Cecilia Vega, the 60 Minutes correspondent fired as part of a dramatic overhaul of the CBS News show this spring, said it “hurts” to see what has happened to the storied newsmagazine and other segments of the network, and repeated allegations that she was told to insert “factually untrue” information into her work. It hurts to watch, from afar. It hurts to talk to my colleagues who are still there.
It hurts to see the ratings slump that is happening right now,” Vega said during a Thursday evening talk for students at American University in Washington DC. Vega was among several correspondents and producers fired in May as part of a revamp of the show by CBS News’ editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, who hired the tech journalist Nick Bilton as executive producer. Her contract as a 60 Minutes correspondent was not due to expire until March 2027, leading to – still unresolved – confusion about why she was targeted for termination.
I was fired without cause. I just find it exceptionally disturbing.” CBS News management also parted ways with correspondent Scott Pelley “for cause”, after he clashed with Bilton, and declined to renew correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi’s contract. The show’s executive producer Tanya Simon was also fired, along with several other top producers.
Weiss opted to upend the show despite industry-leading ratings. The 58th season of the show averaged 9.1 million viewers, up 9% compared with the previous season. This season has seen softer ratings – the show’s most recent episode drew just 5.64 million viewers, the smallest audience this century for the sixth episode of a 60 Minutes season.
Weiss said during an industry conference on Wednesday that she was not “focused” on the show’s ratings and was instead focused on building the network. I think it’s a real mystery.” During her talk, Vega repeated her contention that newsroom managers attempted to insert political bias into her stories for the show, efforts she resisted. I held the line, and Scott held the line, and Sharyn held the line, and I think people are still holding the line over there.
But what they are having to go through, or what we had to go through, should never happen in a newsroom.” Vega said she was “told to put information that is just factually untrue in a piece of journalism”, though she said she “can’t prescribe a motive” as to why she was told to do so. CBS News has denied Vega’s claims of political bias, which she expressed during an appearance at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Conference & Expo this summer. Vega, who was wearing a shirt honoring the late labor leader Dolores Huerta, was interviewed by Antoine Sanfuentes, a former NBC News and CNN executive who serves as an adjunct professor at the university.
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