Scott Pelley

Scott Cameron Pelley (born July 28, 1957) is an American journalist and author who has been a correspondent and anchor for CBS News for more than 31 years.

Pelley's CBS career started in New York City in 1989.

Later, he returned to Dallas to cover national affairs from the CBS bureau.

Pelley covered the 1990/91 Gulf war, reporting from Baghdad and traveling with the XVIII Airborne Corps in its assault on Iraq and Kuwait.

Starting with the Persian Gulf crisis of 1990 and the 1991 invasion of Iraq, Pelley has reported extensively from many war zones.

He was assigned to cover the 1992 presidential campaigns of Ross Perot and Bill Clinton, and also reported on such major events as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Waco Siege, and the Oklahoma City bombing.

Pelley served as CBS News’s chief White House correspondent from 1997 to 1999.

Born in San Antonio, Texas, Pelley grew up in Lubbock, where he graduated from Coronado High School and obtained his first job in journalism at the age of 15 as a copyboy for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Staying close to home, he majored in journalism at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

Pelley served as CBS News's Chief White House Correspondent from 1997 to 1999.

During that time, President Clinton was impeached by the United States House of Representatives.

In covering the investigation of the president, Pelley broke the news that Monica Lewinsky had become a cooperating witness in the investigation conducted by the Office of Independent Counsel.

In 2006 and 2007 he filed reports on the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

In his 2007 report, Pelley enlisted the help of a rebel group to organize an armed reconnaissance into Darfur.

The story revealed a village that had been destroyed by government forces in their campaign of genocide.

In Afghanistan, Pelley accompanied numerous units of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps in combat operations and reported independently on the effects of the war on civilians.

Miraculously, Pelley managed to get into Kyiv to interview President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for the 60 Minutes segment which aired April 10, 2022 while Kyiv was under siege by Russian forces during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Of 60 Minutes, David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun wrote in 2007, "If there is a single face of the broadcast, it is now that of Pelley who has done several of the biggest interviews and stories."

Allen Neuharth, founder of USA Today, noted that "Pelley threw hardballs" in his 2007 interview with President Bush.

Bob Woodward, writing in The Washington Post in 2007, said, "Scott Pelley nailed the crucial question" in his interview with former CIA Director, George Tenet.

William F. Buckley, Jr., in the National Review, said "Pelley did fine work" in the Tenet piece.

Pelley reported on the economic collapse of 2008-09, on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and reporting on climate change from Antarctica and the Arctic.

In 2008, Pelley conducted an interview with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

The interview was the first with a Fed Chairman in decades and broke a long-standing Federal Reserve tradition.

Pelley served as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News from 2011 to 2017, a period in which the broadcast added more than a million and a half viewers, achieving its highest ratings in more than a decade.

Pelley became the anchor of the CBS Evening News on June 6, 2011, succeeding Katie Couric.

In Pelley's first nine months in the anchor chair, the program gained an additional daily 821,000 viewers.

Pelley's coverage of the Trump administration has been recognized by journalists and media evaluators.

According to Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan, Pelley's coverage of the Trump administration is an example of "pointed truth telling" that has "set himself apart" from his competitors.

Media critic Andrew Tyndall said, "To me, it's not commentary. It's actual reporting."

Pelley later told CNN that he had been removed from the anchor chair for complaining to CBS News management about a hostile work environment for the news division's employees.

The comments underscore the fallout the network continues to face from the Me Too movement, as CBS Corporation chairman Les Moonves, 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager and CBS This Morning host Charlie Rose have all been dismissed for inappropriate conduct on the job.

Despite some articles blaming poor ratings when Pelley was relieved of his position, there are several other articles indicating strong ratings and audience growth during Pelley's tenure as CBS Evening News anchor.

These tend to give credence to Pelley's assertion that he was let go due to his complaints about a "hostile work environment".

Variety wrote, "For CBS the key was switching to Pelley, the former war reporter and White House correspondent. He took over from Katie Couric and has steadily made up ground ever since."

Pelley has reported from Iraq on the front lines in the battle against ISIS; he landed the first major television interview with FBI Director James Comey in 2014; and he conducted an interview of the nurses who treated the first Ebola patient in the United States.

Pelley also conducted the only interview with one of the Navy SEALs who helped to kill Osama bin Laden.

In September 2015, Pelley met Pope Francis at the Vatican ahead of the pontiff's visit to the United States, and later led CBS News' coverage of the visit.

On October 15, 2023 Pelley conducted an interview with US President Joe Biden about the Hamas attack on Israel and the ongoing Israel-Hamas War

Pelley is the author of the 2019 book, Truth Worth Telling, and a correspondent for the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes.