"Ethics in Government: A Half Century of CBS News Coverage"

Golden Auditorium - Little Hall
Tuesday, May 1, 2001
4:00 PM

Premier of a new video produced for Colgate by CBS News

Jeff Fager ('77), CBS News; Executive Producer 60 Minutes II

Denise Taliaferro, Department of Education, Colgate University

Sarah P. Jarvis, Director of Media Relations, Colgate University

Ryan Schocklee, Executive editor of the Colgate Maroon-News
Drawing from the vast CBS archives, executive producer of 60 Minutes II Jeff Fager has created a video for Colgate University that explores what journalists face when investigating and reporting stories of official misconduct and duplicity. Fager will be at Colgate on Tuesday, May 1 to screen "Ethics in Government: A Half-Century of CBS News Coverage." Afterwards, Fager will be joined by three Colgate representatives for an open discussion about the issues raised in the film: Denise Taliaferro, assistant professor of educational studies, who has worked in television news; Sarah Jarvis, director of media relations; and Ryan Shocklee ’02, Colgate Maroon-News executive editor. The event, which will take place at 4:00 p.m. in Golden Auditorium of Little Hall, is sponsored by Colgate’s Center for Ethics and World Societies (CEWS). This event is free and open to the public.

In the CBS tape, one "investigative" issue from each of the past five decades is examined — for example, the pressure and attempts at intimidation experienced by CBS correspondent Morley Safer as he reported on Vietnam and the contradictions in the Johnson administration’s account of the war. "The result should be a fascinating resource for anyone interested in the role the press plays as a ‘watchdog,’ and a real asset for Colgate," said Michael Johnston, CEWS director and professor of political science.

A 1977 alumnus of Colgate, Fager was named executive producer of 60 Minutes II in July 1998. He previously had been broadcast producer and then executive producer of the CBS Evening News, a producer for 60 Minutes and a member of the team that developed and launched 48 Hours. In the 1980s, Fager served as a producer on the CBS Evening News based in London and New York and held numerous foreign assignments. He covered Palestinian/Israeli conflicts in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan; the bombing of Libya in 1985; the Reagan-Gorbachev summits in Geneva and Iceland; Gorbachev’s first foreign visit to Paris in 1986; and various stories on the changing Soviet Union and the fall of Eastern Europe.

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