Fired ’60 Minutes’ correspondent Cecilia Vega – Business News
Fired “60 Minutes” correspondent Cecilia Vega accused CBS News management of attempting to inject misinformation and political speaking factors into three of her experiences earlier than Bari Weiss ousted her from the storied newsmagazine.
Vega, the primary Latina correspondent on “60 Minutes,” broke her silence Thursday during an look on the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Conference & Expo in New Orleans, describing the “the stitches” from her May firing as “still fresh.”
She instructed ABC News correspondent John Quiñones that she was “scared to be talking” about her expertise however felt compelled to talk publicly, in line with the Status publication.
Former “60 Minutes” correspondent Cecilia Vega publicly detailed what she described as repeated makes an attempt by CBS News management to affect her reporting. 60 Minutes
“It’s not that I just lost a job. There is a lot at stake,” Vega mentioned. “Sometimes you got to be scared and do it still.”
Vega detailed three episodes wherein she mentioned the “new administration at CBS News” pushed adjustments that she believed had been rooted in politics or false data.
She didn’t instantly establish Weiss because the particular person behind the requests. But Vega mentioned the tradition modified when new executives started attending screenings and offering suggestions on “60 Minutes” items.
Weiss has cleaned home at “60 Minutes” since taking control of CBS News, firing government producer Tanya Simon, correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Vega, senior government producer Draggan Mihailovich, veteran producer Guy Campanile and digital operations chief Matthew Polevoy.
Veteran correspondent Scott Pelley was later ousted after confronting Weiss and newly put in government producer Nick Bilton during a employees assembly.
According to Vega, the primary dispute concerned a report produced after the deadly shootings of Rene Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.
Vega broke her silence for the primary time since her firing, saying she was by no means instructed why she was let go. Cecilia Vega / Instagram
Vega mentioned her workforce was inspired to incorporate footage displaying protesters violently attacking people they believed had been Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers working in plain garments.
Her workforce might discover “no credible examples” of such assaults on the time, she mentioned.
Vega additionally mentioned management needed the report to incorporate a purported exchange from a press convention wherein Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey allegedly mentioned he needed native police to combat federal ICE brokers within the streets to stop immigration enforcement.
The metropolis’s police chief was mentioned to have rolled his eyes on the suggestion.
Vega mentioned her workforce reviewed your complete press convention and located no proof that the exchange ever occurred.
CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has defended her involvement in editorial choices as half of an editor in chief’s obligations. Getty Images
“That never happened,” she mentioned. “We could not find any instance of the mayor saying something like that.”
Vega characterised the declare as “misinformation.”
A second conflict erupted over a report about President Trump’s battle with Iran roughly three weeks into the battle.
Vega mentioned she was instructed to open the piece with the road: “Who is winning the war? Iran is totally outgunned by the United States and Israel.”
She known as that wording an “administration talking point” utilized by the White House to argue that the US was prevailing.
The third dispute concerned a report about cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) advantages and poverty in West Virginia.
The former “60 Minutes” correspondent mentioned the “stitches” from her dismissal are “still fresh.” ABC through Getty Images
Vega mentioned her workforce intentionally determined to inform the story “through the voices of strictly residents,” avoiding interviews with politicians and outdoors specialists.
She mentioned management then questioned why the report didn’t embrace Vice President JD Vance or an skilled who might focus on his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Vega famous that the e-book had been printed about a decade earlier and centered on Vance’s upbringing in Ohio, not West Virginia.
None of the disputed ideas made it into the completed broadcasts, Vega mentioned.
“If you watch my pieces, you’d see those examples did not make them in,” she instructed the viewers, drawing loud and sustained applause, in line with Status.
Cecilia Vega wears a “60 Minutes” hat in an undated picture. Cecilia Vega / Instagram
Vega mentioned “60 Minutes” had traditionally operated as an “island” protected by a “moat” from direct intervention by the broader CBS News operation.
That modified, she mentioned, when new executives started showing in screenings and difficult her reporting.
She described a “real tension” during these classes “that made me nervous” and mentioned she sensed the new management “were not liking this back and forth.”
Vega mentioned she by no means met one-on-one with Weiss and nonetheless has not been instructed why she was fired.
“I don’t know why I was fired,” she mentioned. “It’s been about three months now … and I don’t know. I was not given a reason. I still have not been given a reason.”
Cecilia Vega attends the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Getty Images
Vega had beforehand accused the Weiss-led management workforce of attempting to “insert political bias” into her work however had not publicly supplied examples.
Vega mentioned she had spent her profession disagreeing with editors and combating over tales however believed her closing months at “60 Minutes” had been essentially totally different.
“Never in my career until now have I felt that those edits, those suggestions, came from a place of misinformation or politics,” she mentioned. “That’s the difference.”
Vega’s allegations add to criticism from former “60 Minutes” journalists, together with Scott Pelley, over adjustments at CBS News. WireImage
CBS News declined to remark to Status about Vega’s newest accusations. The Post has sought remark from CBS News.
The community has beforehand mentioned her claims had been “not based in reality” and has denied inserting political bias into its reporting.
Cecilia Vega attends the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2024. Getty Images for GLAAD
Weiss has defended her involvement in newsroom choices as a regular half of working CBS News.
“What’s being called ‘editorial interference’ is in reality the job description of an editor in chief,” Weiss instructed The Wall Street Journal in June.
