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

Article excerpt

Scott Pelley's firing from 60 Minutes marks a collision between journalistic principle and corporate pressure. The veteran CBS journalist, who built his reputation reporting uncomfortable truths about powerful institutions, lost his job after refusing to compromise his editorial standards. Margaret Sullivan frames Pelley as a modern heir to Walter Cronkite and the Washington Post's Watergate reporters, figures who risked their careers to hold power accountable. His departure leaves CBS management looking, by Sullivan's assessment, like "bumblers, cowards or corporate tools," while Pelley emerges as journalism's integrity hold-out in an era when truth-telling has become increasingly costly.