SCOTT PELLEY
The CBS Evening News anchor talks conventions, refugees and how much he misses pancakes.
It’s hard to imagine Scott Pelley, 58, has any downtime. He’s been the anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News since 2011—in fact, June 6 marked his fifth anniversary in that role. He also has been a full-time correspondent for 60 Minutes since 2004. A former war reporter and White House correspondent, he’s won a slew of awards for his worldwide reporting, from Iraq to Antarctica. Life has slowed down a little now that he and wife Jane are empty nesters (son Reece, 24, works in Washington, D.C., and daughter Blair, 21, is a college senior), which is why he has time on Sundays to sail near his home in Connecticut.
You’re covering the conventions this month. What do you think will be the big stories? How does Hillary Clinton co-opt Bernie Sanders’ support, which she so desperately needs? His people are the bedrock of the Democratic Party—young people, women, Independents. She has to have those voters.
Will there be any breakout stars at the conventions? I want to see what role Paul Ryan will have. He is a rising star within the Republican Party. The question is, will Trump outshine all the rising stars and make this a convention just about him? As for the Democrats, you might see a starring role for one or both of the Castro brothers [ Joaquin represents Texas’ 20th congressional district in the U.S. Congress; identical twin Julián is the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development].
You covered the conventions in 2012. What was most challenging? Hearing! It is a tectonic roar inside the convention halls; you cannot hear a thing. I had to have CBS audio engineers construct a set of headphones for me just so I could hear myself on the broadcast and hear myself think. The other challenge is to see how the undercurrents are changing the politics in the room at the time. The last two conventions there was no drama; this year is going to be very different. It’s going to be something few living reporters have seen before.
How has your work on the board of the International Rescue Committee affected your thinking on the refugee crisis in Europe? One very influential thing in my early life was reading The Grapes of Wrath. It’s about my people, the Okies in the Dust Bowl, moving to California, but it’s really a parable for all times about the dispossessed. You can replace the Joad family name with Sarif, and you’re in Syria. In our country, which is inhabited almost exclusively by refugees of one kind or another, I think we need to keep those doors open. We need to have safety, of course; it’s a new age since 9/11. But how can your heart not break? America is the most generous country in the world. I believe very strongly in having a humanitarian heart when it comes to refugees.
Has being an empty nester changed your life? My wife was a single mom for years. When I would go to Afghanistan, Iraq, the Arctic, the Antarctic, everywhere on earth, I would be gone for a long time. So this has been a wonderful opportunity for us to be in love and share the world. Now she comes with me on my 60 Minutes assignments overseas. We’ve been married for 35 years, which is a really good start and says a lot about her patience. I recommend it.
What’s it like to anchor breaking news? It’s like trying to conduct an orchestra. You have all these correspondents and sources of information and sources of video and you’re on the air live, sometimes for many hours, and you’re trying to stitch together a narrative off the top of your head. That is frankly the most fun I have.