Hours after Scott Pelley made headlines for speaking out against firings and other changes at 60 Minutes, the show’s former executive producer offered words of praise for the correspondent.

Bill Owens told a New York Press Club event that Pelley “can smell fraud a mile away.”

Owens, receiving the New York Press Club’s Gabe Pressman Truth to Power Award, said that Pelley “stood up the way that I did a year ago and I couldn’t be prouder of him, and I know all the people at 60 Minutes couldn’t be prouder of him.”

In a tense exchange with the show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, Pelley accused CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the show with a series of firings last week.

Owens resigned as executive producer of 60 Minutes in April, 2025, saying that he no longer could be assured of editorial independence. In his press club speech, Owens talked of an “internal spy ring” set up by corporate “within the news division,” as the newsmagazine produced stories on Trump’s first chaotic weeks and on the situation in Israel and Gaza.

At the time, Paramount Global’s Shari Redstone was seeking Trump administration approval of the company’s sale to Skydance. Trump had sued CBS over the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris, and rather than challenge the legally dubious lawsuit, the company settled for $16 million. A couple of weeks later, the FCC approved the transaction.

Owens was succeeded as executive producer by Tanya Owens, another veteran of the show. But she was replaced on Thursday, even as the show has remained atop the ratings. Two correspondents, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, also were fired, as was executive editor Draggan Mihailovich.

“They were fired by people who don’t even know what we do, who don’t actually care,” Owens said. “But they did out in a tech columnist as the next executive producer of 60 Minutes, who has never worked in television news and thinks that 60 Minutes can be better. He said that he had a notebook full of ideas. But he wanted to point out to staff that there needed to be a commitment to fairness, in story selection, in the edit room, and in the broadcast.” Owens then paused and said, with a tinge of sarcasm, “Right.”

Owens also talked of others who have recently been ousted, including London bureau chief Claire Day. He told the New York crowd that after she arranged to get visas for a CBS News team to get into Iran, the idea was nixed by New York leadership because it was a “bad look.”

“It is mind blowing to think CBS News wouldn’t go to the place where war was being prosecuted by our country, but that’s where we are,” Owens said.

“So it’s a pity because CBS News and 60 Minutes are institutions, not places where partisans and ideologues should be employed,” Owens said, a reference to Weiss’ background as an opinion writer.

A CBS News spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.