Snapshot: Scott Pelley Tells the Truth

The CBS '60 Minutes' correspondent did not hold back in his Wake Forest commencement address, providing another powerful and necessary pushback

“Your country needs you,” Scott Pelley told the students.

In a commencement address at Wake Forest University, the usually low-key Scott Pelley of CBS 60 Minutes fame recognized his responsibility to speak the truth. His words were important, and he understood that times like these demand fearless depictions of reality, even if he’d face blowback.

Early in his remarks a week ago, Pelley talked about the legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow broadcasting while the “bombs of fascism” were falling on London. Then he brought up “another hero in the fight of fascism,” George Orwell, and his words: “If liberty means anything at all, it means something worth saying that some people don’t want to hear.”

Now it was his turn: “I fear there are some people in the audience who don’t want to hear what I have to say today,” Pelley said. “But I appreciate your forbearance in this small act of liberty.”

Speaking directly to the students, he said, “I’m a reporter so I won’t bury the lede. Your country needs you. The country that has given you so much is calling you, the Class of 2025. The country needs you, and it needs you today.”

Then—after referencing an America where there should be room for common ground and productive debate—he had this to say, not holding back and delivered with all the emotion he could muster:

But in this moment—this moment, this morning—our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack. An insidious fear is reaching through our schools, our businesses, our homes and into our private thoughts. The fear to speak. In America? If our government is—in Lincoln’s words—‘of the people, by the people and for the people’—then why are we afraid to speak?

Soon he answered why journalism and universities are under attack: “Because ignorance works for power.” Because then “power can rewrite history,” Pelley said. We are seeing the consequences of this played out before our eyes:

With grotesque, false narratives, they can make heroes criminals and criminals heroes. And they can change the definition of the words we use to describe reality.

‘Diversity’ is now described as ‘illegal.’ ‘Equity’ is to be shunned. ‘Inclusion’ is a dirty word. This is an old playbook, my friends.

Pelley urged the students to not be afraid. He told them “in the long end, the Constitution will defend you.” And he shared a portion of “Still I Rise,” a poem by Maya Angelou, who was a longtime professor at Wake Forest.

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise…

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Unsurprisingly, the Trump cultists have been up in arms since a clip of Pelley’s strong words have gone viral this weekend. But Scott Pelley took his moment to say what he knows to be true—with full knowledge that CBS News CEO and President Wendy McMahon and veteran 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens both resigned in recent weeks because they no longer believed they could do their jobs.

McMahon and Owens both strongly opposed any settlement with Trump and his $20 billion lawsuit against CBS’ iconic news program, which falsely claimed the interview last year with VP Kamala Harris was consciously manipulated to make her look good. Paramount Global, the corporate overseer of CBS, and controlling owner Shari Redstone are close to capitulating to Trump to settle the lawsuit and move ahead with a multibillion-dollar sale to Skydance Media.

We can take strength from Pelley’s address, an uplifting reminder that the opposition is broad and real. You might also check out the summary on Friday by The New York Times of 177 lawsuits that have “at least temporarily” succeeded in stopping the hostile Trump agenda to dismantle our government and democracy by firings, funding freezes, attacks against migrants, citizenship laws and other policies.

We will get through this.

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