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SCOTT PELLEY WARNS GRADUATES ABOUT THE THREATS TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
 
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Parker Molloy
May 28, 2025
The New Republic

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_ The “60 Minutes” correspondent never mentioned Trump by name,
but his call to defend democratic institutions was apparently too much
for the MAGA crowd to handle. He had the audacity to suggest that
“our sacred rule of law is under attack. _

Scott Pelley attends the CBS Fall Schedule Celebration at Paramount
Studios in Los Angeles, California., Frazer Harrison/WireImage // The
New Republic

 

Earlier this month, journalist Scott Pelley delivered what should have
been a fairly standard commencement address at Wake Forest University.
The _60 Minutes_ correspondent spoke about seeking truth, defending
democracy, and the importance of courage in difficult times—the kind
of boilerplate inspiration you’d expect from a veteran journalist
addressing graduates.

But because we live in very normal times, the speech went viral over
Memorial Day weekend and triggered a conservative meltdown
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been fascinating to watch unfold.
 

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The fury started when a pro-MAGA account clipped portions of
Pelley’s speech and shared them on X
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“Scott Pelley raged at Trump in angry, unhinged commencement address
at Wake Forest.”

What did Pelley say that sent the right into such a tizzy? Well, he
had the audacity to suggest that “our sacred rule of law is under
attack. Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack.
Freedom of speech is under attack.” He warned of “insidious fear
… reaching through our schools, our businesses, our homes, and into
our private thoughts, the fear to speak in America.”

And perhaps most provocatively, Pelley criticized the
administration’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion
programs, saying, “_Diversity_ is now described as
‘illegal.’ _Equity_ is to be shunned. _Inclusion_ is a dirty
word. This is an old playbook, my friends.” He also referenced
“masked agents” who “abduct a college student who wrote an
editorial in her college paper
[[link removed]] defending
Palestinian rights and send her to a prison in Louisiana charged with
nothing.”

Pelley’s speech comes as Trump is suing CBS for $20 billion
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alleged “election interference” and CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon
abruptly resigned, citing disagreements with the company amid the
legal pressure.

What’s remarkable is how a fairly conventional call for civic
engagement and democratic values could generate such hysteria. But
then again, when you’re running an administration built on exactly
the kind of authoritarian playbook Pelley described, I suppose any
critique—no matter how measured—feels like an existential threat.

Reading the speech in full, it’s hard to see what’s so
“unhinged” about urging graduates to be engaged citizens and
defend democratic institutions. Unless, of course, you’re deeply
invested in attacking those very institutions.

Here’s the complete transcript of Pelley’s May 19 address:

Good morning, everybody. What a beautiful day. What a beautiful North
Carolina day for a graduation. Incredible. President Wente, Provost
Gillespie, members of the board of trustees, and Kathy Herringer, my
faculty sponsor for this precious Wake Forest honorary degree, I am
honored and grateful to be with you today.

Good morning, graduates. And a special shout-out to our members of the
Reserve Officer Training Corps who are going to be commissioned today
in the service of their country. Thank you so much.

Oh, this has been a challenging road. You have worked. You have
worried. You have wondered whether you would ever reach this day.
I’m not talking to the graduates. I’m talking to the parents and
the families. Why are there so many people here? Because nobody got
here alone.

First, a quick word of warning. I was reporting a story for _60
Minutes _not long ago, on the Webb space telescope. And I had a young
astronomer. And I asked her, I said, “So what took you into
astronomy?” And she said, “Well, you spoke at my college
graduation.” And she went on and she said, “I was sitting there. I
was graduating with a perfectly sensible degree. But as I heard you
speak, I realized my love was astronomy. I re-enrolled. I have a Ph.D.
in astronomy. And now I work on the Webb space telescope.” So if
there is anyone here today who does not want to be an astronomer, this
is the time to space out.

You know, if we were in London walking past Portland Place on a
beautiful spring day, we would encounter the headquarters of the
British Broadcasting Corporation, a nearly 100-year-old building from
which Edward R. Murrow, the original CBS News correspondent, stood on
the roof and broadcast back to America the falling bombs of fascism
that fell on that free city month after month.

And if we walk a little bit further past the BBC, we will encounter
another hero in the fight against fascism, George Orwell. He’ll be
standing right there, frozen in bronze, with his words carved in the
side of the building: “If liberty means anything at all, it means
telling someone something that they don’t want to hear.”

I fear there may be some people in the audience who don’t want to
hear what I have to say today. But I appreciate your forbearance in
this small act of liberty. I’m a reporter, so I won’t bury the
lede. Your country needs you. The country that has given you so much
is calling you, the class of 2025. Your country needs you, and it
needs you today.

As a reporter, I’ve learned to respect opinions. Reasonable people
differ about the life of our country. And America works well when we
listen to those that we disagree with, when we listen to those we
disagree with and have common ground and compromise. And one thing we
can all agree on, one thing, at least: America is at her best when
everyone is included. To move forward, we debate, not demonize. We
discuss, not destroy.

But in this moment, this moment, this morning, our sacred rule of law
is under attack. Journalism is under attack. Universities are under
attack. Freedom of speech is under attack. And insidious fear is
reaching through our schools, our businesses, our homes, and into our
private thoughts. The fear to speak in America. If our government is,
in Lincoln’s phrase, “of the people, by the people, for the
people,” then why are we afraid to speak?

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. You may not feel prepared, but you are. You are not descended
of fearful people. You brought your values to school with you, and now
Wake Forest has trained you to seek the truth, to find the meaning of
life.

Let me tell you about three people, briefly, who I’ve met recently,
who discovered the meaning of their lives in a moment of crisis not
unlike what we have today. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, president of Ukraine,
spent his entire career as an entertainer on television. His first
elected office was president of Ukraine. And three years ago, the
Russian army came at him from three directions. He had a decision to
make. So he reached for the most lethal weapon in the Ukrainian
arsenal: his cell phone. And he walked out in front of the
presidential offices in Kyiv and made a video selfie and told his
people, “I’m still here. Your army is still here. And we are going
to fight,” galvanizing 44 million people instantly. And today, three
years later, he is all that stands between a murderous dictator in
Russia and the rest of free Europe.

I asked Zelenskiy, “Where did that come from?” And he said,
“Well, you look in the mirror and you ask, ‘Who are you?’”

Nadia Murad, a young woman that we at _60 Minutes_ found in a
refugee camp in Iraq. Her family had been murdered by ISIS. And she
had been sold for money into slavery. We convinced her to tell her
story on _60 Minutes,_ which she did. And she found her voice. And
after that interview, she began to write. And then she began to speak
about the crimes that women suffer in war. And a few years later, this
young woman that we found in a refugee camp won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Who are you?

Finally, Dr. Sam Attar. He’s an orthopedic surgeon in Chicago,
professor of surgery at Northwestern, who volunteers to do surgery in
war zones—in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Syria—to try to save the lives
of innocent people wounded by war, using whatever meager supplies that
he has at hand. I asked him, “Where does this come from?” And Sam
Attar told me, “It’s not much, but it beats burying your head in
fear and ignorance.”

Who are you? Who are you? What is the meaning of life?

Today, today, great universities are threatened with ruin. So what did
President Wente and Provost Gillespie do? They spoke out. They joined
other institutions signing the call for constructive engagement, a
declaration of the relationship between government and higher
education. It reads, in part: “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,
without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.”

Who are you?

What does this make Wake Forest in this moment? Well, I think we know.
Did you hear that phrase in the declaration? “Pursuit of the
truth”? Why attack universities? Why attack journalism? Because
ignorance works for power. First, make the truth-seekers live in fear.
Sue the journalists and their companies for nothing. Then, send masked
agents to abduct a college student who wrote an editorial in her
college paper defending Palestinian rights, and send her to a prison
in Louisiana charged with nothing. Then, move to destroy the law firms
that stand up for the rights of others.

With that done, power can rewrite history with grotesque, false
narratives. They can make criminals heroes and heroes criminals. Power
can change the definition of the words we use to describe
reality. _Diversity_ is now described as illegal. _Equity_ is to
be shunned. _Inclusion_ is a dirty word.

This is an old playbook, my friends. There’s nothing new in this.
George Orwell, who we met on the street in London, 1949, he warned us
about what he called “newspeak.” He understood that ignorance
works for power. But then, it is ignorance, isn’t it, that you have
repudiated every single day here at Wake Forest University.

Who are you? I think we know.

Can just speaking the truth actually work? Well, consider this day,
May 19. This day, May 19, 1963, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter
from a Birmingham jail is published for the first time. In that
letter, Dr. King says that the first thing that has to be done in the
pursuit of justice is collecting the facts. Power was telling him in a
jail cell, “Do not speak the truth because power will crush you.”

But consider: Just months before that letter was published, Wake
Forest University became the first major private institution of higher
education in the South to integrate. 1962. The year after King’s
letter, 1964, the Civil Rights Act is passed. The year after that,
1965, the Voting Rights Act is passed. Now, today, both of those are
under attack. But can the truth win? My friends, nothing else does. It
may be a long road, but the truth is coming.

Did you hear the other phrase in the declaration that was signed by
President Wente and Provost Gillespie? “Without fear.” That
doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s an
affirmation that you know who you are. You know what you stand for.
And you know that in the end, in the long end, the Constitution will
defend you, even in the face of fearsome times.

In the words of one of your former Wake Forest professors: “You may
write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies. You may trod
me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise. Leaving behind
nights of terror and fear, I rise into a daybreak that’s wondrously
clear. I rise. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the
dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.”

The poet Maya Angelou taught at Wake Forest. She saw the fear that
power sought to impose. And yet, in her famous phrase, she still knew
why the caged bird sings.

Oh, this university, old and wise, has seen worse. It has overcome
existential threats before to our country. You are not alone. A legion
has gone before you. But now it is the class of 2025 that is called in
another extraordinary time.

Will you permit me a word of advice? I think this is how I created at
least one astronomer. Do not settle. You only get one pass at this.
This world is going to tell you no a thousand times. But listen to the
song in your heart. If they can’t hear it, that’s on them, not on
you.

In the 1980s, I was rejected by CBS News over and over and over again
over years. Again over years. They told me at one point, “Please
stop applying.” They did. And at the time, I thought, “What’s
wrong with these people? They couldn’t hear the song in my heart.”
Maybe they were smarter. Every time I was rejected, I got better.
Maybe that was the plan. But I finally made them hear the music in my
heart. You only lose if you quit. Do not settle.

What is the meaning of life? Who are you? You are the educated. You
are the compassionate. You are the fierce defenders of democracy, the
seekers of truth, the vanguard against ignorance. You are millions
strong across our land. I might be sorry that you were picked by
history for this role. But maybe that was the plan. Hard times are
going to make you better and going to make you stronger.

In a few minutes, when that diploma hits your hand, it’s not a piece
of paper we’re giving you. We’re handing you the baton. Run with
it.

Why am I here? I’m here today because I’m 50 years farther down
the trail than you are. And I have doubled back this morning to tell
you the one thing that I have learned from Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Nadia
Murad, Sam Attar, and a thousand others. In a moment like this, when
our country is in peril, don’t ask the meaning of life. Life is
asking, “What’s the meaning of you?”

With great admiration for your achievement, with confidence that you
will rise to this occasion, I thank you very humbly for the honor of
being with you. Thank you very much.

    
_[PARKER MOLLOY writes The Present Age [[link removed]] on
Substack.]_

* Politics
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* media
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* Donald Trump
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* Trump 2.0
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* CBS News
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* rule of law
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* US Rule of Law
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* SCOTT PELLEY
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* DEI
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* Media Criticism
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* Journalism
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* democracy
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* Free Speech
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* First Amendment
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* The First Amendment
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* Wake Forest University
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