When CBS News president David Rhodes announced Wednesday that 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager was out at the network, he said it wasn't due to a woman recently accusing Fager of sexual harassment, but rather because he "violated company policy."
Later in the day, the CBS Evening News shared with viewers the text message that crossed the line, sent from Fager to national correspondent Jericka Duncan. Duncan has been reporting on the misconduct allegations rocking CBS, and asked Fager for comment Sunday after The New Yorker published an article that included an accusation of sexual harassment against Fager. Fager warned Duncan that if she repeated "these false accusations without any of your own reporting to back them up, you will be responsible for harming me. Be careful."
He went on to tell Duncan that over the years, "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." Fager released a statement saying that his "language was harsh, and despite the fact that journalists receive harsh demands for fairness all the time, CBS did not like it. One such note should not result in termination after 36 years, but it did."
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