Broadcaster-turned-podcaster Megyn Kelly ripped CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss to shreds after her 60 Minutes hiring decision spectacularly self-combusted.
“It’s her fault. What she’s doing at CBS, which is failing, is her fault,” Kelly, 55, said of Weiss, 42.
Shortly before Kelly hosted The Megyn Kelly Show on Monday, veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley torched Weiss to the show’s newly appointed executive producer, Nick Bilton, in a closed-door meeting, according to reports.
In the meeting, Pelley, who has been with the show since 2004, said that Weiss was “murdering 60 Minutes."
“She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that,” he said, according to the Guardian. Pelley was reportedly “supported” by other producers.
The flare-up comes days after Weiss’s internal 60 Minutes bloodbath, in which the editor-in-chief fired three of the show’s top women in quick succession on Thursday.
Kelly, who was initially “friendly” with Weiss and supported her hiring, took a victory lap over her prediction that Weiss would be skewered by CBS insiders.
“Scott Pelley is a p---k, and he’s so annoying, and he’s so elitist. However, it doesn’t matter what you and I think about Scott Pelley and his editorial judgment. What matters is inside of CBS,” Kelly said.
The conservative host then showed a clip of her from October in which she accurately predicted that CBS would “eat her alive” because of her lack of broadcasting experience.
“The entire organization is against her,” Kelly said, calling out CBS owner David Ellison directly. “Pro tip to the Ellisons: you also at CBS have to have been raised in television. You have to understand what’s in the mind of a television correspondent; what makes a good television story; what works; and what doesn’t in a 60 Minutes piece."
“Which, by the way, Mr. Ellison, is a visual art. It’s a visual presentation. She has no background in this,” she continued. “They don’t respect her and they never will. So, she will be eaten alive. It’s happening right now.”
“And unless they are prepared to get rid of everyone- and I mean on-air and off-air—behind the scenes, tech staff, producing staff—they’re going to have to deal with this problem, which is that she’s not respected. She’s loathed,“ Kelly explained. ”And it’s not because of any one thing. It’s because she’s not of them and she hasn’t proven herself. She’s not of television. She’s been in journalism for about two minutes and not even in broadcast television. So, it’s just not going to work out.”
Since Weiss took the helm of 60 Minutes, longtime correspondent Anderson Cooper left the show after two decades, and Weiss removed correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, as well as executive producer Tanya Simon. Weiss replaced the 30-year broadcast veteran with Bilton, who, like Weiss, has never worked in TV news.
“She’s not succeeding by any measure, and on top of that, she’s loathed; she does not have the support of the troops internally,” Kelly concluded. “So good luck with that.”
