Scott Pelley

I felt the sale was very necessary.

The company was in financial trouble.

It wasn't clear what our path forward was going to be just as a company.

Mr. Ellison came in with a lot of money behind him, a young man of vision.

And I thought this is gonna be very good for all of us.

The very last thing that the previous ownership did,

was pay a multimillion-dollar bribe to the president to settle this frivolous, ridiculous lawsuit.

And very shortly after that, somehow, the Trump administration approved the sale.

So that lawsuit against 60 Minutes had caused a great deal of concern in 60 Minutes.

Paying the bribe broke our hearts.

No lawyer thought that was necessary, but they did it to get the sale through.

And at that point, my colleagues and I thought, great, that's behind us.

We have bright new leadership with financial resources.

We're in better shape than we were before.

That was the theory.

They bribed the president to get the deal done.

So, yeah, there was a massive collapse of confidence in the previous ownership.

The morning the merger was announced as complete,

I was amazed that, as far as I know, the first stop that David Ellison made in his new empire was 60 Minutes, CBS News.

First thing in the morning, he's walking through the 60 Minutes offices.