Nonsense. What these guys have in common (except for Keillor who's crime seems to be touching a woman's back purportedly by accident) is that they are sexual predators. If you believe that making a man a star makes him a predator how do you account for predators that aren't stars?
8
Who needs all this drama! I stopped watching any network news years ago. Watch PBS News Hour to get the news without the spin. You don't need Lauer's or O'Reilleys or any one else's interpretation of the news. Watch Judy Woodruff and her excellent team deliver the facts and then make up your own mind.
16
I have been binge-watching "The Larry Sanders Show" (an HBO tv comedy show from the early to mid 1990's that explored fictional network late night show hosts). It struck me that absolutely nothing has changed over the past twenty-five years in this "network" culture. It is an office environment with lots of sex talk between co-workers. But the most enlightening moment from one of the early episodes is the tv host had a coronation and was given a wreath around his neck celebrating the fact he is being accused of sexual harassment by his male boss and male co-workers. I guarantee, behind the scenes, all these male hosts (including Letterman, Lauer, Rose, etc.) are having a nice toast of thousand dollar champagne and saying "Welcome to the club."
2
A physician who abuses a patient can lose his/her license. The license is issued in the public trust.
Broadcasters have licenses through the FCC. They have betrayed the public trust by turning a blind eye to decades of abuse, sexism and rape.
Shouldn't the networks lose their licenses?
2
I visited Tanglewood twice for Prairie Home Companion. The first time, we were enjoying our proximity from the lawn to the show...very happy that Mr. Keillor was so close w/his singing intro. Unfortunately, a very drunk, neighboring female fan thought it would be entertaining to hug, kiss & grope Mr. Keillor, and get a photo. He didn't seem very comfortable when it occurred & he did the best he could to graciously remove himself from the encounter. Afterwards, her behavior only got worse, until another neighbor on the lawn made clear to her rather larger (& overall well-behaved) party that she should really shut up, since no one could really hear Mr. Keillor speak over her incessant monologue. No one should have to go to work with the fear of being verbally, physically, or emotionally abused (sexual or otherwise). So lets also address how "fans" behave to the people who entertain them.
8
It defies logic, reason, and imagination that men with the most power still don't feel powerful enough. And that somehow, they see one of the smallest parts of their anatomy as the tool to achieving more.
5
What's so funny about this is anyone of those guys [including Weinstein] could have gone to a singles bar and picked up a girl just for being rich and famous. Why they chose to go down that seedy rabbit hole beats the heck out of me.
...And YES- I am saying most women are attracted to men with money and fame.
13
Let’s also hold the HR department heads accountable. I bet my life savings that only attractive women need apply and that many were hired by a woman. Dig deeper, it’s not just men who are pigs.
10
The news networks need a separate chyron to keep us au courant on all the sexual misconduct news.
2
Euse me... Oh the fact that they were expected to have charisma... Well frankly Katie had it; Matt didn''t altho he did a credible job with the Olympics while Billy Bush was flat..and I did not understand why NBC paid him that YUGE salary anyway. I have not enjoyed him for years.
Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.. Maybe the editorials could short and sweet as well as pandering. I guess when those uppity Lesbians won the privilege to marry; Anthony Wiener FORGIVEN so he could run a last political race. - not divorced yet. Time for Judge More to register as a sex offender. This is fun!! and high time. Time to hire people of good moral character and old people and women people... instead of the MAN no matter his skin color..and maybe people of good character also need to run for public office. (If two equals have a go at it on the job or whatever, I don't care. It's the inequality in terms of power that makes it heinous..OTOH who was in the driver's seat was it 12 yr. old Lolita or Humbert Humbert?(That was fiction anyway.) Trump is in the position of granting his own pardon... Wonder if Clinton thought of going that route but Congress had a few standards in those days.. having to do with lying under aoth.. altho not moral/ethical missteps. (One reason I could NOT vote for upright?!! Hillary. One did not have to vote for Trump either.)
2
Misery human beings! Not a decent one between them.
2
If we didn't have television, none of this would have happened.
We don't need television. Get rid of yours. Let these clowns find honest employment, perhaps using their smiles as Walmart greeters.
4
"We don't need television."
Absolutely. Radios were sufficient for news, comedy and sports. I bet we would be healthier without TV and videos not to mention cell phones.
2
We were aware, long ago, that idols may have feet of clay...Origin and Etymology of feet of clay
from the feet of the idol in Daniel 2:33
merriamwebster.com
You blame management for the sexually predatory behavior of Lauer, Rose, Keilor and O'Reilly. What nonsense. How would management know what these guys were doing behind closed doors if no one was coming forth with accusations. You are simply looking for a wider net of culpable persons (men, I'm sure) to ensnare in these unsavory events. These were the individual transgressions of flawed men, not the complicity of their superiors.
2
These men were media commodities. I wonder how much their downfalls are due to their transgressions (of varying degrees) or the fact that those transgressions ruined them as bankable media commodities.
