Fired 60 Minutes veteran Scott Pelley hasn’t quoted poet John Masefield in any of his scathing statements since embattled CBS News chief Bari Weiss and new newsmagazine EP Nick Bilton canned him for rejecting their regime earlier this week. However, the ex-Evening News anchor sure captured the spirit of the past British Poet Laureate’s famous 1902 penned ‘Sea-Fever’ today in an online missive.
“To all of you who have been so kind, you are the wind in my sails,” an ocean gliding Pelley wrote in near verse on Instagram Saturday. “So deeply grateful.”
Proving that less is more, Pelley’s words were accompanied by a clearly happy photo of the former long long time CBS News correspondent steering a boat on the seas. The post, which has garnered almost 24,000 likes in the past few hours, says way more than a 1000 words by the laconic Pelley, if you know what I mean?
Pelley’s note and photo set a very different tone than all the bad blood and recriminations that have come from all sides since the 68-year-old journo confronted Weiss appointed 60 EP Bilton on June 1 after a messy mass purge at the acclaimed and much watched newsmag show. The most explosive crisis to hit CBS News since Free Press founder Weiss’ appointment by Paramount owner David Ellison late last year, Pelley’s firing was followed in quick order by a near collapse in morale inside the division and a mad scramble by Weiss, Bilton and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski to restore some sense of order.
The trio, and to some degree Warner Bros Discovery acquiring Ellison, were given some high altitude breathing room when remaining correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim decided on June 5 to stay – – at least for now. Declaring that their staying “might be construed as an endorsement of the existing power structure,” the all the cards holding trio certainly had conditions. “If we can continue doing the work that made this show what it is – committing acts of independent, fearless journalism and storytelling – we’re here for it,” Stahl, Witaker and Wertheim said in a seemingly much crafted statement Friday. “If not, we leave.”
Flotilla quips aside, stay tuned over the summer and into 60‘s 59th Season this fall. Also, as Ellison does everything possible to get 60 foe Donald Trump to approve his $111 billion WBD biy, pay attention to see if the fired “with cause” Pelley plus the also harshly exited correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega take legal action against the CBS News brass and Paramount.
In the meantime, enjoy the sea Mr. Pelley and here’s the wanderlust propelled ‘Sea-Fever’ from Masefield, who was UK Poet Laureate from 1930 to his death in 1967:
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.
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