Fired ’60 Minutes’ Correspondent Lets Loose in Scorching Statement: ‘I Very Much Fear What Comes Next’

60 Minutes correspondent Cecilia Vega was one of several top editorial staffers who won’t be returning to the legendary news magazine following Thursday’s bloodbath executed by CBS News chief Bari Weiss.

Also out are the show’s executive producer Tanya Simon and correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, whose contracts were not renewed.

Vega issued a scorching statement reported by Michael M. Grynbaum of The New York Times.

“I was fired today,” the statement began. “My contract as a correspondent for 60 Minutes was not set to expire until March 2027.”

The statement continued:

I have the utmost respect and admiration for my colleagues at 60 Minutes and the stories that air every Sunday. But I very much fear what comes next for and the future of the legendary broadcast.

In recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories. Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions.

Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven. It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.

I held the line and refused to incorporate suggestions that offend the conscience, a phrase I borrow from a colleague who has also fought to keep questionable editorial suggestions away from the facts. I know from many conversations with colleagues that many producing teams and correspondents working on the show today have had to fight to maintain editorial independence with regularity. I am far from the only 60 Minutes correspondent who has asked herself, “What is my person red line. How much can I push back before I pay the price?”

I am proud of the work I did for 60 Minutes. This season alone I was part of teams that won two of the highest honors in our profession — a George Polk award and a duPont-Columbia award for our coverage of Venezuelan migrants sent by the Trump administration to El Salvador’s CECOT prison. And not for nothing, I climbed to Mount Everest.

I also walk away with an honor no one can take from me: I was the first Latina correspondent to ever be on 60 Minutes.

Today I lost an amazing job but I still have my integrity. To my former colleagues, continue to hold the line.

Star correspondent Anderson Cooper left the news magazine in an emotional goodbye on May 17 that was said to have irked Weiss, as his sign-off included hopes that the show uphold its editorial “independence.”

Weiss has been accused of importing a right-leaning bias into CBS News since she was hired by Trump ally David Ellison, whose Skydance acquired CBS parent company Paramount.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!