Will Donald Trump avoid what he is due because his transgressions don't hurt any commercial entity's bottom line?
2
Amid this headlines about the sexual abuse of women by men would like to call attention to the sexual abuse of children by adolescents and adults. These are rarely reported as young children are rarely aware that they are being abused until the demon surfaces later in their life as homosexuality which they think happened when they were born not by later abuse in their life. I believe millions of children are exposed to sexual abuse because the neglect and ignorance of their parents. I certainly will appreciate if New York times investigates this issue as successfully as the sexual abuse of women.
Where are the Murrow's, Cronkite's, Huntley's and Brinkley's when we really need them?
7
To think these guys practiced their kind of office sexual servitude unbeknownst to everyone except the thug and the victim is ludicrous. These guys were the Big Dogs in the organization and organization gave them a pass because iy was always about the bottom line. These stars knew they could get away with their office antics and anyone who thinks these reported incidents were isolated is being naive. Men love to brag about their conquest so think these self absorbed men kept quiet is beyond belief. Anyone who have felt compelled to laugh at their bosses stupid jokes knows the pecking order in an organization. Power corrupts the corruptible. Period.
6
Most likely these guys have tons of temptations being rich and powerful. Probably they get into trouble when they meet ladies that are strictly professional about their work.
A wise man once wrote
A wise man once wrote"power corrupts-absolute power corrupts absolutely
Great men are almost always bad "Lord Acton
2
If men as a gender are to be blamed, I'd say it's a misplaced blame. The blame isn't men as a gender, but men of a certain generation who still run the system. Soon, these men will be retired or dead and this sort of thing will cease. Sure the men who did this are to blame for their actions, but as a guy of a younger generation, me and my male friends are stunned. This behavior isn't anything remotely familiar to any of us. Happy the women are speaking up. But, I will say, there is a witch hunt element to the talk. Women write and talk about this in a really demeaning way to men. They paint all men as sick and predatory and it's a little crazy if you ask me. I guess none of this women have sons. I know many a woman who manipulated her way through sex to gain something. Yet, I never see all women this way. But when the roles is reversed, men have no ally. Oh well. I guess one more division to a country bent on breaking up.
3
Not one of these has ever seemed like a real man to me. Sure they can wave their organs around, but in my view a "real" man is someone who desires to relate to a woman, a "real" woman. Clearly none of these men has ever been capable of such a relationship, as they all appear to assume that "power" is "sex" when it just is not.
3
Tip of the iceberg. We must keep in mind, that the executives and the companies that hire and protect these men, like congress's wall of protection around our nations highest elected officials, making it almost impossible to punish sex offenders, must be held responsible as well. I daresay most men wouldn't think of aggressively and physically infringing on another's sexuality. Those who do are selfish creatures whose ethics have been subsumed by their sense of self-importance, and out of control fantasies. Lacking basic decency and respect, they have shown themselves as public disgraces. As such, they need to be severely reprimanded, like recalcitrant children.
Will anyone stop to question whether "media luminaries" and "news stars" are necessary? The commercialization of news has resulted in a dumbing-down of televised news with results far more serious than the recent scandals and the Brian Williams affair.
An electorate that gets its news from the TV can hardly be described as "informed".
5
Women will not feel sorry for men who get caught in the act of harassing, or using their power to get sex from unwilling women. Most of us have been there, seen or heard it happening to other women. We have a long, long memory of this kind of abuse and punishment is not only overdue, it is more than warranted.
Nothing on earth gives men the right to demand sexual gratification from unwilling women. There is a sea change in our country and men need to understand this and act accordingly, or face the consequences of their actions.
8
This has nothing to do with Networks, News, Star, System or anything like that. It's all about power, wealth and privilege and the protection those offer. It's been going on for centuries, heck millennia.
Men are physical beings, that is how they define the world about them. So that results in some physically doing the wrongs thing. On the other hand women are use emotion. The net result is women are emotional abusers vs men being physical. Unfortunately society still has no problem with the wide spread emotional abuse women heap on those around them.
1
Older, usually male humans take advantage of younger, usually female humans, in any frequent contact situations, from workplaces to faith communities and even within homes. How many stepfathers, mothers' boyfriends, and grandfathers swear little ones to secrecy? Many more than we would like to admit.
People express themselves inappropriately sexually way too frequently.
It's all about getting one's own satisfactions at the expense of a weaker person. Truly tragic for the person on the receiving end.
4
Our celebrity cult and turning news into 'infotainment' is one of the reasons for giving these creeps so much leeway and support. One thing about reading the news - you don't have to become enamored of the writers' hair, eyes, or smile.
5
It's been a long time since the days of anchorman Walter Cronkite. Wasn't he referred to as "the most trusted man in America"? And of course there was Mr. Rogers. I'd like to believe at least those men were who they appeared to be.
10
What they have in common is that they are predatory men.
