A history of harassment in network news
B ack in the 1970s and ‘80s, “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace was known for putting his hand on the backs of his female CBS News co-workers and unsnapping the clasps on their bras.
It wasn't a secret. “I have done that,” Wallace told Rolling Stone magazine in 1991. Such was the bawdy atmosphere on a program that depended on the swagger of its correspondents, who were known for their journalistic ferocity and fearlessness.
Bad behavior in network news was not limited to CBS, and the workplace culture has generally improved over the decades that have passed. But the vigilance of the #MeToo movement is taking no prisoners in a business that has long been a domain where men dominate the executive suites and female anchors, correspondents and even producers are often judged by their appearance.
The latest target is “60 Minutes” executive producer Jeff Fager, who is accused of boorish behavior and tolerating inappropriate conduct at the storied newsmagazine. Fager was cited in the New Yorker investigation by Ronan Farrow that carried more serious allegations of sexual harassment against CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves. On Monday, the CBS Board of Directors moved to hire an outside law firm to investigate the claims made against Moonves.
Six women accused Moonves of harassment, some describing forcible kissing. Some of the women said they believe that their careers were hampered when they spurned Moonves' advances, according to the article published Friday.
Moonves has expressed regret for some of his behavior but said he never used his position to hinder anyone's career.
Fager, 63, has denied all of the allegations about him in the New Yorker. Citing interviews with 19 current and former CBS employees, the story claimed Fager ignored harassment at the network and that there were at least three financial settlements paid to “60 Minutes” employees related to harassment and discrimination allegations.
“It is wrong that our culture can be falsely defined by a few people with an axe to grind who are using an important movement as a weapon to get even, and not by the hundreds of women and men that have thrived, both personally and professionally, at ‘60 Minutes,'” he told the magazine.
Fager, who joined CBS News in 1982 as a producer at the network's TV station in San Francisco, is only the second executive producer in the 50-year history of “60 Minutes,” having replaced the show's creator Don Hewitt in 2004.
He also spent several years as chairman of CBS News, before handing over the reigns of the division to its president, David Rhodes, in 2014. But the success of “60 Minutes” has given the program and Fager a large degree of independence from the rest of CBS News.
Moonves is loyal to Fager because of the strong ratings performance of “60 Minutes” under his watch. Despite the massive upheaval in the broadcast news industry, in which viewers have turned to cable and online outlets, “60 Minutes” remains one of the most watched programs on television, continues to break major stories and wins prestigious awards.
But Fager's name and reputation are now at risk of being added to the growing roster of TV news giants who have been taken down by reports of inappropriate workplace behavior — a list that includes former CBS news host Charlie Rose, NBC's Matt Lauer and Fox's Bill O'Reilly and Roger Ailes.
“Any time you have an industry where power is aggregated at the top and there is a lot of power there, you have people who do not believe the normal rules apply to them and their behavior is not checked and they surround themselves with other people who engage in the same kind of inappropriate behavior,” said Debra Katz, an attorney at the Washington, D.C., employment law firm Katz, Marshall & Banks LLP.
CBS News' workplace culture was under scrutiny even before the latest claims surfaced. An outside law firm, Proskauer Rose, has been investigating the workplace environment at CBS News since March, following the dismissal of Rose from “CBS