Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim say they’ll ‘stay and fight’ at 60 Minutes

Bill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl and Jon Wertheim. Photograph: Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenBill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl and Jon Wertheim. Photograph: Getty ImagesCBSLesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim say they’ll ‘stay and fight’ at 60 MinutesStahl and Whitaker had been wild cards after new CBS News management fired multiple people in recent weeks

Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim announced on Friday their decision to remain at CBS’s 60 Minutes after the tumultuous firings of several of the show’s senior correspondents and top producers.

The three correspondents issued a joint statement, saying: “We have had a hard time deciding whether to stay … We don’t want to see 60 Minutes die. We have been grieving because this whole mess has wounded and damaged the broadcast.

Stahl, 84, and Whitaker, 74, had remained wildcards as they had not commented on the uproar that has plagued the show since the new management of CBS News ousted correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega and producers Tanya Simon, Draggan Mihailovich and Matthew Polevoy last Thursday as part of a total restructuring of the show.

Then, on Tuesday evening, the network terminated veteran Scott Pelley, telling him in a legalistic email message that he was being fired for “cause” because of his conduct in an explosive meeting a day earlier with new executive producer Nick Bilton and the network’s managing editor, Charles Forelle.

During the meeting, Pelley criticized Bari Weiss, the former opinion commentator who became the network’s editor-in-chief – an appointment which has sparked backlash among numerous CBS employees who raised concerns about impartiality.

“She’s murdering 60 Minutes,” Pelley said of Weiss. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.”

In Friday’s note, the trio of correspondents said they were still “deeply upset by the firings” of Simon and Mihailovich, who they described as “strong leaders who everyone respected”.

“As far as we can tell – because no explanation has ever been offered – they were expelled because they fought for our 60 Minutes values and stood up to protect our independence and integrity. Newsrooms are not supposed to run like dictatorships,” they wrote.

The correspondents went on to also mention Alfonsi, Vega and Pelley, as well as Polevoy and senior producer Guy Campanile, who was also fired by CBS News.

“We want to express how sorry we are that these principled, fair and honest journalists were treated so shabbily, with such indecency. It’s been heartbreaking,” they wrote.

Explaining their decision to stay, they said: “We feared that our returning might be construed as an endorsement of the existing power structure. That is simply, categorically not the case.