Cecilia Vega, former 60 minutes The reporter who was fired in May is speaking out about her time with the news magazine, alleging she felt pressured to include political bias in segments that didn’t air.
In an interview with ABC News’ John Quiñones at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ conference, Vega claimed that higher-ups requested specific changes to three of her clips starting this year and she found no evidence of them, according to New York Times.
“I’ve been competing head-to-head with editors for 25 years in this field,” she said at Thursday’s conference. “But never in my career, so far, have I felt that those amendments, those suggestions, came from a place full of misinformation or politics.”
per timesVega said executives asked her to add video of protesters attacking citizens they thought were Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a January segment about ICE; She was also asked to add a video of the police chief rolling his eyes during a press conference. She said Vega could not find video of either incident.
the previous-60 minutes The reporter also said in a February segment about poverty in West Virginia, she was asked to mention Vice President J.D. Vance, because he had previously written about poverty in Ohio. “She said the article did not focus on politicians or political voices,” she added. times Notes.
Vega said to everyone who requested the third change timeswas to include a line saying that the United States and Israel had outmaneuvered Iran in another segment. Vega called it a “talking point for the administration.”
Hollywood Reporter CBS News has reached out for comment.
Vega previously claimed that she “tried efforts to include political bias in our stories” in a statement after she was fired. “Reporting teams have refrained from making news presentations on important news topics for fear of internal repercussions,” she wrote at the time.
“Let’s call this what it is: self-imposed censorship,” Vega added. “It’s dangerous for supply and it’s dangerous for democracy.” At the time, a CBS News spokesperson said in response to her statement: “We respect Ms. Vega and her contributions, but her claims are not based in reality.”
Vega was fired from 60 minutes As part of an overhaul undertaken by CBS News editor-in-chief Barry Weiss that also saw the firing of executive producer Tanya Simon and journalists Scott Pelley and Sharyn Alfonsi. Billy is fired after an intense meeting with… 60 minutesNew EP, Nick Bilton, where he claims Weiss is “killing”. 60 minutes. She doesn’t like this place; She was brought in to kill her and she does just that. He also told Belton that he had “little qualifications” for the position and indicated that he was not welcome at the leading news magazine.
After announcing the news of his release 60 minutesBailey issued a statement accusing Weiss of “incompetence and unprofessionalism” and claimed that CBS News management “ordered me to insert lies and bias into a politically sensitive story.”
Weiss fired back at Bailey during a morning call with staff shortly after, arguing that he had broken “mutual trust and respect.”
The Situation Newsletter was the first to report Vega’s remarks at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference.
