Morley Safer of 60 Minutes was my father. He would be disgusted by what Bari Weiss is doing to CBS -Sarah Safer [View all]
Morley Safer of 60 Minutes was my father. He would be disgusted by what Bari Weiss is doing to CBS
Sarah Safer
My father joined the program when I was eight months old and retired 46 years later. He would be encouraging journalists at CBS to speak out
Fri 5 Jun 2026 07.00 EDT
The end of the 60 Minutes broadcast as we know it has sickened millions of longtime viewers, colleagues, and all of us who are offended and threatened by our current administration and its cronies assaults on the first amendment. The news of Scott Pelleys firing hits particularly hard. He spoke of risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast.
Having literally grown up with that broadcast my father, Morley Safer, joined the program when I was eight months old and retired 46 years later I am acutely aware of the costs of that devotion. 60 Minutes, particularly in its early days, demanded commitments of time and travel that were keenly felt at home.
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Over the years, Id ask my dad if his occasional sharp criticism of the CBS brass or its sponsors was wise. His usual response was: What are they going to do? Fire me? This week we learned that under CBSs current regime, the answer would be yes. While organizing his papers after his death in 2016, I found copies of letters that if written today would likely threaten his job. You have ruined this company, he wrote to Larry Tisch in 1990, a couple of years after Tisch famously slashed the news divisions budget and fired hundreds of staffers in the name of cost-cutting.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/05/cbs-bari-weiss-morley-safer?CMP=us_bsky&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Bluesky#Echobox=1740769161-1