7
What about predatory women? Their number is perhaps larger than men as their methods are more sinuous.
1
Donald Trump said it exactly right, when you're famous you can do what you want. He knew it, everyone knew it and finally the standards are changing. None of these men have recanted fully, more like excuses of 'sorry I hurt feelings'. More like sorry they got caught and fired and publicly shamed. I have zero sympathy for them and only a little bit for staff members who felt they had to keep quiet to keep their jobs. None of this happened in a vacuum, people knew, people gossiped but they rarely protected victims.
It's becoming a watershed but only those men in positions of power who think women are there for taking should be worried. It's not about stupid behavior or leering or an inappropriate joke, it's about doing physical or emotional harm to another human being, always in private and always to someone who can't fight back.
I say good riddance to all of them.
19
In my 40 years of working in corporate America, from American Express, Citibank, Merrill, etc. I have personally witnessed chairmen, CEOs and top male executives openly strut their mistresses around company functions, even putting them in well paying positions. A former chairman of American Express has his former mistress receive consulting work from the company. Citibank Investment Bank had a place for a former another chairman's mistress. If the top guys in an organization feel they can do this, then the whole company's male executives follow suit. Look at the last years of Jack Welch at GE. Same thing.
The worse in my eyes were the women who played the game willingly. Their actions jeopardized the ability of future woman executives to refute unwanted advances. Of course some women probably felt they had to play the game to get ahead, and the men involved certainly had the advantage.
Let's hope that zero tolerance of sexual predators becomes the new corporate language.
8
There also has to be zero tolerance for enablers, accomplices, accessories before and after the fact, and material witnesses who lie and conceal.
1
The same thing happens in academia. My father lost his office to the head of the Department's mistress because she wanted a view. A good friend of mine had to leave her tenure track position at Harvard because she refused to date a senior professor in her Department. As a grad student I had to fend off my advisor at one point. And yes, sometimes there were women who took advantage of their sexuality to enhance their positions in a department. The difference though is that the powerful males used blackmail and job pressure on unwilling subordinate females. The females who pursued the powerful men usually found willing partners. Powerful females pursuing subordinate unwilling males was not unheard of, but was rare.
5
One question to ask is, why do these men feel the need to victimize certain women? I mean, not to beat around the bush, but couldn't they afford all the hanky-panky they want from willing partners? Or if not the money-required kind of partner, the woman who will swoon after them once they say 'hello'? Why seek unwilling company?
2
They enjoy the power and humiliation of an unwilling partner. That is why people say this type of behavior is about power, not about sex per se. Sexual intimidation or assault it used as a weapon to demean women.
4
They do it only to display their power. They have to ensure that women are and stay their inferiors.
1
Good riddance after summer 2016 Trump and Hillary interview where he got softball questions, she was grilled the whole time on her emails. His encore career should be in the janitorial field.
David-Philly
17
All women's news to follow. I'm afraid there'll be more to follow as Republican operatives will comb the country for more victims and regrettably there will be previously quiet legitimate victims that will also come forward.
It was the Washington Post and VanitynFair looking for victims. Why are you blaming Republicans?
As long as there are by-lines, some journalists will be trusted more than others because their work is sharper, digs deeper, exposes more, in sum telling us the fullness of the truth. And, those journalists will fall faster and harder if they have culitvated a facade of trustworthiness and familiarity with the reader or viewer. Give me a newsroom of reporters who live to gore all the oxen and doesn't worry about whose party they're not invited to.
2
Matt Lauer confesses that he now feels a crushing and very painful sense of guilt. It's hardly bearable. Thus, he must spend time healing himself before he can re-enter society. He suffers mightily, deeply, and consistently.
But where were these torturous feelings for 20 years? Or even the week before? Sudden onset? An acute attack? He gets caught and suddenly we see an all-new Matt Lauer. A sea change; a new dawn, a new day.
Forgive my cyncism, but if his accusers hadn't stepped forward, old Matt would still be happily and gainfully employed in his custom-lockable office and grilling sexual offenders like Bill O'Reilly. Then, afterwards, he would smile, laugh, and banter joyfully with Savannah. It's called hiding in plain sight.
14
There's nothing new about men in power abusing it for sexual purposes. What's new is that more women are getting comfortable enough to come forward and fry the idiots in their own fat.
As the father of two daughters, I say crisp them up.
15
Then why did it take twenty years for some to come forward? Guess they didn’t care if it happened to someone else.
@mrp I agree, but sir, one not need to be the father of girls to feel as you do. This isn't about us vs. them. Predatory behavior isn't something I or any men I'm friends with see as normal.
