Bill Maher co-signed the termination of longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley, telling his panelists as much during Friday’s “Real Time.”
“What does the panel think of the recent shakeup at ’60 Minutes’? I’m for it,” Maher asked Murphy and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice during his “Overtime” segment posted to YouTube.
Murphy offered a counter opinion, noting, “I mean, listen, you’re watching a censorship state be created. Trump is using the powers that he has available as president of the United States to install only friendly ownership at the big media companies. He’s using regulatory powers to punish people who oppose him.”
He continued: “I guess it’s fascinating to me that, like, all our big institutions have kind of let us down, right? From academia to the corporate world to big media, they’ve all folded in with him.”
Though, Murphy remained optimistic, highlighting that mid-term elections were five months away.
“We might pull off a free and fair election,” he said. “It’s kind of astounding that the people of this country, even as the corruption of our democracy happens in media, in the corporate world, even around Donald Trump’s inner circle, the people have just decided they’re hanging on to this democracy.”
However, Maher disagreed, sharing, “That’s a big charge that you just made, that that that ’60 minutes’ itself and CBS itself is now completely MAGA. I don’t see it that way.”
Pelley was terminated from “60 Minutes” on Tuesday after clashing with new executive producer Nick Bilton earlier in the week, where he accused editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the program. In an exit note released after his termination, Pelley railed against Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, writing, “Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration. The waste is heartbreaking.”
Back on “Real Time,” Murphy conceded that the network is not “completely MAGA,” but defended the president “is clearly intent on installing people who will tell his story and will keep his critics off the air.”
Maher also questioned whether any of Pelley’s claims, or claims made by others who have insisted programming on “60 Minutes” has changed, would be obvious “if I didn’t read about it all the time.”
“Yeah, but it’s not just ’60 Minutes’ and part of it is you don’t know what they choose not to air, part of what the allegation is that they are killing stories that would be embarrassing for the president,” Murphy hit back. “So it’s hard to know what you’re missing in a censorship environment.”
Maher was not convinced, noting he’s seen coverage that’s “not very favorable to the president.”
“I don’t know if I would have noticed any different if I hadn’t been reading about it,” Maher replied. “Also, I just don’t think being a ’60 Minutes’ correspondent is that hard. I don’t feel like Scott Pelley was a national treasure.”
Correspondent Cecilia Vega, who was fired from the network in late May, producing teams were pressured to “insert political bias into our stories,” adding, “Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions.”
“Let’s call this what is is: Censorship, both imposed and self-driven,” she noted. “It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”
Watch the conversation between Maher and Murphy in the video above.
