Scott Pelley

They're not there.

I looked around the room.

I'm the only correspondent there, which surprised me very much.

I learned that my colleagues were out shooting stories, as they should be in the month of June.

But I'm the only correspondent there, which surprised me.

And I looked around at my friends and colleagues in the room and realized I was the senior person.

Only I could do it.

None of them could be asked to take that risk.

So when I saw Nick Bilton's email and then saw him reading

to my brokenhearted people off his phone.

I felt that somebody had to stand up for the broadcast, not just the broadcast, but the people.

There are people in that room who go to war zones when they are pregnant.

Newsrooms are sort of like the military or the police or

the beautiful people at the FDNY down the street.

It is a life-threatening job in many instances.

And very strong bonds, very emotional bonds are found or are developed in that kind of setting.

And to have people running CBS News who don't know that, have never felt that, and don't understand it, is a tragedy I never expected to see.

It was the wholesale nature of it.

Our senior staff wiped out after a triumphal year.

Let's remember that.