Embattled former “60 Minutes” head Jeff Fager was fired for sending a harshly worded warning via text message to the CBS News reporter who is covering the sexual harassment scandals that have rocked CBS in recent weeks. 
 
 Fager was let go Wednesday amid growing pressure from sexual harassment allegations from multiple women as reported by Ronan Farrow in the New Yorker. 
 
 CBS News president David Rhodes said Wednesday that Fager was fired for violating company policy. Fager issued a statement referring to the text message he sent correspondent Jericka Duncan after she reached out to him for comment on Sunday, the day Farrow’s latest expose was published. 
 
 According to Farrow’s report, Fager has been accused of groping or inappropriately touching female CBS News staffers at company events. 
 
 Duncan reported on the situation with Fager on Wednesday’s edition of “CBS Evening News.” She read from Fager’s text message: 
 
 “If you repeat these false accusations without any of your own reporting to back them up you will be responsible for harming me,” Fager wrote, per Duncan. “Be careful. There are people who lost their jobs trying to harm me and if you pass on these damaging claims without your own reporting to back them up that will become a serious problem.” 
 
 Related Jeff Fager Ousted at '60 Minutes' 
 
 Earlier Wednesday, Fager issued a statement defending his actions and denying the accounts in Farrow’s report. 
 
 “The company’s decision had nothing to do with the false allegations printed in The New Yorker. Instead, they terminated my contract early because I sent a text message to one of our own CBS reporters demanding that she be fair in covering the story,” Fager said. “My language was harsh and, despite the fact that journalists receive harsh demands for fairness all the time, CBS did not like it. One such note should not result in termination after 36 years, but it did.” 
 
 Fager’s ouster comes three days after CBS chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves was forced to resign under the cloud of sexual assault and harassment allegations as detailed by Farrow in the New Yorker. 
 
 (Pictured: Jericka Duncan) 

 CBS Evening News revealed tonight the text that 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager sent to one of the news division’s female reporters that got him fired. 
 
 National Correspondent Jericka Duncan, who has been reporting on CBS’ exec harassment allegations and exits, said Fager texted her after she contacted him for comment on Ronan Farrow’s Sunday New Yorker article, in which another women alleged Fager has sexually harassed her at an office party. 
 
 The Fager text read: 
 
 If you repeat these false accusations without any of your own reporting to back them up, you will be responsible for harming me. Be careful. There are people who lost their jobs trying to harm me and if you pass on these damaging claims without your own reporting to back them up that will become a serious problem. 
 
 Earlier on Wendesday, after CBS News announced Fager’s exit, effective immediately, Fager said in a statement that CBS had “terminated my contract early because I sent a text message to one of our own CBS reporters demanding that she be fair in covering the story.” 
 
 “My language was harsh and, despite the fact that journalists receive harsh demands for fairness all the time, CBS did not like it,” Fager said, complaining “One such note should not result in termination after 36 years, but it did.” 
 
 Announcing Fager’s ouster today, CBS News president David Rhodes said in a statement, “This action today is not directly related to the allegations surfaced in press reports, which continue to be investigated independently.” 
 
 “However, he violated company policy and it is our commitment to uphold those policies at every level,” Rhodes added. 
 
 Across various news outlets, including the New Yorker and Washington Post, more than a dozen current and former employees had claimed Fager, the CBS News chair from 2011-2015 and 60 Minutes EP for the past 14 seasons, condoned harassment in the division. 
 
 Watch the CBS Evening News segment above.
– Jeff Fager complained Wednesday that CBS fired him after 36 years because of a single text message. The 60 Minutes executive producer didn't mention that the message warned a CBS reporter that she could lose her job for reporting on the sexual harassment allegations against him. "If you repeat these false accusations without any of your own reporting to back them up, you will be responsible for harming me," the message to CBS Evening News reporter Jericka Duncan said, per Deadline. "Be careful. There are people who lost their jobs trying to harm me and if you pass on these damaging claims without your own reporting to back them up that will become a serious problem." Duncan disclosed the contents of the text on CBS Evening News Wednesday, the Washington Post reports. She said Fager sent it to her after she asked for comment on a Ronan Farrow New Yorker story in which multiple female CBS staffers accused Fager of groping them at company events and ignoring a culture of sexual harassment that one former intern said was the worst she had ever experienced. CBS News president David Rhodes said Fager was fired for violating company policy, Variety reports. Fager said in a statement that the firing had nothing to do with "false allegations," but happened after he "sent a text message to one of our own CBS reporters demanding that she be fair in covering the story." (CBS chief Les Moonves is also out after allegations of sexual misconduct.)