Author: David Folkenflik / Source: NPR.org
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
CBS has long been the most watched television network in America. But a drama is playing out off the air following an expose published in The New Yorker late yesterday in which CBS CEO Les Moonves is accused of sexual misconduct by six women.
The story’s by Ronan Farrow and also details harassment by others at the network, including the news division. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik joins us. David, thanks for being with us.DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Scott.
SIMON: And let me say at the outset that I’m a special contributor to “CBS Sunday Morning.” Tell us what The New Yorker story details.
FOLKENFLIK: Well, Ronan Farrow spoke to six women and a bunch of corroborating figures who contemporaneously knew about these episodes. But these six women allege, in various forms, sexual harassment. And they also allege, in some cases, certain kinds of retribution by Moonves against women who did not respond eagerly to his advances. In two cases, the actor and writer Illeana Douglas and the writer Janet Jones described what, you know, essentially sounded like sexual assault.
SIMON: Unfortunately, you’ve had to cover a number of these stories over the past year, including Roger Ailes at Fox and Harvey Weinstein, a previous Ronan Farrow report. How is this different? How is it the same?
FOLKENFLIK: I don’t think it does violence to the seriousness of the charges leveled here, to say they don’t quite rise to the severity of Harvey Weinstein who’s been investigated in several jurisdictions.
Charges are being levied against him here in New York City for the accusation of sexual assault that he now faces. But what Moonves is accused of is serious, both the physicality of it, the unwanted and unsolicited nature of what he did and also the significance of retribution in a number of circumstances.Christine Peters was up for – or she thought she was up for a job to head up a CBS Studios and suddenly found herself in an impossible situation after she rejected his advances. So this is a pretty serious one. And part of it’s serious because of the role that…
The post Report Details Sexual Harassment Allegations Against CBS CEO Les Moonves appeared first on FeedBox.