Jeffrey Fager

Jeff Fager became the first chairman of CBS News in February 2011, after re-shaping its flagship broadcast, "60 Minutes," into an editorially more vibrant and news-conscious program that regularly makes Nielsen's Top 10 and wins unprecedented amounts of awards. His efforts to improve the hit program online have also made the "60 Minutes" brand a hit on the Internet and the model of successful electronic journalism in the digital age. As chairman, he continues to oversee "60 Minutes," while executing his plan to transfer that success to all of the news division's platforms, on television, radio and the Internet. That plan began with the appointment of Scott Pelley as network news anchor in June 2011. After a year, "The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley" won a Peabody Award and is the only network evening news broadcast to grow its audience. In January 2012, Fager guided the re-launch of the network's morning news program, "CBS This Morning," into a broadcast critically acclaimed for its fresh focus on harder news and its new team of talent.

In recognition for these and his other achievements, he received the Paul White Award, the highest honor given by the Radio, Television, Digital News Association.

Fager came to the chairman's position with more than 30 years of experience at every stage of the electronic news business, including 15 years at the executive producer level, seven of those at the helm of "60 Minutes." There, Fager upheld the program's legendary standard of quality storytelling but also instituted a new graphic look and emphasized more timely stories to keep it relevant in a new and challenging era. A pioneer in journalism's crucial mission to create and grow revenue streams online, he cultivated the Internet presence of "60 Minutes" by revamping 60Minutes.com and by initiating groundbreaking digital partnerships with Yahoo! and Comcast. He then built 60MinutesOvertime.com, an innovative, single-sponsored website to stream web-only "60 Minutes" content for the first time. Fager also guided the creation and launch of the "60 Minutes" iPad app, which is now one of the most popular paid apps available.

Thanks to these measures, "60 Minutes" maintains an average television audience more than double that of its nearest newsmagazine competition, reaching an estimated 120 million unique viewers during the 2011-12 season, more than any other primetime non-sports program. "60 Minutes" online, thanks mostly to his new digital initiative, streaming of "60 Minutes" videos rose 53 percent, users increased by 40 percent and page views were up by 39 percent.

The Producers Guild of America voted him best producer in non-fiction television four times; he made TV Week's top 10 list of most powerful television news executives; and in 2012, "The Hollywood Reporter" named him one of the "35 Most Powerful People in Media."

Before assuming control of "60 Minutes," Fager is credited with leading "60 Minutes II" to a slew of major awards over a short period of time as its executive producer for its first five seasons. The awards continued to flow when he took over "60 Minutes." "60 Minutes" and "60 Minutes II" broadcasts executive produced by Fager garnered 33 Emmys, seven Peabody Awards, eight RTDNA/Edward R. Murrow Awards, five Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University batons, three Sigma Delta Chi Awards and three Investigative Reporting and Editing Awards.

As the executive producer of the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" from 1996 to 1998, Fager led the broadcast's highly praised rededication to hard news, enterprise reporting and increased foreign coverage. By the time he left to start "60 Minutes II," the CBS Evening News had gained more than one million viewers over the previous year, a gain unmatched by competitors.

Fager was also the senior broadcast producer for the CBS Evening News (1994-96) and covered many major international stories, including the war in Bosnia and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

He had been a producer for "60 Minutes" from 1989 to 1994, primarily working with correspondents Morley Safer and Steve Kroft, and covered several major world events, including the Gulf War with Iraq in 1991. He was part of the original team that developed and launched"48 Hours," the primetime CBS News magazine.

Fager served as a producer on the CBS Evening News, based in London (1985-88) and New York (1984-85), covering numerous international stories. He produced segments on Palestinian-Israeli conflicts in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan; the bombing of Libya in 1986; the Reagan Gorbachev summits in Geneva and Iceland; Gorbachev's first foreign visit, to Paris in 1986; and the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.

He was a producer for other CBS News programs between 1982 and 1984, including the weekend editions of the CBS Evening News, and was a broadcast producer for "Nightwatch," CBS's original overnight news broadcast. He joined CBS News from KPIX TV San Francisco, where he was a broadcast producer (1979-82).He began his career as a production assistant in Boston in 1977 at the CBS station WBZ-TV, then quickly rose through a succession of television and radio news positions, including news writer and assignment editor.

Fager was born in Wellesley, Mass. He was graduated from Colgate University in 1977 with a B.A. degree in English.