1
I've wondered about the impact of shame on these people like Rose, Lauer, and O'Reilly. Have they been worried since the scandal broke about Harvey Weinstein that they might be in trouble if someone from their past (or present) tags them in a #metoo post? Was there a pit in their stomach when they announced breaking news of the newest celebrity/politician being named in the growing scandal? Did the swell of women unmasking their experiences with male colleagues cause them any sleepless nights? Did their minds race to summarize the names and faces of all those they harmed and demeaned? Did they think about which ones might join the growing outcry? Did they sweat? Did they fret? Did they feel just a little bit sick every waking moment wondering when it just might be their turn?
Good. I can't help but wonder if they're ashamed (a popular word with this crowd) because they got caught or ashamed because they understand the impact their actions might have had on a victim. If these men understand the impact NOW (after being caught) they certainly understood the impact THEN when they engaged in such predatory behavior.
7
I wondered that myself. I asked someone if they thought each of the perpetrators wakes up in the morning, realizes that life as they knew it was over forever, and then they start to cry?
No more elegant galas, no more fawning anything --
Will they leave the US and hunker down in a small town in Italy for a year? Will they change their names and try to figure out how to live the rest of their lives where no one knows them?
How long will they cry over their downfall?
Did no one ever tell them that fame and fortune are fleeting?
~
5
Matt Lauer......outed, then dismissed in 48 hours
Charlie Rose......ditto
Harvey Weinstein.....thrown to the dogs and stripped of previous awards......
Even Bill O'Reilly...
On the other hand, Roy Moore denies everything and appears to be gaining support in his run for the senate.
And Trump charges valiantly forward despite his proudly asserting that his mega-superstar status allows him to grope with impunity. Fifteen woman have accused him of sexual predation. All 15 are lying. Trump (as is his custom) is telling the truth.
13
You know the charges against Trump were dropped, right? And do you ever wonder why Moore ran in eight elections? Do you ever wonder who is really behind this?
I believe U shouldn't read Bobg literally, Domer.
He is sarcastic and DT will be impeached, God willing....
1
I wonder whether this article would have been different if the author was a women? Why wasn't it written by woman? It is about males and ostensibly written by a male (women typically are not named Jim). I don't feel objectivity here. Can a woman objectively write this from a woman's point of view? Is this patriarchy by the Times or am I over-analyzing it? I don't think so.
4
Not sure what you are getting at by questioning the fact that a man happened to write this piece. There have been plenty such pieces...in fact, too many imho - rendering them a 'yawn' moment - written mostly by women.
I don't put Garrison Keillor in with the other no-talents. He's an actual writer and creator.
4
This is not simply a failure of the network news star system. Until this country finds a way to deal with the deeply embedded patriarchy within all institutions and how men and women relate to each other, there will not be any meaningful change. So some famous men have been called to account recently. This is a drop in the bucket and does nothing for the day to day lives of most American women and girls. When we can start talking about the frequent devaluation of females at work and in social situations, then we may be on the road to improvement. I’m not sure this will occur in my lifetime, but I always hope for the best.
10
#1, get rid of internet pornography.
Next, get rid of violent video games like Grand Theft Auto and other games that teach young men to treat women as sex objects. Also get rid of games that teach young men to use an assault rifle to shoot people.
Young people are exactly what you teach them to be. We see the results.
5
The majority of these cases, so far, are powerful men in media, messaging, politics, film. Each of these industries deals in illusion to some degree, which they ultimately controlled. In a pop culture world accessible at any moment of the day, they must have felt so powerful in their positions knowing that they were able to shape debates, shift culture, have powerful artistic input in the stories we watch or tell. If their departure means a shift in that messaging, I welcome it. I'd like to see more diverse casting across the board.
5
Males have a bad reputation to begin with and any man who has been divorced knows what I'm talking about where there are NO FAULT states. We are automatically at fault and the problem to be vanquished.
If a WOMAN does something inappropriate like cheats on the husband, they are impeccably innocent because of the MALE PIGS we are reading about here and that have gone before them. And the laws support women to a pinnacle because many of us are pigs.
We are born the aggressors by nature but when we do not tame ourselves we are rightfully called out as PIGS. Even when innocent we are already guilty. Very troubling to be male.
1
This flurry of highly public outings of men is sort of like our own current version of McCarthyism with his Red Menace scare, only now it's spelled Allred. Nostalgia is always kind of sentimental. We need a new list for all of the names so that in 40 or 50 years those on it can point to it with pride and feel exonerated after it's realized what the panic was really all about.
2
Oh, please. It's always someone else's fault, or society's fault. Or the fault of the public schools, or the fault of tony "elite" private schools, or the fault of bad nutrition or the eating of candy bars, or lack of a job, or access to guns.
A failure of the "network news star system"?
How about just stupid, coarse, vulgar behavior that at times becomes criminal in nature? Or doing something crass or criminal because they can?
People rob banks because they think they can get away with it, too.
10
The fault is that people higher up were told and did nothing.
1
What separates man from animals is self awareness, a moral conscience, and self control.
6
If we are talking about predators in the media please do not omit Glenn Thrush.
