CBS Fires Corporate Lawyer for Comments on Vegas Massacre

CBS has fired Hayley Geftman-Gold, VP and senior legal counsel, for comments she made on social media after the mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas Oct. 1 that left 59 dead and more than 500 injured.

Geftman-Gold said on Facebook that most country music fans are “Republican gun toters” who don’t deserve sympathy.

She also said she had no hope that Republicans would take action on gun control if they didn't do anything when children were murdered, apparently referring to the mass murders at Sandy Hook in 2012. Twenty children were killed in that incident.

CBS said Geftman-Gold’s words were “deeply unacceptable.”

“Our hearts go out to the victims in Las Vegas and their families,” the network said in a statement.

Geftman-Gold, who was with CBS for about a year, later apologized for her “indefensible” comments, which were deleted.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.