NEW YORK, June 6 -- The letter landed on David Ellison's desk on Monday, the same day Scott Pelley was telling Nick Bilton to his face that Bari Weiss was murdering a television institution. It was signed by 130 people, beginning with Dan Rather - the anchor who held that institution together for two decades before his own exit under fire - and including former CBS correspondent Steve Kroft, documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, and actress Glenn Close. Its central demand was not complicated: uphold the editorial independence of 60 Minutes, or be held publicly accountable by the people who built it.

Ellison has not responded.

The silence matters because the letter arrived at a moment when the argument for dismantling CBS News's flagship pr...