Overview
- On Wednesday, June 24 Couric told the Call Her Daddy podcast that she was told to pursue profiles of Lady Gaga and Hillary Clinton but later found those interviews reassigned to colleagues.
- Couric said Jeff Fager explicitly asked her to cover Hillary Clinton as secretary of state but she learned the interview had been reassigned only after State Department officials were contacted by another team.
- Her charges of being 'gaslit' revive older complaints about decisions made behind reporters' backs and come after a wave of recent departures and firings at 60 Minutes that included Scott Pelley being dismissed on June 2.
- Those newsroom upheavals have prompted private pledges from executives about editorial independence, but many staffers remain skeptical about managerial motives and outsider influence.
- The claims echo a longer history at CBS that includes Fager's 2004–2018 leadership of 60 Minutes, his 2018 firing over a threatening message and past allegations of sexism from former correspondents.