Cecilia Vega, the veteran TV news correspondent who was fired from 60 Minutes Thursday, said in a fiery statement, “I very much fear what comes next” for the long-running newsmagazine, which is undergoing a major overhaul under CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
Weiss terminated Vega and fellow 60 correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, as well as executive producer Tanya Simon. She hired the veteran journalist Nick Bilton to become the show’s new EP.
In her statement, Vega said that “in recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories,” though she did not go into detail about what that entailed. “Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions
“Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven,” she continued. “It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”
Vega joined 60 Minutes three years ago from ABC News, a major move for the network news veteran.
“I held the line and refused to incorporate suggestions that offend the conscience, a phrase I borrow from a colleague who has also fought to keep questionable editorial suggestions away from the facts,” she said. “I know from many conversations with colleagues that many producing teams and correspondents working on the show today have had to fight to maintain editorial independence with regularity. I am far from the only 60 Minutes correspondent who has asked herself, “What is my personal red line? How much can I push back before I pay the price?”
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