New York
The network news president, David Rhodes, said Fager’s firing was “not directly related” to the allegations against him, but came because he violated company policy. A CBS News reporter working on a story about Fager revealed that he had sent her a text message urging her to “be careful.”
Fager is the third major figure at CBS to lose his job in the past year over misconduct allegations, following news anchor Charlie Rose last November and CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves on Sunday.
CBS News reporter Jericka Duncan said she received Fager’s message after she started to work on a story about him on Sunday, following the posting of a New Yorker story with fresh allegations that were denied by Fager.
“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 wrote, according to Duncan.
Fager said in a statement on Wednesday that “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 he didn’t think one note would have resulted in a dismissal after 36 years at the network, “but it did.” Rhodes was not made available for comment, and he didn’t comment for the CBS Evening News, either.
The investigation into Fager by an outside law firm is not complete.