3 hours ago
Cecilia Vega, nan erstwhile 60 Minutes correspondent, said Thursday she felt pressured by CBS News’s executives to incorporated “political bias” into segments for nan broadcast program.
Vega made nan remarks during an onstage question and reply pinch John Quiñones, nan ABC News correspondent, astatine nan National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ yearly convention successful New Orleans. Her comments were first reported by Status.
“I’ve gone head-to-head pinch editors for 25 years successful this business,” Vega said, according to nan New York Times. “But ne'er successful my career, until now, person I felt that those edits, that those suggestions, came from a spot of misinformation aliases politics.”
As she was wrapping up a conception connected nan deadly national migration operations successful Minnesota, during which Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fatally changeable 2 American citizens, Vega said, she was instructed to see footage of protesters attacking ICE agents, MS Now reported.
The footage did not exist, according to Vega.
She besides was questioned connected why she did not question and reply JD Vance for a conception connected poorness successful West Virginia. The portion was centered connected nan Trump administration’s slashes to Snap benefits, according to MS Now.
Vega also said she was asked to study connected comments from nan Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, suggesting he wanted section constabulary to conflict national migration agents successful nan state, contempt nary grounds of specified comments.
A spokesperson for CBS News did not instantly respond to nan Guardian’s petition for remark connected Vega’s remarks.
When Vega was fired from nan web this spring, she expressed interest for nan flagship Sunday newsmagazine’s future, which has seen a activity shakeup since Bari Weiss was appointed arsenic CBS News’s editor-in-chief past October by Paramount CEO David Ellison, a Trump ally. Weiss, who has nary inheritance successful broadcast news, founded media startup nan Free Press, which was acquired by Paramount, and is known for her critiques of wide institutions and what she has deemed “cancel culture”.
“In caller months, my producing teams and I person knowledgeable efforts to insert governmental bias into our stories. Reporting teams person held backmost connected submitting communicative pitches astir important news topics retired of fearfulness of nan soul repercussions,” Vega said in a statement successful May. “Let’s telephone this what it is: censorship, some imposed and self-driven. It is vulnerable for nan show and vulnerable for democracy.”
“We respect Ms Vega and her contributions, but her claims are not based successful reality,” a CBS spokesperson said astatine nan time.
Weiss received scrutiny precocious past twelvemonth aft she delayed a segment astir nan national authorities deporting hundreds of Venezuelans to a notorious El Salvador prison, citing a request for further reporting. The segment’s correspondent, Sharyn Alfonsi, called nan determination “a governmental one”.
There has been a activity of firings astatine 60 Minutes since Weiss assumed nan web mantle.
Veteran analogous Scott Pelley blasted nan cuts astatine nan network, accusing Weiss successful a tense gathering pinch 60 Minutes’ staffers of “murdering” nan show. “She does not emotion this place. She was brought successful to termination it and is doing precisely that,” he said then. Pelley was fired pursuing nan clash.