5
WJC set the tone. If you can do it in the WH and get away with it, why can’t other powerful men do the same?
4
Are you talking about Bill Clinton?
1
Maybe now the liberal intelligencia will come to understand that sexual predators come from all races, colors, creeds and religions, and all political parties. Maybe now the so-called feminists will stop protecting sexual predators who are "good" on women's issues, and stop protecting sexual predators who vote the "right" way on women's issues.
3
So, why Trump is still there?
3
Because all the cases have been dropped.
Don't forget the women who enable this behavior too: Has anyone asked Cokie Roberts why she had not previously reported that it was commonly known that when he should not get into an elevator with representative Conyers? Has Jane Abrams been called to account for why she did not escalate information she received about New York Times news figures? It's not only Hillary Clinton who gets away with it!
all very rich so why should they care
1
It's not a network star thing, throw in some Trump, JFK, Cosby, Clinton and you have Male Libido issues, poor house training when they were younger perhaps. These are actions that have happen over a long periods of time, serial abusers if you will, that either deny or say their sorry if caught. The system needs to help support women or men to come forward in real time when abuse happens.
2
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. William Shekespeare
3
I would rephrase the title of this story A Failure of the .. Star System. Remember, someone said "when you are a star, they let you do anything".
4
Game over; this is a turning point in American History!
1
We thought the same thing 40 years ago with the women's movement.
Then Ronny Rayguns and Phyllis Schlafly and the Moral Majority came to town. Suddenly the male patriarchy was back in business.
6
This is really getting interesting now. Clyburn defends Conyers and battles women's accusations by claiming the women are all racist. Of course this did not make the headlines but it is still true. Everybody wants to claim victim status these days and now the victims are now arguing with each other about who is allowed to be a victim. In the Clyburn Conyers case, powerful black men are claiming superiority over women. That will probably change later on today if the headlines merit the flip flop.
1
Years ago I met a woman who worked from some of these so called "Media Stars". When I asked her why she quit and chose to go into the challenging restaurant business (with far less pay) she said, "Working for arrogant jerks is torture. Their demands, moods, comments, condescension, rudeness, crudeness, sexism, misogyny, hypocrisy, big egos...combined with low self awareness, low knowledge about anything outside their small circle, low empathy and low competency (that nobody wants to confront because they are "Stars") is a nightmare to work with. These are the jerks that could bring America down."
And bring down they did.
These bottom line and ratings focused men, with lot of mediocrity and poor research skills, but with privilege and protection, destroyed good journalism. And with that democracy. If these jerks had stepped down sooner maybe we would have had a better informed citizenry, a competent and a better performing government and a more accountable humanistic business.
We are no longer a democracy, and we are now going to officially be an oligarchy.
6
To hear especially women uttering dismay that they knew these men for years and saw nothing, felt no off vibes from them or heard no whisperings of their behavior is hard to believe. But ok, give them that. But to stand up ,or make it sound that other than this one thing these guys are great. Give me a break. Live with what these women went through and to this day are still going through. How about you have to go to your husband or boyfriend and tell them what happened or is happening. Because for one simple thing they had notoriety, power , control, they acted this way. They chose to follow this path. They individually made these sick choices. They do not get to be great guys, except for this one "small" thing. Criminal is the word gentlemen and ladies.
3
This "failure" exists in every company I have worked in. About twenty years ago in the hospital I work in, one of the high level managers in my department tried to rape one of his subordinates while they were on a business trip. She reported it to HR and our Vice President, but the only outcome was that he had to keep his door open whenever he was meeting with a female employee. Management protects management. That chain needs to be broken for there to be an end to the power men have to degrade women.
7
She should have called the cops that night. Now its just he-said she-said.
I've been scanning the comments on these pages about Lauer the past two days and what's stunning is that there are plenty of comments here that seem to take special glee for this apparent comeuppance for Lauer's interview with Clinton. How petty is that?
Does anyone remember all the hostile news conferences between the Obama administration and press? Neither do I. Interesting that no one in the mainstream ever thought to call out all the softball questioning aimed that presidency. But then again, what do you expect when Obama's press corps consisted of star struck 27 year old with no prior experience in journalism...
1
Maybe because there was never a hint of scandal in the Obama presidency because he knew that he was being held to a higher standard, and, he had class.
4
OK, a show of hands if you have never committed sexual harassment or assault. Sadly, too few hands are raised, or many who raise their hand are lying.
For starters, Ryan and McConnell should ask their colleagues for a show of hands.
I never understood what Garrison Keillor's talent is or why anyone would find him amusing. I remember an episode of The Simpsons many years ago where the characters sat around a radio listening to him with a dumbfounded look on their faces as to what his entertainment value was.
I always found Bill O'Reilly to be entertaining but in an obnoxious way.
I was a big fan of Charlie Rose. Very sad to hear these allegations and that he's no longer around. He seemed like a genuinely decent guy. I guess he fooled me and a lot of other folks.