[shawnshelhamer]

Hi. I belong to a group called Victims of Bendectin, Debendox, Lenotan & Diclectin on Facebook. We are the children affected by Bendectin here in the US 30+ years later. We are wondering if there is anyone at 60 Minutes who is interested in doing a story on us and a detailed "re-cap" of what transpired in the 80s and early 90s with Bendectin. We all would also like to see the story 60 Minutes did in 1982 or 83 in regards to Bendectin but was never aired. We have so many questions, concerns and we are demanding answers. We won't stop until we have a clear understanding of what truly happened to us. Will you please help us ? Thank you for your time to read this. -Shawn

[PSOPO]

We have 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes Sports. One more 60 Minutes type show would be nice. They do journalism.

[Sugarluvit]

Hey Jeff, One important story is not being emphasized enough is US Marine, Jon Hammer Jr. is captive in a mexican prison in a jail cell chained to a bed. This story is being overlooked! Why?

[RE_Mant]

A little self-serving, don't you think?

[pontoof]

Dear Sir:
I enjoyed the 60 minutes story about the Houston Veterans Court last Sunday, but 60 minutes failed to give any credit to the very first veterans court in Buffalo NY in January 2008, which was created by Judge Robert Russell.

This segment seems to imply the veterans court model originated in Houston, which is not accurate.

Judge Russell and his team of dedicated volunteers created this program in 2008. Today there are 95 veterans courts nationwide. The Buffalo team not only launched this program, but also has supported other courts (including Houston's) with training, but this was not reported in your story.

This is a great program that supports veterans, but I was disappointed in the quality and accuracy of 60 Minutes reporting.

Respectfully yours,
Kelly O'Connor, Washington DC

[ethrivrav]

Sloppy and biased journalism doesn't even begin to describe Bob Simon's piece on Christians in the Holy Land. How could someone with as much experience as he has, describe something he can see with his own eyes as something it's not? He was in Bethlehem. He saw the fence. It does NOT completely surround the city. Incompetence or bias is the only explanation for this. Either way, he should be reassigned and 60 Minutes should air a correction. I haven't even addressed all the other distortions, but I don't have time to write a novel.

[Morrisleibowitz]

I just returned from Israel and saw this journalistic excrescence. "Poorly researched" is an inadequate description of this fantasy, "dishonest and purposefully biased" would seem to be a better descriptor. I'm personally offended by the lies and misrepresentations, and deeply disappointed by the journalistic depths to which a previously respected enterprise has plunged.

[elspinn]

Yes, it was indeed a hatchet job. It's shocking that CBS would allow such an unbalanced report to air. Cronkite and Murrow must be turning in their graves...maybe Mike Wallace, too.

[yakovshalom]

Comments on Mr. Bob Simon's recent "report"
As a Jewish Israeli who was married for 11 years to a Greek Orthodox Arab Hadassah doctor/professor (We lived in Jerusalem)...Dr. Najeed Salah; who grew up in Nazereth and whose parents came from Bet Jallah (next to Bethlehem) and whose grandfather was a famous architect who built a well known church in Jerusalem (Old City)... I believe that I am more familiar with the native Christian community than Bob Simon is or ever intended to be and I say catagorically that it's nonsense what he says about Israel "hurting" native Christians in any way. And as far as Israel hurting non native Christians...I was a good friend of Father Marcel Dubois well known Christian and head of the Philosophy department of Hebrew University for years; decorated by both the French and Israeli governments for offering himself up as a hostage during the Entebbe crisis as well as other all faith understanding acts...I say catagorically that you should have investigated the historical separation of Arab Christian and Arab Muslim communities. Intermarriage between the 2 groups is so frowned on that parents automatically disown any children that do so. Something that did not happen when my Greek Orthodox Arab doctor's childhood friend who was a Muslim(but this kind of friendship is rare) married the Jewish daughter of a Kinneset member(said daughter also worked for a while with Al Jezeera news) ...all in all I think that I know what I'm talking about on this subject than Mr. Simon.

[rosarosarum]

Shame on Mr. Simon!

Conclusions are reached at the preparation phase of program development, then come "facts", artfully created/manipulated to "prove" the case.

This is travesty of journalism under any sun. No, I wouldn't call it journalism at all - Pravda would have done better in its heyday!

The stunt was simply manipulative, deceitful infotainment. So glad I do not have to watch such undignified reporting!