Moonves resigns as CBS chief after allegations
Sexual harassment claims lead to media mogul’s departure
Leslie Moonves resigns as the head of CBS in the wake of new sexual misconduct allegations by six women that were reported in the New Yorker magazine.
Leslie Moonves, the longtime chief executive of the CBS Corporation, stepped down on Sunday night from the company he has led for 15 years. His fall from Hollywood’s highest echelon was all but sealed after the publication earlier in the day of new sexual harassment allegations against him.
The CBS board of directors on Sunday announced his departure, effective immediately. As part of the agreement, the network said it would donate $20 million to one or more organizations that support equality for women in the workplace. The donation will be deducted from any severance benefit that Moonves may be due. He will not receive any severance payment, the board said, until the completion of an independent investigation into the allegations.
The company also announced that five members of its board will be replaced with new directors.
Moonves’s depature marks a stunning reversal for one of Hollywood’s most celebrated moguls, who is credited with turning CBS into television’s mostwatched network. But he has been under intense pressure since July, when the New Yorker published an initial article in which six women accused him of sexual harassment.
For several weeks, Moonves has been grappling with two separate but equally fateful issues while negotiating a settlement with CBS Corp.’s board of directors. In addition to the multiple harassment allegations against him, Moonves has been involved in a protracted legal fight with the company’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone. The talks have included a potential payout that, while much less than the $184 million promised by his employment agreement, could still be as high as $100 million.
That Moonves would get any money for stepping away from CBS in the wake of those allegations outraged many in the entertainment industry and in the #MeToo movement. On Sunday, the New Yorker published another article by investigative journalist Ronan Farrow in which six additional women detailed the new claims against Moonves.
The incidents described in the two articles went back to the 1980s and brought the number of women now accusing Moonves of harassment to 12.
The women claim that Moonves, 68, had forced himself on them — including physical assault — and in some cases retaliated professionally after some declined his advances. One woman, a veteran television executive named Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb, filed a complaint with the Los Angeles Police Department last year, according to The New Yorker. She said Moonves forced her to perform oral sex on him and, in another instance, had “violently” thrown her against a wall.
The incidents alleged by Golden-Gottlieb were said to have occurred nearly 40 years ago when Moonves was the leading executive at Lorimar Television, but other women in the article detailed harassment that they said occurred while Moonves was at CBS. Moonves joined the network in 1995 and became chief executive of the company in 2003.
Moonves did not respond to requests for comment from the New York Times, but told the New Yorker, “The appalling accusations in this article are untrue.” He admitted to “consensual relations” with three of the women.
But public reaction to the latest allegations was swift. Rachel Bloom, the star and cocreator of “Crazy Ex Girlfriend,” which airs on the CW, a network jointly owned by CBS and Warner Media, said on Twitter that Moonves should be fired without receiving any money, adding an expletive.
“The actions described in this article are those of sexual assault and shame on anyone else in the corporation who knew about his crimes,” she wrote.