{"id":147585,"date":"2026-06-06T05:24:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T05:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/147585\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T05:24:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T05:24:32","slug":"fired-60-minutes-star-scott-pelley-roasted-for-claiming-he-was-in-combat-in-iraq-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/147585\/","title":{"rendered":"Fired ’60 Minutes’ star Scott Pelley roasted for claiming he was ‘in combat’ in Iraq, Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fired \u201c60 Minutes\u201d star Scott Pelley<\/a> is facing ridicule after claiming he had \u201cbeen in combat\u201d in Afghanistan and Iraq as he touted his career following his dramatic ouster from CBS News.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been in combat in Afghanistan. I have been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine multiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast,\u201d Pelley told the New York Times.<\/a><\/p>\n

Pelley\u2019s remarks sparked widespread mockery on social media, where critics derided what they viewed as his self-importance and rejected comparisons between journalists and military personnel.<\/p>\n

Fired \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Scott Pelley reported from Ukraine in 2022. CBS<\/p>\n

One X user posted what appeared to be an AI-generated image depicting Pelley as Rambo.<\/p>\n

\u201cA regular Ernie Pyle, this guy,\u201d one commenter wrote<\/a>, a reference to the famed Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist<\/a> who was killed while covering the Pacific campaign during World War II.<\/p>\n

Pelley is being mocked for saying he was \u201cin combat.\u201d X<\/p>\n

Another added: \u201cCarrying a camera and a notebook is not being \u2018in combat.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOld Blood \u2018n Guts Pelley we used to call him in the trenches,\u201d another X user commented.<\/a><\/p>\n

The backlash comes days after Pelley was fired by CBS News<\/a> following a public clash with newly installed \u201c60 Minutes\u201d executive producer Nick Bilton amid a sweeping overhaul of the iconic newsmagazine.<\/a><\/p>\n

Woke up this morning and remembered this propaganda clown falsely claimed to have served in combat in multiple theaters because he read TV lines near real soldiers. Low-rent Brian Williams behavior.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mollie (@MZHemingway) June 3, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Since his departure, Pelley has accused CBS News management of trying to inject \u201cfalsehoods and bias\u201d into reporting and claimed the network had abandoned the journalistic standards that made \u201c60 Minutes\u201d one of television\u2019s most influential news programs.<\/p>\n

The Post has sought comment from CBS News and Pelley.<\/p>\n

Pelley\u2019s defenders noted that the veteran journalist spent decades reporting from some of the world\u2019s most dangerous conflict zones, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Pelley is seen above reporting from Afghanistan in 2011. CBS<\/p>\n

CBS News has long described him as a war correspondent, and the network\u2019s own biographies credit him<\/a> with reporting from Baghdad during the Gulf War, traveling with US troops during the Iraq invasion<\/a> and spending weeks alongside Marines in Afghanistan\u2019s Helmand Province.<\/p>\n

Over the course of his career, Pelley reported from ISIS front lines in northern Iraq, refugee camps in Darfur and mass grave sites in Bucha following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. He earned a Peabody Award for his investigation <\/a>into the killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha.<\/p>\n

Pelley told the New York Times that he had \u201cbeen in combat\u201d \u2014 raising eyebrows on social media. X<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, his comments drew an immediate rebuke from conservative commentator Mollie Hemingway, who accused the veteran journalist of inflating his role in war zones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWoke up this morning and remembered this propaganda clown falsely claimed to have served in combat in multiple theaters because he read TV lines near real soldiers,\u201d Hemingway wrote on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cLow-rent Brian Williams behavior.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Williams lost the \u201cNBC Nightly News\u201d anchor chair in 2015 after admitting he falsely claimed<\/a> that a helicopter he was aboard in Iraq had been hit by enemy fire.<\/p>\n

Soldiers who were actually on the aircraft contradicted him, saying Williams arrived later<\/a> on a different helicopter.<\/p>\n

Scott Pelley reports from Afghanistan in 2011.<\/p>\n

NBC suspended Williams for six months without pay, saying he had \u201cmisrepresented events\u201d and acted in a way that was \u201cwrong and completely inappropriate\u201d for someone in his position. He later returned to MSNBC but never regained his perch as NBC\u2019s flagship nightly news anchor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fired \u201c60 Minutes\u201d star Scott Pelley is facing ridicule after claiming he had \u201cbeen in combat\u201d in Afghanistan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[36995,29271,328,11174,3715,94,689,47035],"class_list":["post-147585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-60-minutes","tag-bari-weiss","tag-business","tag-cbs","tag-cbs-news","tag-iraq","tag-media","tag-scott-pelley"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116701499414811780","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}