Les Moonves is the powerful, respected and feared CEO of CBS. He’s been CEO for twenty years, and he’s married to one of CBS’s on-air talents, Julie Chen, who is co-host of The Talk and host of Big Brother. On Friday, Ronan Farrow dropped a massive exposé on Moonves and the harassment/abuse bro-culture of CBS. In The New Yorker, Farrow details the stories of six women who all have stories of being sexually harassed and assaulted by Moonves. In addition to the sexual harassment, when they tried to rebuff his advances (if you want to call it that), he threatened their careers and followed through by refusing to hire them, continue to employ them or they were pushed out of their jobs. You can read the epic New Yorker piece here, and Vulture had a good summary on the biggest bombshells from the piece here. As I said, it goes beyond Moonves’ deplorable actions and Farrow covers the culture of CBS, especially the culture at CBS News and 60 Minutes (where Charlie Rose preyed on women for years).
Here is Les Moonves statement:
“Throughout my time at CBS, we have promoted a culture of respect and opportunity for all employees, and have consistently found success elevating women to top executive positions across our company. I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances. Those were mistakes, and I regret them immensely. But I always understood and respected — and abided by the principle — that ‘no’ means ‘no,’ and I have never misused my position to harm or hinder anyone’s career. This is a time when we all are appropriately focused on how we help improve our society, and we at CBS are committed to being part of the solution.”
For one, you don’t get a f–king cookie for acknowledging that no means no. That’s the bare minimum of being a human being. Setting the bar at “well I didn’t rape anyone” is perhaps setting the bar TOO LOW. These are six women with awful stories of being assaulted, intimidated, harassed, gaslighted and/or abused. There are stories about the toxic culture at CBS, where powerful men intimidated, abused, harassed and gaslighted female employees. Moonves used his power and authority to hurt the careers of multiple women who rejected his advances, who said “no” to him. And the men under him saw this and followed suit.
Julie Chen released a statement too:
— Julie Chen (@JulieChen) July 27, 2018
Hard pass. Les Moonves is responsible for himself and his own actions. I know why Chen felt the need to release a statement, and I know why she’s supporting her husband publicly. But I’m over this, the women caping for a–holes, harassers and abusers.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Julie is standing by him because he is a kind, decent and honorable man. I did read years ago that she was the one who broke up his first marriage and marry him days after the divorce. I’m believe she must be embarrass to know that she was not the only one he was bonking, but the one who overlooked his behavior and marry him.
Yeah. IIRC, their relationship started when he was married, so it was a bit of a scandal.
I love Ronan Farrow to the moon and back.
She’s still overlooking his behavior, it was part of her job description from day one.
She must do something really, really well to have secured it in the first place.
Julie is a very smart woman and knew full well what she was getting into and has no qualms about it.
Thank you Ronan.
Agreed. That article is intense. Great reporting.
Frank Sinatra’s kid (let’s be real) is turning out to be a bad-as journalist and all-around national treasure.
“bad-ass”
Mia Farrow told the court that Woody is his father, I hope she wouldn’t lie. I think Ronan is the spitting image of Mia, not Frank.
@c8c8c8
Excuse me, but “the court,” never asked Mia to prove parentage, so your comment makes no sense. She didn’t have to assert Allen was the father to a court. It was accepted by Allen and Farrow that he would be a father to Moses,
Dylan, and Satchel (Ronan).
They (Allen and Farrow) were together when Ronan was conceived – perhaps Allen struggled to impregnate Mia Farrow, he may have been sterile and not known it- and after a time, perhaps the love of her life (Frank) just did her a solid. Presto- a baby she and Woody (a man she thought would be her life partner) would raise and parent.
I always thought it odd that Allen adopted with SoonYi instead of biologically fathering children with her, afterall she is 40yrs younger.
