Jeffrey B. Fager (born December 10, 1954) is an American television producer who is the former chairman of

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

and former executive producer of ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

''.

Biography

Fager was born in

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a New England town, town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 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 Col ...

, to an

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

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 Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologi ...

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 KPIX-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's CBS network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW ...

, 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 s ...

'' from 1996 to 1998 and held senior and field producer positions for that and other

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 cap ...

, 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 The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was estab ...

for Television Enterprise business journalism for "The Mother of All Heists" * 2012: Paul White Award,

Radio Television Digital News Association The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA, pronounced the same as " rotunda"), formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), is a United States-based membership organization of radio, television, and online news dire ...

* 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