As CBS continues to conduct internal investigations in the wake of allegations that chairman Les Moonves sexually harassed employees and promoted a hostile work environment across the company, the Washington Post has a new report claiming that toxic behavior by a producer at 60 Minutes was tolerated for years. According to the Post, 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager knew about violent behavior allegedly committed by senior producer Michael Radutzky, who worked at the show for decades and left CBS this spring. The report includes more details of an incident described in Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker exposé on CBS, in which Radutzky allegedly grabbed 60 Minutes executive producer Vicki Gordon, threatened to throw furniture at her and twisted her arm behind her back. Radutzky has claimed that the incident was “fabricated,” but Post sources said the incident occurred as described, and took place over the allotment of Oscar screeners in the office. In The New Yorker piece, Gordon claimed that Fager told her not to go to human resources to report the incident, though Fager denies doing so.
The Post also reported on other alleged incidents surrounding Radutzky. Several sources told the paper that he left a threatening voice-mail for colleague Tanya Simon more than a decade ago, who reported the episode to a manager, and screamed at another female colleague. Radutzky denied both incidents, though other employees claimed that he had a history of throwing items in the workplace, often directly at his co-workers.
In Farrow’s New Yorker report, Fager was accused of touching employees at company parties “in ways that made them uncomfortable.” Former employees also said Fager routinely protected men accused of harassment, and he and Radutzky were close. “Michael made it clear to everyone that he had Jeff’s ear,” one employee told the Post. “He held that as sort of a latent threat over everyone.”
