Scott Pelley Lands Columbia Journalism School Job After 60 Minutes Exit
Scott Pelley has found his next professional home, and the destination is about as predictable as it gets: Columbia Journalism School.
The longtime 60 Minutes journalist was fired by CBS News in early June, according to the report, after a confrontation with the program’s new management. Pelley allegedly had a meltdown and berated management in front of other employees.
After his departure, Pelley spent much of the summer giving interviews and voicing his complaints. Now, he has a new title and a new platform. Columbia Journalism School has appointed him a “Journalist in Residence” for the 2026–27 academic year.
Pelley will share the appointment with investigative reporter Sharyn Alfonsi. Columbia Journalism School announced that both journalists will join the program this fall as part of the school’s CJS2030: Democracy Initiative.
The initiative is described as a central part of Dean Jelani Cobb’s vision for the journalism school’s next decade. According to the announcement, the program is designed to use classroom training and the work of Columbia’s centers to strengthen accountability reporting and journalism’s role in sustaining democracy.
During the residency, Pelley and Alfonsi are expected to work directly with students. Their duties will include lectures, workshops and special events focused on reporting, investigative work and sourcing. Each journalist will also contribute a piece to the Columbia Journalism Review.
The school highlighted the pair’s experience covering major national and international stories. Its announcement pointed to reporting involving war, politics, public health, criminal justice and international affairs.
“We’re both excited and honored to welcome two journalists of this caliber to our Journalist in Residence Program,” said Jelani Cobb, Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism. “Their distinguished track records in investigative reporting highlight the amazing opportunity our students will have to learn from them, and we look forward to having Sharyn and Scott with us this year.”
From Pelley’s perspective, the move offers a clear next step after his exit from television news. Instead of returning immediately to another broadcast newsroom, he will work in higher education and spend the academic year teaching and advising journalism students.
The appointment also fits the political criticism aimed at Columbia University in the report. The school is portrayed as a stronghold of left-leaning ideas, making it a natural landing spot for a journalist whose views are seen by the article’s author as compatible with that environment.
The report goes further, arguing that higher education often functions as a fallback career path for unemployed liberal journalists and Democratic politicians. Whether that criticism changes anything at Columbia, Pelley now has a new platform, a university title and a direct role in shaping the next generation of reporters.
Source: The Gateway Pundit