This week, Scott Pelley got canned from CBS News for reportedly acting like a pompous jerk to the new executive producer of 60 Minutes.

I met Pelley only briefly 16 years ago, so I won’t pretend to know the man intimately. But the one memory I do have of him suddenly makes a lot of sense.

In the summer of 2010, I was working as an intern for CBSNews.com. As part of the program, the network would occasionally schedule informative sessions for us to learn more about the industry. One of those opportunities was a behind-the-scenes tour of the CBS Evening News.

This was a dream for me because I had been a fan of Katie Couric for years.

Sadly, Couric was on assignment that night. Some guy named Scott Pelley would be filling in.

A group of us were ushered into the control room during the broadcast, where directors and producers manage the ins and outs of the show and speak to the anchor during commercial breaks.

To be clear, I knew virtually nothing about TV news at the time. But even at 21 years old, I knew Pelley’s behavior was strange.

During one of the commercial breaks, he instructed the control room to gently zoom in on him as he removed his glasses and delivered his opening line. He even gave them a demonstration of what he planned to do — putting on his glasses, then removing them as he tilted his head up slowly and dramatically. As if he had very, very serious news to deliver and he was a very, very serious newsman.

A few of the guys in the control room exchanged knowing glances, as if to say, “What a douche.”

I was so confused. Either he needs his glasses to read the prompter, or he doesn’t, right?

Sure enough, the commercial break ended and Pelley acted out his schtick, putting his glasses back on, only to slowly remove them as the camera pushed in.

It was so phony, I remember it vividly to this day.

After posting my memory of Pelley on X yesterday, I learned that there is an entire Facebook page dedicated to Scott Pelley’s glasses. Apparently, he really loves taking them off, putting them on, putting them in his mouth, and waving them around.

You’re not going to believe this. pic.twitter.com/dCt2ukfHlD

— PlantsGardener (@PlantsGardener) June 3, 2026

Daily Wire Opinion Editor Benjamin Domenech posted a video of Pelley accidentally dropping his glasses while tossing to a commercial break.

Turns out he’s been creating a spectacle with his spectacles for years.

After my summer internship, I spent nearly a decade in TV news. It’s fair to say most anchors have a little bit of an ego (myself included, honestly.) It’s also not strange for anchors to have a specific way they like their shot to look. For example, and maybe this is too much information, but I always insisted my shot never be cropped right below my breasts because I didn’t like when it looked like my boobs were sitting on a shelf at the bottom of the screen.

But never once did I encounter an anchor who used a prop to make themselves seem smarter.

In fact, I’m starting to wonder whether Pelley’s glasses are even real.

***

Brandi Kruse is the host of the “unDivided with Brandi Kruse” podcast.

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Scott Pelley’s Glasses Were A Prop For A Man Play Acting As An Anchor. I Watched It.