pelley "sir": "I think I'm just old," he comments.

First like walking on air, then the crash follows

"He basically told everyone that he was looking after us. We were walking on air. We liked him. We thought that after all the previous difficulties, a bright new era was dawning," says Pelley.

David Ellison at a film premiere in London in May 2022.

Image: Keystone

The fact that the new editor-in-chief has no TV or management experience irritates the veteran. "Those were alarm signals for me, but I thought: If David Ellison thinks she's the right person for the job, we'll welcome her."

The fact that a different wind is now blowing at "CBS News" and thus also at "60 Minutes" becomes apparent in December 2025. A planned report on a deportation prison in El Salvador is postponed. Sharyn Alfonsi - a three-time Emmy award winner who has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza - blames new boss Bari Weiss.

Tensions rose in the newsroom, there were cracks in the woodwork - and Alfonsi was fired on May 28 after eleven years at "60 Minutes". Just like her colleague Cecilia Vaga, journalist Draggan Mihailovich and the show's executive producer. Tanya Simon, also an Emmy winner, was the first woman in the position. Her father Bob had already worked at "60 Minutes".

"Nobody saw the massacre coming"

Simon is leaving "60 Minutes" after more than a quarter of a century, even though she has enjoyed considerable success: The magazine is the most-watched news program in America. In the age of the internet and streaming services, the format has gained nine percent in viewership on linear television. Online, it even increased by 90 percent.

"Nobody saw the Black Thursday massacre coming," Pelley looks back. Simon celebrated triumphs. "Last season, we had 2.5 billion views. We were flying high. This management team was brilliant: Tanya had the best first year any executive producer has ever had - and I worked for all of them."

Simon will be replaced by Nick Bilton: British-born Bilton has written copy for the "New York Times" and "Vanity Fair" as well as books and screenplays.

Nick Bilton at a film premiere in Berlin.

Picture: IMAGO/Newscom World

The evening before, Pelley and his colleagues had been at the Emmys, where the team had won two awards. When they are celebrated on May 28, the team is confronted with the new director.

The new guy reads his statement from his cell phone

"No one has ever heard of him," Pelley says of Bilton. "He has zero experience with TV news and management. How do you think you feel when someone like that comes into a newsroom like '60 Minutes'?" When asked what he actually felt, the TV legend replied: "Shock, dismay, disbelief."

The editorial team is a "family": "My colleagues and I have worked together for 10, 20, 30 years. We've traveled together, we've eaten together. We literally go into battle together." A colleague once saved his life in Iraq. "Those relationships are pretty close." An explanation - something Pelley had desperately longed for.

Bilton is to answer questions from the editorial team of "60 Minutes" at a meeting on June 1. It's a meeting behind closed doors, but what can the bosses expect when they meet a bunch of investigative journalists? Because they record what happens on that Monday at 10 a.m., it becomes public how the situation escalates.

What bothers Pelley is that Bari Weiss, who the team had hoped would explain what happened the previous Thursday, isn't there. Instead, Bilton pushes forward to read a statement from his cell phone. "In a room of 50 people with broken hearts. That cold-skinnedness. You could hear a rumble in the room."

"Television is an ice cube that melts, okay?"

Pelley recounts how Bilton introduced himself to the team by email. It was no longer 1968, he wrote, and gasoline no longer cost 32 cents. "It was as if we had all been locked in amber in 1968 when the magazine first ran and nothing had improved." Bilton complained that the format only ran on Sundays - although the show was also permanently online.

Mike Wallace (l.) and Harry Reasoner promote the premiere of "60 Minutes" in 1968.

Image: CBS Television

"Television is an ice cube that melts, okay?" new producer Bilton tells the staff, assuring them, "Bari [Weiss] loves this institution. She loves '60 Minutes.'" "She's burying '60 Minutes,'" Pelley counters. "She doesn't love this place. She was brought in to kill [the format], and that's exactly what she's done."

Why is Pelley jumping the gun like this? "Only I could do it," he says - because he was the most senior and oldest. None of his colleagues could have taken that risk. "Someone had to put themselves in front of the people."

Scott Pelley with his colleague Cecilia Vega, who was also fired, in Los Angeles.

Image: IMAGO/Everett Collection

Pelley probes why deserving colleagues were kicked out. He asks Bilton why he took a job when he knew "he would never be welcome here". Bilton assures him how much he cares about the format. "Oh, please," waves Pelly off.

After around 15 minutes, the meeting is over.

"I didn't think about it": Pelly's dismissal

The management discusses what to do next.

Does Pelley suspect that he is on the hit list? "Oh my goodness," says the journalist. "Nothing was further from my mind. I hadn't thought about it." When he is called to another meeting, Pelley schedules an hour. He expects to finally be able to talk about the course and the redundancies.

He is therefore delighted when he realizes that Bari Weiss will be at the meeting. "'60 Minutes' is known for two things: a ticking stopwatch and tough questions. And we ask ourselves these tough questions in the newsroom because they make us sharper and better." But Pelley also notes that the mood is "hostile".

The previous meeting with producer Bilton, which ended in "thunderous applause" from the team, does not go down well at all at the station. Pelley is initially accused of physically attacking Bilton. "That's a lie. I've never laid a hand on anyone in anger in my life." Because the accusation is untenable, Bilton retracts it.

Pelley asks Weiss questions, which she does not answer. The meeting ends after ten minutes. In the afternoon, he receives an email informing him that he has also been dismissed.