Matt Lauer, on the other hand, always irritated me. He seemed wholesome and friendly in a phony and deceptive way. I never liked the guy. Still, I'm surprised he was so stupid and allegedly committed these acts.
3
The "so-called" president fits right into this club. Why isn't anyone coming to the rescue of his victims???
4
The real failure of the network news system is their systematic, almost diabolical treatment of women and not just as sex objects. They use women and refuse to pay them the same as they pay the men (across the board), they promote men much faster and with much less experience, they chastise women if they dare to tell the men they were wrong -- I worked at the networks all of my life -- and as a young researcher I was once asked by a very senior male if I had emasculated a producer when I spoke up about a problem with a story we were putting together. I have a hundred other stories like that -- all designed as a way of keeping you in your place so to speak -- women, young and old are never quite rewarded for their tenacity -- in fact, just like the emasculation comment made to me more than three decades ago, it's quite the opposite. Much was known about Rose and his bullying and mistreatment of women was rewarded by CBS and PBS -- he kept advancing -- after all, he should never be emasculated by a woman. Reckoning, I hope so, but am expecting very little to change.
6
It's that way in all companies.
I never let a hint of criticism creep into comments I make to men I work with. As a middle-aged woman, I know that any little criticism carries the baggage of their wives or their mothers criticizing them.
I just tell them how great they are -- and I stay employed.
That is how it works.
5
That's too bad Dickey Fuller -- just telling men how great they are to keep your position -- you should be able to say something if you want to or nothing if you want to and you should be able to speak your mind if a colleague is just wrong, especially for those of us who are in the "fact" business. That is how it should work.
I want to read your book!
1
Years ago at a company seminar a middle manager introducing a speaker to a small group of clients told an off-color joke. The clients had their spouses with them. It was a stupid thing to do.
Consequences resulted in his termination the following day. Our CEO and all the Execs had "zero" tolerance for anything that even came close to what we coin as "sexual harassment".
There can be a decent workplace environment, just have the right folks at the top. And a powerful HR Department like we did.
1
In a manner similar to fact checking, The NYT should rate the degree of contrition among the left and right leaning male luminaries who have been outed as female sexual harassers. I'm not sure who would rate as most contrite, but it wouldn't be a Republican. However, on the least remorseful end of the scale, you can put Judge Roy Moore and work back from there.
What's better - saying nothing or issuing a phony apology?
Those old goats were ready for retirement anyhow. All three were well past their prime and disgusting to watch. The companies did them and their audiences a favor by firing them. They were asking for it!
If the NYTimes and the Washington Post devoted as much time and energy to Trump destroying democracy in America, and how aging female giants like Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein are complicit in Trump's destruction and war mongering, they perhaps the Democratic Party would wake up, promote promising young Democrats and restore democracy in American.
1
Let's remind ourselves, network broadcasting is just another illusion, a shimmering mirage of credibility, trustworthiness, and integrity, but like Pro Wrestling, is actually fully staged and expertly produced, an Potemkin artifice designed to enthrall gullible viewers who are duped into believing that the overpaid, overprimped hosts are "a family" when actually they are just greed-driven (and for many, such as Lauer, Rose, and their ilk, lust-driven) creatures exemplifying the moral vacuum of our Hollywood/MSM/Sports Industry celebrity-driven culture. We need to rethink our cultural icons and delink them from ego-driven celebrity TV personalities, with their make-up artists, wardrobe managers, inflated salaries and secret buttons under their desks. Why not instead focus locally on the unsung heroes and personal saviors who really impact for the good the lives of most of us in America. The policemen who stop criminals. The healthcare workers and first responders who save lives. The nurses who care for the sick. The teachers who dedicate their lives to the education of the next generation. These heroes surround us in our communities, but their contributions will not likely be recognized because they do not crave celebrity or power, nor do they seek fame and fortune and they definitely don't want to be on TV. It also doesn't occur to them to sexually harass others. The values in our culture are upside-down. At least according to the cultural "elite".
7
When you pay someone an exorbitant amount of money for a job that is not exorbitantly harder to accomplish, you raise their egos to an exorbitant extent and let them believe they are above it all. Power and fame corrupts, like nothing else
11
The only regret any of these men have is they got caught. Power corrupts and of course, they do no wrong.
3
Things that make you go...hummm
It took CBS less than a week to fire Charlie Rose and NBC less than 24 hours with Matt Laure.
Interesting that the pro-family values and moral compass for the conservative movement FOX took 10 years to take the same actions with O'Reilly and Aires and then, only after the public outcry became white hot.
There are those that walk the talk and those that just talk the talk.
7
Maybe if some of these companies paid their fair share in taxes, they wouldn't have the Coin to toss a cool $mil per month to these talking heads.
2
My feeling is it takes two to do this. We all have the right to say no. Whether it is men or women. So when will women of power start being accused of sexual harassment? That will be next.
