CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, speaking to network employees Wednesday about the firing of “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley, said newsroom leaders could not “find a way back” with the veteran journalist — a comment he flatly rejected in a statement of his own.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The back-and-forth illustrated the turmoil engulfing “60 Minutes,” America’s top-rated and most prestigious newsmagazine. The upheaval started last Thursday with the ouster of key senior staff members and deepened Monday when Pelley, a 37-year veteran of CBS, laced into the newly installed “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton at a heated meeting.“I hope I speak, I know I speak for myself, and I hope I speak for everyone here when I say that I’m only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect. We cannot do our work without it,” Weiss told CBS News employees Wednesday. “That foundation was broken on Monday, and despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back, unfortunately we weren’t able to do so, and so we had to part ways.” “We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose,” Weiss added.In a written statement, Pelley forcefully pushed back on Weiss’ comments, saying in part: “I’m saddened to see the transcript of the CBS News morning editorial meeting. Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true.” “In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to ‘find a way back,’ as Weiss said in the editorial meeting,” Pelley said. “At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution.”CBS News spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pelley’s statement.CBS News terminated Pelley’s contract late Tuesday, a day after he sharply criticized Bilton, according to an audio recording obtained by Jattvibe News. Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering” the venerable newsmagazine, which debuted in 1968. “She does not love this place,” Pelley told Bilton, according to the recording. “She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.”Pelley went on to say that Weiss had “no qualifications” to oversee CBS News and that Bilton had “slender qualifications” for his new role. Weiss is a former opinion writer and the founder of the website The Free Press. Bilton is a technology journalist, author, documentary filmmaker and screenwriter. Neither had broadcast television experience before they arrived at CBS.Weiss, speaking to CBS News employees Wednesday, described Pelley’s firing as an “unfortunate outcome” and said it “does not discount from” his contributions to the network and the newsmagazine “over the course of his career.” She highlighted some of Pelley’s on-air segments, characterizing them as “the kind of stories that Nick Bilton is going to put on the air” starting with the premiere of the show’s 59th season in September.Bilton will press forward with “the amazing team that’s still there and hopefully” with “some new people that are going to be joining us,” Weiss said. She did not provide specifics about the new correspondents she had in mind.Pelley’s firing left rank-and-file “60 Minutes” staffers feeling “completely adrift,” according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The source said the show’s employees feel gripped by “great uncertainty” about what might happen to the three remaining full-time correspondents: Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim. (Stahl, Whitaker and Wertheim have not publicly commented on Pelley’s ouster.)“60 Minutes” employees also feel CBS News leadership has shown “disrespect” to the people who make the show, partly because Weiss has not explained why the network parted ways last week with former executive producer Tanya Simon, as well as correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. (Anderson Cooper, a 20-year veteran of the show, left on his own volition at the end of the most recent season.)“Bari has never come and addressed the ‘60 Minutes’ staff,” the source said.CBS News spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the source’s statement.Weiss’ tenure at CBS has at times been overshadowed by behind-the-scenes drama. Alfonsi collided with Weiss last year over the decision to postpone a “60 Minutes” segment about the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan men to a prison in El Salvador. Alfonsi alleged the story was abruptly pulled for “political reasons.” Weiss said it was “not ready” for air. The segment, titled “Inside CECOT,” ultimately aired in January and featured statements from the White House and the Department of Homeland Security that were not in the original version.Pelley, in his written statement Wednesday, said he pressed Weiss and CBS News President Tom Cibrowski during their Tuesday meeting on the decision to cut ties with Simon, Alfonsi and Vega. He said she repeatedly replied, “I’m not answering that question.”Simon did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Vega declined to comment.Alfonsi, who did not respond to Jattvibe News’ interview requests, addressed Pelley’s exit on her Instagram account. “He was fired for asking questions, which is the job,” Alfonsi wrote on the platform. “If you need one sentence that tells you exactly what CBS News has become under Bari Weiss, that’s it.”The tumult at “60 Minutes” comes amid rapid changes in the wider media world. David Ellison, whose Skydance Media took over CBS parent company, Paramount, in an $8 billion merger, looks set to expand his media empire with a $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent of CNN and HBO. The deal still needs sign-off from federal regulators.