Former correspondent says she was told to report nonexistent events
The former correspondent’s remarks, delivered during a public interview with ABC News correspondent John Quiñones at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ annual conference in New Orleans, were first reported by Status.
“I’ve gone head-to-head with editors for 25 years in this business,” Vega said, according to the New York Times. “But never in my career, until now, have I felt that those edits, that those suggestions, came from a place of misinformation or politics.”
Vega detailed three specific instances of what she described as political interference.
As she was completing a segment on deadly federal immigration operations in Minnesota — during which Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fatally shot two American citizens — Vega said she was instructed to include footage of protesters attacking ICE agents. The footage did not exist, according to Vega.
She also said she was questioned on why she did not interview JD Vance for a segment on poverty in West Virginia. The piece was centered on the Trump administration’s cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
Additionally, Vega said she was asked to report on comments from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey suggesting he wanted local police to fight federal immigration agents in the state, despite no evidence of such comments.
A spokesperson for CBS News did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment on Vega’s remarks.
The allegations are the latest in a series of disputes at 60 Minutes that have seen the dismissal of veteran correspondents and open conflict between staff and the program’s new leadership. CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, appointed last October by Paramount CEO David Ellison, who the Guardian described as a Trump ally, has no background in broadcast news. Weiss previously founded the media startup the Free Press, which was acquired by Paramount, and is known for her critiques of liberal institutions and what she has termed “cancel culture.”
Vega was fired from 60 Minutes this spring. In a statement issued at the time, Vega said: “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.”
A CBS spokesperson responded to that statement by saying, “We respect Ms Vega and her contributions, but her claims are not based in reality.”
MSI previously reported that CBS fired veteran correspondent Scott Pelley in June after he accused Weiss of “murdering” the show. The conflict at 60 Minutes also follows a dispute over a segment on deportations to El Salvador’s CECOT prison that Weiss had pulled from the December broadcast. The segment’s correspondent, Sharyn Alfonsi, described that decision to colleagues as “a political one,” MSI reported. The segment eventually aired in January.