Former CNN and White House correspondent Jessica Yellin went on a lengthy Twitter tirade, denouncing CBS and “60 Minutes” boss Jeff Fager over accusations against Fager reported in Ronan Farrow’s most recent New Yorker story.
“I’m most interested in the bit at the end of the piece. The part about CBS News, 60 Minutes and Jeff Fager. It speaks to a moral corruption inside old media institutions,” she tweeted.
“The accounts are devastating and the denials are just gross. Jeff Fager is actually quoted saying that one of the women has ‘an axe to grind.’ Seriously? Imagine what he’d do with that if an interview subject said it on 60 Mins,” wrote the former chief White House correspondent for CNN.
Yellin went on to say she witnessed “moral corruption that exists at the highest levels of many newsrooms,” adding, “I’ve seen it up close.”
Without waging any specific accusations herself, the journalist and book author described the effects of harassment in the workplace. “So when you get harassed or watch it happen to your friends and those same managers silence you, make you pretend it didn’t happen, and enable the harassers it is disillusioning, stifling. Not just personally but professionally too,” wrote Yellin.
I’m most interested in the bit at the end of the piece. The part about CBS News, 60 Minutes and Jeff Fager. It speaks to a moral corruption inside old media institutions. 6/
— Jessica Yellin (@JessicaYellin) July 28, 2018
The accounts are devastating and the denials are just gross. Jeff Fager is actually quoted saying that one of the women has “an axe to grind.” Seriously? Imagine what he’d do with that if an interview subject said it on 60 Mins.8/
— Jessica Yellin (@JessicaYellin) July 28, 2018
According to Farrow, 19 current and former CBS employees said the “60 Minutes” chief “allowed harassment in the division,” and that Fager “protected” other men at the company who were accused of sexual misconduct. Farrow reported that multiple employees said Fager himself would often touch employees inappropriately at parties — often while intoxicated.
CBS did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap. In the Farrow piece, Fager denied accusations of wrongdoing and that he tolerated impropriety in others.
Yellen made the remarks over the weekend. You can read Yellin’s full thread here.