Oh honey, that is just sad.
Have you not been paying attention -- these women have all said that they were younger, smaller, afraid for their jobs, afraid of the man in power. These were unwanted sexual advances.
Women of power, such as they may exist -- like Oprah, or the woman who runs IBM, or the Nikki Haley the ex-Gov of SC -- they are not interested in boffing male subordinates on their desks.
Sheesh.
2
When NBC gives you the capability to lock your office door from your desk, then the organization has a problem.
9
First, it’s about time the patriarchy comes to an end. Sadly, I fear this is just a blip in time because as long as men run the world, and I see no sign of anything changing anytime soon, they will continue to feel they’re entitled to do whatever they want.
I do find, however, the media’s predilection for grouping all men who’ve been accused of harassment in the same bag troubling. In the case of Roy Moore, the Post did their due diligence and there seems to be proof. The same could be said for Conyers. However, Franken is different. Yes the photo was disgusting and he apologized. But the other accusations are frankly ridiculous and seem more like a political witch hunt. All of the women who claim he groped them during photo ops are hardline Republicans. The problem with the way this reckoning is taking place is that an accusation is now accepted as proof. Again, Moore and Conyers situations seem very different from Franken’s yet you in the media put him in their group.
5
What has failed us here, in all of the arenas of sexual predation that have emerged, is our ability to teach girls—and boys—that they don't have to make older, more powerful people feel good or acquiesce in behavior that feels bad just to please or appease. It is difficult to hear so many cases of girls and boys feeling powerless in the moment and in the aftermath. We have to be better at teaching them they can refuse a predator's advances without incurring job loss, grade reduction, or a smear campaign. In teaching that lesson, we are implicitly assuring our young people that we will support them if they are abused or fearful of being abused. There is a lot of failure to go around, but in our rush to punish we musn't overlook our own responsibility to teach—and support—resistance.
1
Getting too big for ones britches is no excuse for not keeping everything inside them.
4
Some of these "stars" or celebrities have groupie issues or lack thereof.
In most other countries, they are just news readers.
Here, we have 'anchors' who are larger than life, and try to do more than report what is happening. They are celebrities, and try to be 'gate keepers' of what Americans hear, and are paid obscene amounts of money.
The faster this nonsense ends, the better.
5
And FWIW, I love Rachel Maddow but there is no way it's worth $7M per year.
She is reading the news, fergawdsake.
Two Issues I think merit note. First, what these talking heads are paid is a good example of how our country has morphed from the haves (the 1%) to the have nots (the 99%). And the Republicans want me to pay more in taxes so Matt Lauer can pay less, not thank you. Second, the stars in every industry are protected. The owner of the company the rainmaking partner, etc. also avoid any real repercussions from their sexually harassing behavior.
The supervisor that harassed me years ago, and it turned out he pulled the same thing with every junior female employee, is still with his same company with a house on Palm Beach and one in the mountains, now a VP and still engaging in the same lewd behavior. Go to HR, no thank you, HR as most employees know work for and exist to protect the company not to help employees. I would only advise an employee to complain to HR if they have a huge trust fund, as once you complain your career will go south.
2
I am seeing a purge of the old ones by the young ones. It's not a popular viewpoint but it's what I see.
So many articles and cable news stories are about sexual misconduct and not about the insanity in the WH. Like the tax cut getting passed that will increase the debt by trillions. Trump will bankrupt us and not care about what happens afterwards.
Purging men past their prime is the most important apparently. Curiously there seems to be no young millionaires sexually assaulting the help.
4
The so-called "star system" could survive, if the price for failure became too high. Every employer in America should begin to form, and require new employees to join, in an agreement wherein sexual harassment of one employee by another costs a great deal of money to the accused. And enforce it. And I mean BIG dollars, tens of thousands or more. The harassment would soon stop........
It feels like the world's underbelly has been abruptly exposed, and we're all just standing in horror, staring at this collection of lecherous men, wondering where we go from here.
When are top media and show biz executives, who are going overboard turning what started out as a series of long overdue and fully justified revelations into a wholesale witch hunt, going to be held to account for having over many decades willfully ignored abuses monumentally worse than what they are now so hypocritically flooding cyberspace about?
1
Charlie Rose's eponymous PBS interview show featured a calibre and variety of guests no other television interviewer consistenty procures. He also demonstrated at minimum a working familiarity with a breadth of topics that remains equally unmatched by any current network news host.
Yet, I could see a somewhat lecherous, if not merely invidious, affect come over him from time to time as he attempted to insinuate himself with certain beautiful, young female guests (mostly actresses) who were occasionally his featured guests. It was embarassing, and I would switch off the show when he started to behave like a fan with a celebrity "crush," rather than a sophisticated agent of his viewers' curiosity.
