Jeffrey B. Fager (born December 10, 1954) is an American television producer who is the former chairman of
CBS News and former executive producer of ''
60 Minutes''.
Biography
Fager was born in
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Wellesley () is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of Greater Boston. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson College, and a campus of Massachusetts Bay Communit ...
, to an
Episcopalian family, the son of Margaret (née Bulkley) and
Charles Anthony Fager.
[The Needham Times: "Margaret Fager"]
from March 24, 2015 , ''"Memorial Service will be held at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Wellesley"'' He graduated from
Colgate University in 1977.
He began his career in broadcast news in Boston and joined CBS News in 1982 from
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, CBS affiliate
KPIX-TV, where he was a broadcast producer.
Fager was Executive Producer of the ''
CBS Evening News
The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...
'' from 1996 to 1998
and held senior and field producer positions for that and other
CBS News programs, including ''60 Minutes.'' He left the ''Evening News'' in 1998 to become the first executive producer of ''
60 Minutes II''.
In June 2004, he assumed the position of Executive Producer of ''60 Minutes''.
In February 2011, it was announced that Fager would lead the news division of
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
as Chairman of CBS News, a newly created position. In tandem with the newly appointed president, David Rhodes, Fager would head CBS News while continuing to executive produce ''60 Minutes''.
After stepping in as Chairman of CBS News, Fager said he would "restore CBS News to where it should be, where it needs to be", using the original reporting and storytelling of ''60 Minutes'' as a benchmark for its other news programs.
On January 1, 2015, Fager stepped down as chairman but continued in his executive producer role of ''60 Minutes'' until his 2018 departure from CBS News. David Rhodes continued to serve as President of the CBS News Division.
Personal life
Fager is married to Melinda Wooster; they live in
New Canaan
New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census.
About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bounde ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
,
with their three children.
Controversy
In 2018, nineteen current and former CBS employees told ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' that Fager allowed harassment in the news division. Six former employees also told the magazine that while inebriated at company parties, he touched employees in ways that made them uncomfortable.
Fager was ousted from CBS News on September 12, 2018. CBS News reported that Fager had sent a threatening text message to
Jericka Duncan, one of the network's correspondents, when she sought his response to the report in ''The New Yorker''.
Awards
* 2007:
Gerald Loeb Award for Television Enterprise business journalism for "The Mother of All Heists"
* 2012:
Paul White Award,
Radio Television Digital News Association
* 2014: Gerald Loeb Award for Personal Finance business journalism for "60 Minutes: 40 Million Mistakes"
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fager, Jeff
Television producers from New York (state)
Living people
Colgate University alumni
1954 births
CBS executives
Gerald Loeb Award winners for Television
Gerald Loeb Award winners for Personal Finance
Presidents of CBS News
American television news producers
60 Minutes producers