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Veteran journalist Scott Pelley returned to his hometown of San Antonio on Thursday with a warning: Growing political and corporate pressure threatens the independence of American journalism.
The former 60 Minutes correspondent spoke with Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, during the annual Press Forward summit. The Oct. 8 conversation came four months after CBS News fired Pelley following nearly four decades at the network.
Pelley said the consequences of threats to press freedom extend far beyond the newsroom.
“People cannot make decisions in this country about their own lives and the lives of their families and the life of the country without having reasonably reliable and independent sources of information,” Pelley said. “When that goes away, democracy is done. You cannot operate one, a democracy, without journalism.”
He also emphasized that freedom of the press is a right belonging to the public, not a privilege reserved for journalists and media companies.
“People sometimes think of the First Amendment as some kind of a carve-out for journalists and for media companies,” Pelley said. “Freedom of the press is your right. It's not a special carve-out for me. You have the right to a free press.”
Pelley describes pressure on CBS News
Pelley said journalists at CBS News faced growing pressure from within the company to curtail their reporting.
“We started getting enormous pressure on the inside to curtail our coverage,” he said. “There were threats to kill individual stories.”
Pelley also recalled a suggestion that an episode of 60 Minutes could be replaced by a sports special to avoid airing a controversial story.
Pelley was fired June 2 following a confrontation with newly appointed 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton during a staff meeting. In a termination letter, Bilton criticized Pelley's conduct and said his employment was being terminated for cause. Pelley has accused network executives of attempting to interfere with editorial decisions.
Pelley also raised questions about Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, one of several foreign investors in Skydance, which now owns both CBS News and CNN. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund is controlled by the Saudi government, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in 2021 that bin Salman approved an operation to capture or kill Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in 2018. Saudi officials have denied that the crown prince ordered the killing.
Pelley questioned the implications of the investment for independent journalism, given Khashoggi's work as a journalist critical of the Saudi government. The Saudi fund's investment carries no voting rights, and the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners retain control of the company.
Press Forward focuses on strengthening local news
The concerns Pelley raised about the future of journalism were central to the Press Forward summit, which brought together funders, journalists and advocates working to strengthen local news organizations.
Press Forward is a nationwide, funder-led initiative launched in 2023 to help rebuild and sustain local journalism. It invests in local news organizations, supports sustainable business models and brings together philanthropic groups to expand access to reliable information.
Press Forward says its network of funders invested $400 million in local journalism as of 2025 and has established 44 local chapters nationwide.
Despite his concerns about corporate and political pressures, Pelley pointed to documentary filmmaking as one promising area for journalism.
“Never has there been more funding for documentaries. Never has there been more places to see documentaries than there are today,” he said. “And so that's one of the things that is a real bright spot, I believe, in our industry right now.”
Pelley encourages the next generation of journalists
Pelley was born in San Antonio and grew up in Lubbock, where his journalism career began at age 15 as a copyboy at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
He later moved into television news and joined CBS News in 1989. Over nearly four decades at the network, he covered wars, presidential politics and major international events. He anchored the CBS Evening News from 2011 to 2017.
At the San Antonio summit, Pelley acknowledged the challenges facing aspiring journalists, from financial pressures to concerns about public trust and editorial independence.
Still, he encouraged them to pursue the profession, reflecting on the values that have guided his career.
“It's an opportunity beyond serving your country to do good in the world, to shine a spotlight on injustice and inhumanity,” Pelley said. “I like to think of the spine of my career being about justice and human dignity.”
