Author of 60 Minutes Book Reportedly Fired for Asking Questions About How the Show Treated Women

By Katherine Krueger  |  December 5, 2017 | 9:02pm
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The author writing a history of the storied news program 60 Minutes was replaced by the show’s own executive producer after asking uncomfortable questions about how women staffers were treated by marquee talent, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Richard Zoglin, a former Time magazine editor, was originally tasked with writing Fifty Years of 60 Minutes, but was reportedly summoned to meet with executive producer Jeff Fager, who expressed concern that Zoglin was focusing too much on the negatives by asking questions interview subjects about how women were treated in the 60 Minutes office.

As the Times reports it, the men agreed Zoglin should leave the project. The 400-page history was released by Simon & Schuster in October and bears only Fager’s name. Unsurprisingly, concerns about sexual harassment by top talent, which date back years, didn’t make it into the book. (In a statement to the paper, Simon & Schuster only said that Zoglin “decided he didn’t like being a writer for hire.”)

Also completely absent from the book, according to the newspaper, is any mention of misconduct by Mike Wallace, the veteran corespondent who died in 2012.

In a 1996 interview with Playboy, Wallace admitted that he “would indulge” in “what would now be called sexual harassment” but he noted was “par for the course back in the 50s and 60s.”

It’s unclear whether other incidents featuring women—such as the notoriously harsh way Meredith Vieira was treated for having children while working on the show—are in the book.

The revelations comes at an especially bad time for CBS—not only because awareness about sexual harassment is at an all-time high, but because one of the many media men recently ousted for sexual misconduct was Charlie Rose, who has been associated with CBS News and 60 Minutes for decades. On Tuesday, The Wrap reported that several Rose segments in the works on the show are currently being reshot in the wake of his firing by CBS.

 
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