As for Ronan’s look, no one disputes he shares similarities with his mother (duh) but unless you’re saying Mia looks like Frank Sinatra herself there’s no other explanation for why Ronan’s bone structure mirrors Frank’s. The further point, is that Ronan Farrow looks nothing like what a child of Mia and Woody Allen would look like. I don’t know what that kid would look like, but I do know he or she wouldn’t look like ONLY Mia Farrow, or, Frank Sinatra.
He’s not Sinatra’s kid – his daughter said that Frank had a vasectomy years prior, Nancy has denied it was possible, Mia is quite manipulative, he wears contacts, and he looks so much like Mia and her dad.
He is doing amazing and important work though.
He IS Sinatra’s kid. Back in the day with vasectomies, they would just cut the semen tube, it tie it in a knot. That proved to be ineffective, as in many cases the body would heal itself, resulting in more surprise babies (example: Ronan!). Now, they actually cauterize (burn) the tube, so there’s no way it can reattach.
Point, he so completely obviously is Frank Sinatra’s kid. Not Woody’s LMAO.
Hey y’all? How about we quit focusing on who biologically impregnated Ronan’s mom and return our attention to what’s important here. (And as an adoptive parent, this is not only going way off-topic, but also fairly offensive.)
Ronan Farrow is doing amazing, life-changing, profoundly important work:
Taking Down the Patriarchy.
Go Ronan!
I love Ronan Farrow. He gets it. 🇦🇺
I saw where Sharon Obsbourne and Lynda Carter tweeted their support. I get why Sharon did that because she works with Chen and Moonves cuts the checks.
I checked IMDb to see if Carter and Moonves had any projects in common but didn’t see any. I wonder why she said anything.
Carter has been a guest on “The Talk” more than once, so she has a connection to Julie at the very least.
She’s also on Supergirl on the CW a lot. That’s a definite connection.
According to her tweet, he’s been a close friend for 40 years.
This may be the first time I’ve ever been disappointed in Lynda Carter. I can understand sharing that you’ve never witnessed any poor behavior, but you don’t know how he treats others, and should not dismiss their stories so quickly.
NBC (Lauer), CBS (Rose and Moonves), PBS (Rose and Smiley), and FOX (everyone). This is so pervasive. He’s gotta go. Like, right now. Julie Chen can get the hell out, too.
Let’s add Brokaw to NBC, and I’ll add Peter Jennings so that ABC can be represented, too.
No. Not Peter Jennings.
Leslie even has a magic door button like fellow perv Lauer
Great article! He is a monster. Ronan Farrow rocks.
Wow. I still do wonder why we never got a big expose on Bryan Singer🤔🤔🤔
I do too. It makes me think that the forces behind him keep him insulated to protect themselves.
That Queen biopic press tour is going to ne so awkward.
He’s such an OBVIOUS target but for some reason he kept getting bypass until everyone forgot about him. I think it’s a combination of factors that I won’t get into because I don’t want my comment to get deleted. I think the biggest factor is he is being protected because he has a lot of dirt on a lot of powerful men and he must have threaten to them down with him should he be exposed.
Singer’s likely being protected, but there’s also the issue of his victims. He (supposedly) targets underage boys. So there’s the first issues of young men not wanting to out themselves if they are gay or being ashamed to talk about abuse by a man if they aren’t. Plus younger victims often take longer to process what happened and how they feel about it. Many people only start to feel comfortable talking about it decades later. Sexual harassment/assault is of course extremely hard for anyone to open up about, but young victims tend to be harder to reach out to.
I think that’s the same reason Leto is getting a pass. His young groupies likely need to sit with it a lot longer before they really process it.
IKR. As soon as the Weinsteins and Cosbys started to get outed I was waiting for that story to come out. We all know there is lots of dirt there, I don’t know how he’s not been exposed yet.
I bet he paid the young boys off. I’m guessing most had to sign non disclosure to keep 🤫.
