Get the app

Shadowing practice: '60 Minutes' in turmoil after longtime correspondent Scott Pelley is fired

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
Line 1

Full transcript

  1. CBS News has fired longtime 60 -minutes correspondent Scott Pelley after a contentious all -staff meeting in which Pelley reportedly clashed with newly installed executive producer Nick Bilton and accused0:00
  2. CBS News editor -in -chief Barry Weiss of murdering the storied news magazine.0:11
  3. Bilton, in a letter firing Pelley yesterday evening, accused him of acting with remarkable insubility and contempt.0:16
  4. In his own statement, Pelley said, quote, the leadership of 60 -minutes is no longer recognizable.0:23
  5. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.0:28
  6. The firing marks the latest and most dramatic chapter in the upheaval surrounding 60 -minutes and CBS News, as Weiss moves to reshape both the nation's most -watched television news0:33
  7. magazine and the news division more broadly.0:43
  8. For more, we're joined now by Steve Croft.0:46
  9. He spent 30 seasons as a correspondent for 60 -minutes before retiring in 2019.0:48
  10. Steve Croft, welcome to the NewsHour.0:54
  11. Thank you very much.0:56
  12. You join us to be here.0:57
Show all 83 lines Show fewer lines
  1. I wish different circumstances.0:59
  2. Yeah, indeed.1:00
  3. We should say you joined 60 -minutes back in 1989, spent decades helping make it the most respected, most -watched news magazine and TV history as you have watched recent1:01
  4. events unfold.1:11
  5. Scott Pelley's firing, the dismissal of Tanya Simon, the former executive producer, the firings of correspondence Sharon Alfonso and Cecilia Vega.1:12
  6. What has been going through your mind?1:21
  7. You know, I think it's been disastrous for the show, you know, for the audience, which is not insubstantial.1:23
  8. It's been going on for a long time.1:31
  9. It began really with an interview that Bill Whitaker had done with Kamala Harris in which CBS was sued for $17 million by the Trump administration for what they called1:34
  10. an illegal edit.1:47
  11. But the lawsuit had absolutely no merit.1:48
  12. Yet, CBS and its corporate management, Paramount, decided to settle the case for $17 million.1:52
  13. And since then, it's just been sort of one thing after another.1:58
  14. The broader context which you're speaking of is important because CBS News is now operating under new ownership as Paramount Skydance seeks approval from Trump regulators to acquire Warner Brothers2:03
  15. Discovery, which, by the way, also owns CNN.2:15
  16. And President Trump, we should say, has made no secret of his hostility toward much of the mainstream press.2:19
  17. He has called out 60 Minutes and CBS News repeatedly.2:24
  18. So how much do the larger political and corporate pressures at play help explain what's happening right now at 60 Minutes and CBS News?2:27
  19. I think it's perfectly explained.2:36
  20. It's for Paramount, the parent company, getting these deals done.2:38
  21. First, the permission to merge the two companies from the FCC.2:45
  22. And then now, awaiting the decision on whether this is going to go through with the FCC and be approved.2:53
  23. I think that Paramount has just decided that it was going to be that that was the only thing that was important.3:02
  24. And they were going to try and block anything that might get in the way of that.3:09
  25. As Scott Pelley said this morning, he asked Barry Weiss, the president of the corporation, why they fired Tanya Simon, the executive producer of the show, why they had fired3:14
  26. various correspondents in the last week, well, just in one day.3:25
  27. And she refused to answer any of the questions, which leaves you with what's been said by the president and by his staff and by the chairman of the FCC3:32
  28. that they don't like the way CBS has been operated.3:46
  29. They don't like the fact that it's on the air.3:50
  30. They would like to see it taken off the air.3:52
  31. They've said that a number of times.3:54
  32. They like to see people fired.3:56
  33. And that's what's happened.3:58
  34. And yet one could argue every new owner, every new management team arrives believing they can improve what they bought, that they can make an institution better, even a standout4:00
  35. success like 60 Minutes.4:11
  36. In this case, though, where is the line between a legitimate business decision and journalistic interference?4:13
  37. Well, I think that this is journalistic interference.4:20
  38. It makes no business sense whatsoever.4:23
  39. The show is still doing very well.4:25
  40. It's the highest rated news program on television.4:27
  41. And it has been that way for more than 50 years.4:31
  42. The audience was up about 9 % last year.4:34
  43. And why would you mess with that?4:38
  44. It's got an audience of about 10 million people, between nine and 10 million people, which is still one of the largest audiences on network television.4:40
  45. I want to ask you about something else here, because in a statement, Scott Pelley said that the new management instructed him to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically4:49
  46. sensitive story, which he says he did not do.4:57
  47. Cecilia Vega, in a separate statement, also spoke of pressure to insert political bias and said that some staffers became reluctant to pitch certain stories out of fear of internal5:00
  48. repercussions.5:11
  49. How significant a break is what they describe from the editorial culture and standards that defined 60 Minutes during your tenure?5:13
  50. It's never happened.5:20
  51. That's the only way to describe it.5:22
  52. I've never had anybody asked to make any kind of insertion or addition to a story to change the tone of it or to change the facts of it.5:24
  53. I don't think it's ever happened at 60 Minutes.5:37
  54. We should say we reached out to CBS News for a statement they have yet to respond.5:39
  55. Zooming out, what does the country lose if an institution like 60 Minutes becomes weaker, less independent, or less ambitious?5:44
  56. You've already seen the effects of it.5:54
  57. Cecilia Vega, in her final statement to the staff, outlined a number of problems that have occurred on the show and that people have been unwilling or afraid to do5:58
  58. stories, intimidated from doing stories that needed covering, and that instilled this feeling of fear into the broadcast.6:09
  59. I think that's absolutely 100 % true.6:23
  60. It's already having effects.6:26
  61. I think that Scott was doing this, not just for himself, making the point about himself personally.6:27
  62. I think he was doing the stand -up for Sharon Alfonso, who was fired, and for Cecilia Vega, who was fired, and for Tanya Simon, who was fired, and for6:34
  63. Dragan Mahalovitch, who was fired.6:47
  64. All of these people are incredibly good journalists.6:48
  65. The kind of people you would need if you wanted to continue to put a program like CBS 60 Minutes on the air, and now they are gone.6:51
  66. I think it was a slap in the face to everybody who has worked there over a long period of time.7:00
  67. Former 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Croft.7:09
  68. Steve, thanks again for your time.7:11
  69. We appreciate it.7:12
  70. My pleasure.7:14
  71. Donate now, or even better, start a monthly contribution today.7:30

American Accent Training with a Breaking Media Story

This clip is good material for american accent training because it is unscripted broadcast speech, not a script read slowly for learners. It is a PBS NewsHour segment on the firing of longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, opening with a news anchor's report before moving into a live interview with former correspondent Steve Croft. The level is B2, and the anchor's opening lines run at 162 words per minute, faster than most of the catalogue, so your ear has to keep pace with real news delivery rather than a slowed down recording.

What actually happens across the 83 lines is worth practising speaking on for its own sake: a firing, an accusation of insubordination, a lawsuit over an interview edit, and an anchor's questions that Croft answers in the loose, self correcting way people actually talk. That mix of tight scripted narration and looser spoken answers is exactly where english speaking practice pays off, because you rehearse two different rhythms in one clip instead of one.

The Language: Scripted Narration versus a Live Answer

Quoting a few lines shows the contrast. Croft, answering off the cuff, says: "You know, I think it's been disastrous for the show, you know, for the audience, which is not insubstantial." Notice the repeated "you know" doing the work of a filler while he organises his thought, and the understatement in "not insubstantial", a very British sounding double negative from an American speaker. That is the register to shadow this line for: real hesitation, not a clean sentence.

Set that against the anchor's tighter, more written register. Pelley's own statement is read as: "The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well." Every word lands on the beat, no filler, built for reading aloud. Croft's short verdict on the lawsuit, "But the lawsuit had absolutely no merit", is shorter still and worth repeating for its flat, confident stress on "absolutely no merit".

  • "You know, I think it's been disastrous for the show, you know, for the audience, which is not insubstantial." conversational filler and understatement
  • "The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well." formal written register read aloud, even stress
  • "But the lawsuit had absolutely no merit." short, flat, confident delivery

A B2 Route Through This 60 Minutes Story

Work the clip in the order the segment itself changes register, so you practise both styles rather than only the easier one. This is shadowing english speaking practice b2, aimed at listeners who can already follow news audio but still lose words at speed.

  • Start with line 5, Pelley's statement read by the anchor, and repeat it until the stress falls evenly on every word, the way scripted narration is delivered
  • Move to line 19, Croft's answer with the repeated "you know", and shadow it slower than the audio first, just to get the two fillers in the right places
  • Isolate line 23, "But the lawsuit had absolutely no merit", and say it back at full speed five times in a row before moving on
  • Play the anchor's opening lines once through without stopping, to feel the 162 words per minute pace, then go back and shadow line by line
  • Finish by running lines 19 and 23 together as one exchange, so the shift from loose to flat register happens inside a single breath, the way it does in the recording
Download on the App Store