Jeff Fager, the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” is leaving CBS “immediately” amid allegations of sexual misconduct and perpetuation of an abusive culture at the acclaimed newsmagazine.
CBS News President David Rhodes announced Fager’s departure on Wednesday in a note to staff. Fager’s exit comes just two days after CBS announced that CEO Les Moonves would resign amid allegations of sexual harassment and assault.
CBS News reported Fager’s departure, quoting the note that Fager was “leaving the company effective immediately” after serving as the executive producer of “60 Minutes” since 2008. Bill Owens, who has served as the newsmagazine program’s executive editor since 2008, will manage the program’s team during the search for a replacement, according to Rhodes.
Rhodes, in the note, wrote that Fager’s departure “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.”
While CBS did not state what company policy that Fager had violated, Fager said in a statement to CNN that CBS had “terminated my contract early because I sent a text message to one of our own CBS reporters demanding that she be fair in covering the story.”
“My language was harsh and, despite the fact that journalists receive harsh demands for fairness all the time, CBS did not like it,” Fager said. “One such note should not result in termination after 36 years, but it did.”
In a July report in The New Yorker, journalist Ronan Farrow reported that six former employees told him that Fager would touch them in way that would make them uncomfortable at company parties. In one instance, Fager allegedly made inappropriate advances toward a junior staffer. Fager, however, denied those allegations.
Farrow also cited “nineteen current and former employees” who said Fager “allowed harassment in the division,” with Fager protecting men accused of misconduct.
When the story came out in July, Fager said that Farrow’s sources for the report had an “axe to grind.”
In a follow-up story published on Sunday, Farrow cited a former intern who claimed that Fager once groped her at an office party, and described the culture as “sexist” and a “boy’s club.”
On Wednesday, Rhodes’ note invoked the name of the company’s acting CEO, Joe Ianniello.
Rhodes wrote that “Ianniello is in full support of this decision and the transition to come.”