Jeff Fager on Bari Weiss, CBS News, 60 Minutes & David Ellison

(Exclusive.) There are not too many people who know CBS News as well as the former Executive Producer of 60 Minutes, Jeff Fager. Fager spent 37 years at CBS News, including a stint as Chairman.

So it was fitting we filmed this week’s Breaker pod from the Paramount building at Junior’s Restaurant & Bakery (cheers to the owner, Alan Rosen, for inviting us Uptown).

Fager told us he thinks it is a “mistake” that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is reporting directly to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, describing the structure as “really unusual.”

“There are so many things you know he should be one step removed from, [like] the news, is she gonna come to him with a list of stories they're working on? I doubt it, but it could happen”. Fager said. “It raises a lot of questions, and I think that church and state, especially at 60 Minutes at CBS News, was really one of the most important things that was honored always, that the corporate heads did their best to stay away. Until the crisis appeared.”

A major concern among existing staffers is the pro-Israel stance shown by both Weiss and Ellison, and how this could affect CBS News’ reporting on the Middle East. Fager told us Weiss’s fingerprints will be present for better or worse. “It is a big subject, has always been. I mean, I think that of course she's gonna try to influence that. I hope she influences it fairly.”

Since taking the reins at CBS, Weiss has been on a mission to find anyone leaking information and deal with them accordingly. It’s a task Fager told us he thinks is basically impossible to clamp down on, “it's the way reporters live their lives. The best reporters talk a lot, and they have a lot of friends. That's how they find things out. I think she'll learn that in an organization like this or anything of this size, it's an impossible task.”

Fager also shared his thoughts on the rise of independent media, what legacy news outlets can learn from modern digital publications, and how he juggled all of those egos in CBS News’ heyday. 

Catch all of and more in this week's episode of The Breaker Pod. Make sure you check us out and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods.