A Matt Gutman sexual harassment lawsuit filed in Los Angeles accuses the CBS News chief correspondent of creating a hostile work environment for a former ABC News producer. The case became public on Saturday, 15 August 2026.
Samira Said, a field producer at ABC News for four years, is suing Gutman for wrongful termination, as reported by The Daily Beast. She claims she was terminated in 2025 after grappling with mental health struggles.
What the Matt Gutman sexual harassment lawsuit alleges
Said alleges that during an assignment she was placed on a “male-only team” that included Gutman. The suit claims he “initiated a discussion rating a female correspondent’s appearance and reducing her professional standing to a numerical score based on her physical attributes”.
The other men allegedly joined in and asked Said for her input, which she declined. A second allegation concerns a press day tied to a film release, where she suggested the team should leave the site.
Gutman allegedly responded with a “sexual insinuation” that she “must have an after-hours date in the city and that this is why she did not want to relocate”, in front of her co-workers. Said’s legal team argued the comment:
“demeaned [her] and reduced her professional judgment to a sexualized stereotype.”
Matt Gutman’s move to CBS News under Bari Weiss
Gutman, 48, joined CBS News in January 2026 as the first on-air hire made by network boss Bari Weiss, after nearly 20 years at ABC News where he was suspended twice, over false on-air statements following Kobe Bryant’s death and over Covid-19 safety policy.
Weiss said he ticked the boxes she looks for.
“Fearlessness, energy and relentlessness,” Weiss said.
CBS News President and Executive Editor Tom Cibrowski, who worked alongside Gutman during their years together at ABC News, framed the appointment in similar terms, pointing to the correspondent’s long record of reporting from the field.
“I have worked with Matt for decades, and I have seen his innate ability to take viewers into a story,” Cibrowski said.
Gutman said he was “thrilled” to join a network with Weiss and Cibrowski “at the helm”. He described part of his own mission in the same statement announcing his arrival at the network in January 2026.
“Give a voice to those who might otherwise not be heard, and to tell it straight,” Gutman said.
That arrival came during a period of upheaval at CBS News under Weiss. Swisher Post has reported on the departure of veteran correspondent Scott Pelley, and on the correspondents let go from 60 Minutes during 2026.
What happens next in the Matt Gutman sexual harassment lawsuit
Gutman’s profile has risen since. Ratings data put his first week standing in for CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, 45, in July 2026 at 4.1 million viewers, the programme’s best-rated week in 17 weeks.
The lawsuit is now before a court in Los Angeles, where Gutman, ABC News and The Walt Disney Company are named as defendants.
None of the allegations has been tested in court, and no responses to the complaint had been filed at the time of publishing.
