A producer for the “CBS Evening News” has left the network, citing recent changes amid its rightward shift. She said the changes “pressures producers and reporters to self-censor.”
Alicia Hastey wrote in a note obtained by The New York Times’s Ben Mullen, “There has been a sweeping new vision prioritizing a break from traditional broadcast norms to embrace what has been described as ‘heterodox’ journalism. The truth is that commitment to those people and the stories they have to tell is increasingly becoming impossible.”
The network offered buyouts to non-union staff on the “CBS Evening News” amid an overhaul under anchor Tony Dokoupil, who faced backlash over its MAGA-friendly coverage, The Hollywood Reporter reported in late January.
According to The New York Post, six of approximately 20 producers took the buyouts ahead of layoffs.
While Hastey said she took the buyout and is proud of the work she’s done in her four years, she slammed the shift in coverage prioritization, claiming “stories may be instead be evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.”
