'Worst Experience Ever': Lesley Stahl Recalls Moment CBS Fired Half a Dozen Journalists and Producers

Veteran journalist Lesley Stahl described the mass firing of half a dozen veteran journalists and producers as the exact moment CBS leadership "broke" 60 Minutes.

In an interview with William D. Cohan for Puck, the 84-year-old broadcasting icon broke her silence on the recent corporate restructuring, labeling the incident as "by far the worst experience I've been involved in, or even witnessed.”

“I mean, firing seven people, including the entire management team over here, plus reporters and producers…” she said.

The turmoil at America's premier newsmagazine reached a breaking point following a series of aggressive management overhauls orchestrated by top leadership, including CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss.

CBS leadership unexpectedly fired multiple senior staff members, correspondents and producers, disrupting decades of institutional knowledge.

Victims of the bloodbath included correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon, Simon’s deputy Draggan Mihailovich, as well as segment producers Guy Campanile and Matthew Polevoy.

Stahl said she was on her way to Madrid to work on a segment with Campanile when they learned of the firings.

Campanile, who was on his way to the airport when he found out, was told by the same CBS bosses who fired him that he could still take the trip and do the story.

“Oh God, this was awful,” Stahl said.

“They fired everybody who was around Tanya. We don’t know why. He doesn’t know why. He has no idea why he was fired. None,” she continued. “And I have no idea why he was fired.”

Simon, who had been with the newsmagazine for three decades, went into a meeting with Weiss under the guise of discussing future segments.

"Instead, she was fired in the three-minute meeting,” Stahl said, “and was told that she and Draggan had to clear out of their offices by five o’clock that day.”

Stahl and fellow anchors voiced fierce opposition to the new corporate regime. In a joint memo, they asserted that newsrooms are "not supposed to be run like dictatorships" and that the network's traditional culture of open argument and collaboration had been fundamentally compromised.

The clash peaked during an explosive Monday meeting introducing new executive producer Nick Bilton, a little-known journalist and filmmaker.

Correspondent Scott Pelley openly challenged management, accusing Weiss of "murdering" the show's legacy, which has been on the air since 1968.

Stahl explained Pelley’s frustration with not being told the reasons for his colleagues’ firings.

“That’s what he was agitated about,” she revealed. “‘Tell us why they were fired.’ That was his question. He never got an answer. They felt he was insubordinate for asking that question.”

Pelley was fired on June 2, following a severe internal clash with the network's newly appointed leadership.The termination concluded Pelley's historic 37-year tenure at the network, where he previously served as the anchor of the CBS Evening News and spent more than two decades as a 60 Minutes correspondent.

In a series of explosive interviews following his firing, Pelley accused Weiss and network leadership of attempting to inject "falsehoods and bias" into politically sensitive reporting to match a pro-Trump framing. CBS News heavily denied these allegations, stating the feedback was part of a routine, non-political editorial process to ensure accuracy

Despite expressing deep grief over how the executive decisions have "wounded and damaged the broadcast," Stahl, along with fellow long-term correspondents Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim, released a joint statement announcing that they would not resign.

Rather than walking away, the trio stated they have resolved to "stay and fight" to prevent the demise of 60 Minutes.

“We’re still deeply upset by the firings of Tanya and Draggan, strong leaders who everyone respected,” they wrote. “As far as we can tell — because no explanation has ever been offered — they were expelled because they fought for our 60 Minutes values and stood up to protect our independence and integrity.”

“We have been grieving because this whole mess has wounded and damaged the broadcast. We want to stay and fight, try to repair and preserve our reputation,” they explained.