What To Know
- Cecilia Vega claims new leadership at CBS News asked her to report on unverified claims while she was working at 60 Minutes.
- Vega was fired from the news program in May and said she still doesn’t know why.
Cecilia Vega, who was fired from 60 Minutes in May under Bari Weiss’ tenure, is speaking out about her experience at CBS News. Vega spoke to ABC News’ John Quiñones at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Conference & Expo in New Orleans on July 23 and admitted she still doesn’t know why she was fired.
“It’s been about three months now and I don’t know,” she shared. “I was not given a reason. I still have not been given a reason.”
Vega’s ousting was one of many lineup changes implemented by Weiss since she took over as editor-in-chief at CBS News in October. During her conversation with Quiñones, she accused higher-ups at CBS News of influencing her reporting on 60 Minutes, alleging that she was pushed to report information that had not been verified.
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According to Mediaite, Vega listed several examples of situations where she was encouraged to report on unverified information. She cited her reporting on the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, claiming that she was told to include video footage of protestors attacking people they believed to be undercover ICE agents, despite her team finding “no credible examples” of this.
Higher-ups also allegedly asked Vega and her team to include footage of Minneapolis police chief rolling his eyes when Jacob Frey, the city’s mayor, asked officials to physically confront ICE agents. “That never happened,” Vega stated. “We could not find any instance of the mayor saying something like that.”
In another instance, Vega was allegedly told to report on Donald Trump‘s Iran war by saying, “Who is winning the war? Iran is totally outgunned by the United States and Israel.” Vega said she felt this was an “administration talking point.”
Vega didn’t name Weiss, but said she received the above-mentioned feedback from the “new administration at CBS News.” She added, “It started to change when new people started showing up in the screenings and giving their feedback on pieces.”
In May, Vega said she “very much fears” for the future of 60 Minutes. “In recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories,” Vega claimed. “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. It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”