These exposés are a result of months and months of work, so that may still be coming. Plus he still has a director credit on that Bohemian Rapsody movie (so as an aside to anyone wondering: yes if you go see that movie you’re supporting Bryan Singer. Sorry not sorry.). If I were a savvy reporter/editor, that movie’s release is when I would drop the story. We will see.
However,
Singer may lead to other names…more powerful names. I think it’s possible he has been told to disappear and stay out of sight in the hopes other things will monopolize attention. Again…we will see.
There’s Aan open secret, which deserves to be seen but Holyweird refused to promote it, and it’s available only on internet.
Well it would mean exposing all the pedophiles there in Hollywood who are too much protected.
Yeah I think that’s the bottom line. The Bryan Singer story would expose too many powerful people. I sure there was A LOT of unexpected guests at his parties, married to women guests. So the culture of abuse and silence continues.
Also I’m guessing there might be casting couch intimidation with known actors. Tabloids are quick to accuse actresses of getting roles or positions based on the casting couch. Isn’t it curious that male actors are never accused of the same? Is it really possible that *only* one gender gets assaulted, blackmailed, intimated?
But if it comes out some of our manly actors have been sexually harassed or had sex for parts that will affect the homophobic public’s view of their fav actors. It could bring down Hollywood just as it shook the grounds of the Catholic Church when their abuse of boys came out.
Are we under the impression that someone, or even Ronan, is not working on one. These things take time.
Dan Schneider too… It’s like news starts to break and they get shut down fast. I think it’s either too horrific since children and teens are involved (some still active in Hollywood who may not want to relive it) or they’re being protected by other sickos.
I’m sure it is in the works. Hold tight!
Woody Allen must be quaking in his boots. Ronan is a shark, the man is doing good work.
It’s very unlikely that would ever happen. It would be a MASSIVE conflict of interest, and Ronan is a professional journalist. Besides, if nothing else has come out by this point it’s unlikely anything will (which means whatever people are going to decide it means). I do think Ronan has a lot more stories to come though, and all the better for it.
God bless Ronan Farrow, patron saint of all that is good in this world.
Always had an unsettling feeling when Julie brought up her husband on The Talk. It always seemed to me like she and the other ladies knew he was a dog. I wonder if they knew he was (allegedly) a criminal, too.
Well considering that he married her 2 weeks after his divorce was final… I’m sure she knows
I had no idea Julie Chen is married to Moonves. Wow. My mom watches the talk, I can’t stand it, but my mom lives with me and so sometimes I am subjected to that nonsense. I never liked Chen. I never liked any of them other than Aisha Tyler who is long gone.
Very interesting.
Why else would this self hating woman be on tv? Nothing charming or attractive about her.
That’s how she got the gig
This is just horrible.
I read this article out loud at the breakfast table this morning, and the whole house was just silent. It’s incredibly terrifying how these powerful businessmen just, get away with it, and they think they are entitled to sex and sexual acts from these women. And the sadder part is, it happens every day to women who don’t have the means to just leave their job or even risk it.
When I worked in a grocery store I had a training manager in HR sexually harass me. He would come up behind me and touch my shoulders, kiss my face, and play with my hair. During a meetings he would squeeze my sides and “tickle” me. No matter how many times I told him to stop, it never stopped.
It would happen in front of people too!
Those incidents traumatized me, I would work the overnight shift and spend all night gripping my box cutter in fear, I knew that he was upstairs watching me on the cameras, because he told me so.
It finally came to a stop one day when I was eating lunch with my friend, and he did it in front of me, and I had the reaction that I needed to do something. My friend was horrified, and seeing their expression gave me the strength to know that what he was doing was wrong. I slapped his hands away and reported him to management. and While that didn’t stop it, and I had a lukewarm reception from management, I at least felt like I did something.
Omg, i am cringing just reading this. I can’t imagine having to work in that awful environment. That guy was a creep of the highest form.
