Scandal-plagued CBS grants $20M to 18 women’s rights groups
NEW YORK CBS on Friday pledged to give US$20 million to 18 organizations dedicated to eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace as the network tries to recover from a scandal that led to the ouster of its top executive, Les Moonves.
The move comes as the network’s crisis deepens, with details emerging from an ongoing investigation into Moonves’s conduct and news surfacing of other instances of sexual misconduct at CBS.
In the latest revelation, CBS said that it reached a US$9.5 million confidential settlement last year with actress Eliza Dushku, who said she was written off the show Bull in March 2017 after complaining about on-set sexual comments from its star, Michael Weatherly. Some women’s rights activists called on CBS to fire Weatherly.
The funds for the grants to the 18 organizations are being deducted from severance owed to Moonves under his contract, and the company had previously said the former CEO would have a say in which groups would receive the money.
Whether Moonves gets the remaining US$120 million of his severance hinges on the investigation, which is being done by two outside law firms. CBS has said Moonves would not be entitled to the severance if its board of directors determines he was fired for cause.
CBS said its donation to the 18 groups will go toward helping expand their work and “ties into the company’s ongoing commitment to strengthening its own workplace culture.”
Among the recipients are Catalyst, a 56-year-old group dedicated to empowering women in the workplace, and several groups that have emerged as prominent voices since the downfall last year of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
The 18 organizations issued a joint statement praising the donations as a first step while calling on CBS to disclose the results of the Moonves investigation and the company’s efforts to rectify practices that may have enabled misconduct.
“We thank CBS for these donations. We also recognize these funds are not a panacea, nor do they erase or absolve decades of bad behaviour,” the groups said.
Moonves was ousted in September after The New Yorker published claims from 12 women who said he subjected them to mistreatment that included forced oral sex, groping and retaliation if they resisted. He has denied having any non-consensual sexual relationships.
Two other major figures at CBS have lost their jobs in the past year over misconduct allegations: 60 Minutes top executive Jeff Fager, and news anchor Charlie Rose.
The New York Women’s Foundation said it is receiving US$2.25 million from CBS to support its “Fund for the Me Too Movement and Allies,” which is co-led by #MeToo founder Tarana Burke. The fund invests in community organizations dedicated to fighting sexual violence and harassment.
Ana Oliveira, the foundation’s president and CEO, said the donation will help give survivors of sexual misconduct a voice in developing solutions. But she urged CBS to do the same within its own organization.
Other grant recipients include Time’s Up, a Hollywood-based group promoting gender equity in the workplace, and Press Forward, an organization of women dedicated to fighting sexual harassment in the news industry.
Time’s Up Entertainment said it will use its US$500,000 from CBS to launch an initiative to increase the presence of people of colour and of different social backgrounds in the entertainment industry’s producing and executive ranks.
Carolyn McGourty Supple, cofounder of Press Forward, said the new funding would accelerate her group’s programs, which include a partnership with the Poynter Institute to develop innovative sexual-harassment training and a study on the state of women in America’s newsrooms.