Like a freshly dropped pile of doggy dung, it was hot and steamy at the Wake Forest University commencement in Winston-Salem, where students melting in caps and gowns fanned themselves throughout the blathering speech of 60 Minutes propagandist Scott Pelley.
While the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating 60 Minutes and President Donald Trump has sued the program for allegedly deceptively editing an interview with failed Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Pelley unashamedly holds himself out as an expert on the truth. (Pelley’s 2024 interview with Moms for Liberty founders was a similar exercise in editorial distortion that reshaped the original interview and promoted a leftist political narrative that parents who don’t want school libraries to provide sexually explicit books want a full-on “book ban.”)
Pelley offered these poor graduates a dire picture of the world, calling this a “moment of crisis,” and comparing this time to World War II. He spoke of George Orwell fighting fascism and said that right now “our country is in peril.”
It would be scary to graduate into Pelley’s version of the world. Fortunately, his take was as honest as a 60 Minutes segment.
“The Wake Forest Class of 1861 — they did not choose their time of calling. The Class of 1941 did not choose. The Class of 1968 did not choose. History chose them. And now history is calling you, the Class of 2025,” Pelley said, referencing classes that graduated amid the Civil War, World War II, and the civil rights riots.
Who knows what calamity Pelley is forecasting? Democrats’ losses in future elections? Trump creates chaos in the White House?
“Your country needs you,” Pelley implored. “The country that has given you so much is calling you, the Class of 2025. Your country needs you, and it needs you today.”
But the country does not need more propagandists like Pelley, who earlier this month hosted an unbalanced 60 Minutes segment featuring Marc Elias playing the part of a credible source. Elias is the Democrat lawyer behind the Russian collusion hoax. Pelley didn’t invoke the president’s name in his 23-minute Wake Forest indulgence, but it was clear he was talking about Trump, especially as he bemoaned the long overdue accountability universities face over how they spend federal taxpayer dollars.
“Today, great universities are threatened with ruin,” Pelley said, at times pounding the podium. As everyone knows, the bravest thing leaders can do when facing an existential threat like slashed funding is to write a strongly worded letter and publicize it to sway public opinion. Wake Forest leaders signed such a letter in collaboration with the American Association of Colleges and Universities and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
“We speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education. We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses,” the letter begins.
Pelley quoted from the letter, nearly guaranteeing he will be invited back to speak again: “Institutions of higher education ‘share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation,’” Pelley said. “Did you hear that phrase in the declaration? ‘Pursuit of the truth?’ Why attack universities? Why attack journalism? Because ignorance works for power.”
In his speech, Pelley name-dropped world-famous people he has interviewed (e.g., Volodymyr Zelensky) and mentioned a student who, according to Pelley, had the course of her life changed by a commencement speech he delivered.
The sickening self-importance shows Pelley has long forgotten that truth and journalism are best served with humility. Reporters who remove self from the story, who bring no agenda, who speak plainly, pursue all angles, and provide documentation carry the hallmark needed for the craft.
The truth, dear graduates, is that you are indeed needed to put has-beens like Pelley out to pasture and bring the truth, not political persuasion, to journalism.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
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