‘60 Mins’ big out
CBS denies new grope claim was a factor
Jeff Fager, the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” resigned Wednesday, just days after another woman accused him of sexual assault.
Both he and CBS said the allegations had nothing to do with his departure.
“We are fortunate to have incredibly talented journalists in place whom we know will continue to deliver our defining investigative work,” CBS News President David Rhodes said in a statement.
“This action today is not directly related to the allegations surfaced in press reports, which continue to be investigated independently. However, he violated company policy and it is our commitment to uphold those policies at every level. Joe Ianniello is in full support of this decision and the transition to come.”
Fager, who has spent more than 30 years at CBS, including time as the executive producer on the CBS Evening News and the first chairman of CBS News, said the network terminated his contract “because I sent a text message to one of our own CBS reporters demanding that she be fair in covering” a story.
“My language was harsh and, despite the fact that journalists receive harsh demands for fairness all the time, CBS did not like it,” he said. “One such note should not result in termination after 36 years, but it did.”
On “CBS Evening News” Wednesday night, national correspondent Jericka Duncan revealed the text Fager had sent her.
“If you repeat these false accusations without any of your own reporting to back them up, you will be responsible for harming me. Be careful,” he wrote. “There are people who lost their jobs trying to harm me and if you pass on these damaging claims without your own reporting to back them up that will become a serious problem.”
In a recent New Yorker article, which focused on now-former CBS CEO Les Moonves’ alleged transgressions, ex-CBS intern Sarah Johansen claimed that Fager groped her at a work party in the late 2000s.
“When he grabbed my ass, it was just, like, ‘Welcome to ‘60 Minutes.’ You’re one of us now,’” she said.
In August, an initial six former employees accused him of drunkenly touching them in “ways that made them uncomfortable.”
Nineteen employees also told The New Yorker that Fager allowed harassment to run rampant at CBS.
“It’s top-down, this culture of older men who have all this power and you are nothing,” a veteran producer said. “The company is shielding lots of bad behavior.”