Inside the trail of texting that apparently got ’60 Minutes’ producer Jeff Fager fired

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In an interesting twist, it appears “60 Minutes” producer Jeff Fager wasn’t actually fired by CBS for over the misconduct allegations reported by The New Yorker.

• At the time CBS announced his firing, the network said “this action today is not directly related to the allegations surfaced in press reports” about how he handled an alleged abusive workplace.
• Fager spoke out later in a statement.
• “The company’s decision had nothing to do with the false allegations printed in The New Yorker. Instead, they terminated my contract early because I sent a text message to one of our own CBS reporters demanding that she be fair in covering the story. My language was harsh and, despite the fact that journalists receive harsh demands for fairness all the time, CBS did not like it. One such note should not result in termination after 36 years, but it did.”
• CBS News national correspondent Jericka Duncan revealed the purported text message that got Fager fired.
• “If you repeat these false accusations without any of your own reporting to back them up, you will be responsible for harming me. Be careful. There are people who lost their jobs trying to harm me and if you pass on these damaging claims without your own reporting to back them up that will become a serious problem,” reads the message Duncan released Wednesday. The content of this message has not been independently verified or confirmed by CBS or Fager.