Scott Pelley, star of 60 Minutes, stood up for his principles and lost his job | Margaret Sullivan

While his bosses look (to varying degrees) like bumblers, cowards or corporate tools, Pelley will be remembered as a beacon of integrity Journalism is supposed to speak truth to power, as when Walter Cronkite reported, on the CBS airwaves, that the Vietnam war was not progressing as the US government was claiming, or when the Washington Post revealed, through its Watergate reporting, that the Nixon administration was corrupt. Truth to power. Or, as the New York Times motto has it, telling it straight, “without fear or favor”. Continue reading...

Margaret Sullivan · Thu, Jun 4, 2026, 4:00 AM
US news | The Guardian

Scott Pelley, star of 60 Minutes, stood up for his principles and lost his job | Margaret Sullivan

While his bosses look (to varying degrees) like bumblers, cowards or corporate tools, Pelley will be remembered as a beacon of integrity

Journalism is supposed to speak truth to power, as when Walter Cronkite reported, on the CBS airwaves, that the Vietnam war was not progressing as the US government was claiming, or when the Washington Post revealed, through its Watergate reporting, that the Nixon administration was corrupt.

Truth to power. Or, as the New York Times motto has it, telling it straight, “without fear or favor”.

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