CBS revealed the “harsh” text message Jeff Fager sent to a reporter that led to his firing on Wednesday.
Fager, the longtime executive producer of “60 Minutes,” was canned from CBS after violating company policy about a month after several women accused him of sexual harassment in a report by Ronan Farrow. CBS said his firing was not directly related to the sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Fager said in a statement Wednesday that the allegations are “false” and that CBS let him go because he sent a “harsh” message to a CBS reporter asking her to cover the allegations fairly. (RELATED: Producer Jeff Fager is Out At CBS’ ’60 Minutes’)
“[CBS] terminated my contract early because I sent a text message to one of our CBS reporters demanding that she be fair in covering the story,” Fager said. “My language was harsh and, despite the fact that all journalists receive harsh demands for fairness all the time, CBS did not like it.”
Here is the full text message from Fager, according to Jericka Duncan, the CBS reporter who received it:
“If you repeat these false accusations without any of your own reporting to back them up you will be held responsible for harming me. Be careful. 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.”
In Ronan Farrow’s report, Fager was accused of covering up sexual harassment at “60 Minutes.”