After 15 years, Nick Bilton re-emerged on my radar screen when he fired CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley earlier this week. I can’t/won’t opine on that fracas but for now it appears Bilton is on top.
I know Bilton from my own unpleasant journalism experience with him back in the early 2010s. Then as now, I work from my home office making a living as a freelance aviation safety specialist and journalist. Bilton’s career has soared. He is an author, movie maker, magazine writer and now, Executive Producer of 60 Minutes, one of the most famous and lauded network television news programs in America.
Then there is Pelley. His career includes stints as White House Correspondent, Evening News Executive Producer and Anchor and, since 2004, 60 Minute Correspondent. Pelley has contributed to the long standing reputation of CBS as the “Cadillac of the Networks.”
Perhaps that played a role in the statements that led to his firing. Of Bilton, Pelley reportedly said he brought “slender qualifications” to the job. Of CBS News chief Bari Weiss, Pelley is said to have suggested she was “murdering the show.”
My time as a correspondent with CBS News predates by decades, the recent hullabaloo. Pelley and I crossed paths a few times, though I knew him mostly by reputation. And the same could be said for my time writing for The New York Times during Bilton’s tenure as a technology reporter. Between 2011 and 2013 our journalism came into conflict. It was Bilton who prevailed.
This may seem prehistoric in the digital age, but in early 2011, I wrote a comprehensive article about the potential risks of passengers using personal electronic devices on airplanes. Even then, this was not a new concern.
In December, 1960, a mid air collision over New York was thought to have had electro magnetic interference as a contributing factor. One hundred and 32 people died. But the 2010s saw a rapid increase in travelers bringing phones, e-readers, and personal GPS devices onto airplanes and specialists feared they might interfere with flight.
Months later, Nick had an opinion about the subject. He thought all the worry was nonsense and designed to infuriate air travelers. He made this known in a series of New York Times blog posts put out by the technology and business desk. This confused me and it confused readers, many of whom wrote asking for clarification.
When I told editors his musings contradicted previous Times reporting and worse contained not one supporting scientific report or study, I was told that blog posts, even blog posts on The New York Times website were assumed to be opinion. Well, tell other news organizations because a few of them including Reuters carried Bilton’s posts as news.
Ultimately, and I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, the Federal Aviation Administration loosened its restrictions on the use of digital devices. Technology has changed, both the tech that’s on the airplane and what is carried on in the hands of air travelers. Will that come back to bite? Perhaps.
Now I realize what was going on wasn’t confined to the tiny but complex world of aviation safety. Today fact and feeling are dished out as one, and the truth is frequently up for debate.
As someone who worked at and once loved CBS News, I would not have chosen Nick Bilton to navigate the network through such a challenge. That’s not a fact, just my opinion.