Thank you for covering this. Though I wish I had waited to read the news articles. Some of what occurred had happened to me. It was a little shocking to read.
Ronan has really taken on the mantle of unheard and abused voices getting their say with insight, hard work and professionalism. Thank you.
As the great Travon Free tweeted, finding out Ronan Farrow is writing about you is like finding out Omar from The Wire is looking for you. It won’t end well.
So, so, so accurate.
Love it.
Rehab in 10, 9, 8… and then maybe Julie quietly separates from the dog.
I briefly worked in an office with a total bro culture. It was disgusting, and the female managers were happy to just ignore it (they had a mentality of “hey, that’s how it’s always been for us and we’ve survived it.”) I’m not excusing this in any way, but these badly behaved middle aged men-children were truly pathetic. They spent life nursing the wounds of adolescent rejection, desperate for attention from younger female staff. I don’t understand how emotionally stunted white men are able to skate by in life, getting free passes on their incompetence and bad behavior that no one else gets, but I’ve learned two things: 1. Management has every ability to put a stop to it before these idiots get promoted to management. & 2. When management fails, give these idiots enough rope to hang themselves and they will. Document. Everything.
Yes. Document everything.
Glad you were able to get out of that environment.
I read an interesting article on the Hollywood culture. It discussed how men in power positions and famous male actors have women giving them so much attention, throwing themselves at them. Basically they live in such a yes world their boundaries are blurred. With so much available to them all the time, including women, everything is for the taking.
I couldn’t believe the excuses I was reading.
More powerful writers like RF exposing these powerful abusers and their enablers need to see the light of the press. No more excuses for this “bro culture”.
Please don’t only say “white men”. There are men of EVERY culture and race, when in positions of power, abuse/take advantage of, etc. women “beneath” them.
@ Jan90027 I thought the same thing as you. The poster above should go on YouTube for documentaries on what women and LGBTQ people have to endure around the world. From men powerful and not powerful. I’ve watched a documentary from Central Asia where wife kidnapping is a national tradition and another documentary on what is is like to be LGBTQ in Pakistan. One young hay man was set upon by villagers and sodomized with a stick for being gay and the advocacy organization in the capital said there isn’t anything that be done about such attacks because of the law and culture of Pakistan.
That article really brings to light what many women have to deal with in the workplace. The sense of entitlement coming from Moonves is palpable when reading the article. Julie Chen’s words are useless because it’s obvious she married him to further her career. Her work on Big Brother isn’t exactly stellar. He probably assumed most women were like her because for all the ones who are listed in the article, there are probably many others who gave in to advance their career because they felt they had no choice and remained silent.
I am certain we will hear from more Moonves victims in the days to come.
Oh, I can’t stop crying after reading the article and CB comments. LM’s defense of “well, I only TRIED to kiss her, I completel understand that NO MEANS NO I didn’t try anything else, OR, the real asswipe douchebag comment, I don’t remember, I don’t recall, don’t have a record of that meeting…”
ETA, had gastric bypass last Thursday, feeling good, but probably shouldn’t be typing, lol.
I wonder how many of these abusers are sociopaths or psychopaths. These types of people aren’t just mass murderers. Big business, politics, entertainment and media attract them like bees to nectar because of the power, respect and control they can weild to hide their digusting abusive side all while making a boatful of money. Knowing would explain a lot about why these abusive men can keep abusing women and are manipulative and ruthless enough to get away with it for decades.
A thank you to Ronan and all the other journalists working to expose these monsters, and to the brave victims for coming forward and sharing their stories.
The gall of these men is amazing. I can’t believe he had the nerve to try to lead an anti-harassment commission with his history. There is no reason to ever try to kiss someone in a business meeting, and that’s the least of his offenses, apparently.
My heart was racing just reading this, omg. This culture has to end. This went on for decades, oh my. I can’t imagine thinking that this was okay.
“Devoted husband”…..really Julie?? I bet his wife before you has a different response.