But now, as Charlie Rose's guests have disappeared from PBS broadcast interviews like babies thrown out with dirty bathwater, I surf past the PBS channel, feel an increasing boredom with available analyses of current events, and miss the vibrant perspectives his expert and more facinating guests provided on topics such as scientific breakthroughs, technologial developments and trends, domestic and international politics, social issues, emerging markets, the arts, and the world of design.
Is there any man or woman who is, or could become, as commanding a host as Charlie Rose? If so, I hope PBS finds them and, absent evidence of any past prurient behavior, puts them in Charlie's chair ASAP.
5
I am with you, Sachi G.
In my mind's search so far, Terry Gross from NPR comes up as a strong choice - based on her curiosity about so many things in life; her authentic presence; and her excellent interviewing skills.
4
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! would be my choice. Terri Gross puts me to sleep and from the interviews I've heard by her, usually gives her celebrity guests softball questions. Back in the day, I liked Ted Koppel on Nightline also. If I could channel Studs Terkel, he's also another great choice. (Studs was way before my time but I read his oral histories.)
2
Thanks. Yes, If she'd agree to the on-camera exposure (not real likely, given what I know of her), and can project a strong screen presence, I'd agree. But I can't quite imagine Terry Gross abandoning her cozy NPR niche. And who would replace her!!
I watched Charlie religiously (before I got rid of my TV) and enjoyed many interviews. He had a good run. Now he can just sit out the rest of his days with pal Kissinger.
When a public figure has a massive following, they have massive power - this has nothing to do with the patriarchy. Women who have large followings also have large power, and probably get away with plenty of things women low on the corporate ladder would not be able to. I cannot imagine any world where a fast food employee has the same power as a famous news executive.
1
In the mid 1800's Dalberg-Acton said "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men,..."
From women's point of view (who didn't even have the right to vote until decades later), this power to corrupt included using them as chattel to be used as any particular man's need arose. Power for men includes the myth of their sexual rights to cross personal boundaries, to disrespect, exclude, dismiss & assault women to lesser or greater degrees. It is a culture of patriarchy which women have endured since humans evolved from apes.
As a 76 yr old woman, I am glad to see this latest in a long line of women struggling to bring change to a culture that acts as though only men are fit to be power brokers - at home, in the workplace & in politics.
6
I worked a long career in TV news .... sometimes in management.... the article explains superficially about the star system so here is how it works and why it doesn't work.
TV executives are not journalists and don't understand it and don't see a way to make money (ratings and revenue) off journalism.
So rather than trust the staff to do good work and wait for it to pay off they hire
consultants and researchers, who point to faster, better ways to ratings and revenue.
Consultants and researchers say content doesn't really matter, what matters is the personalities you have to sell.
Executives then go all in on this and dump millions into people they consider valuable talent or in developing new talent.
This is a house of cards based on one or two people "selling" the product rather than a full staff developing credible information and building a foundation that is stronger than the faces delivering it.
So the stars get too much power and bad behavior is enabled.
This system does not work. Lauer and O'Reilly and the others had a value that was wildly, grossly, hilariously overrated.
But on the management level it feels good and there is a face to sell. Agents make out great. Promotions keep coming.
It is all a big money fraud fronted by cons who want to cash in. Kind of like politics.
9
"Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose and Bill O’Reilly were all encouraged to be larger-than-life characters before their sudden loss of stature."
How is anyone supposed to know what "to be a larger-than-life character" means?
1
As unpleasant as all of these revelations are, it is never a bad thing to know the truth. At first, the current trend to expose deep, dark secrets and air dirty laundry was repugnant to me, who was raised in the “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture of 60 years ago. Today, the heroes (current and historic) and movie stars whose reputations were so carefully protected during my youth are whacked off their pedestals one by one. Prejudice, misogyny, child abuse, addiction, etc. in the "Leave it to Beaver" era was tolerated and accepted much more than we knew.
Surprisingly, there is upside to all this wrestling with the truth: people are now on notice that accountability for one’s actions is on the rise. Among rational people, peer pressure to be respectful and fair to one another is increasing. And for those who lack an internal moral compass, “Big Brother” is watching through the use of surveillance cameras, cell phone recordings, and electronic data tracking. The foundation of our society is gradually replacing all its rugs with hardwood flooring, making it much harder to hide the dirt.
The right to privacy should not extend to the right to secretly commit crimes and covertly abuse others. Almost everyone has been victimized during his or her life. But rather than wallowing in a sense of being wronged, perhaps there is hope for a better future if we are not afraid to tell it like it is and bravely work toward cleaning up our lives as individuals and as a society.
2
It is with reluctance that women come forward with their accounts of sexual harassment - and worse. Why is that, we wonder? A jury recently acquitted Bill Cosby of some pretty heinous accusations. Only one woman out of many was brave enough to take him to court and was given a slap in the face in return. Maybe when we can stop blaming women instead of the perpetrators, progress can be made.
1
Cosby was not acquitted, it was a mistrial - and a new trial is scheduled for April 2018. And statute of limitations - which probably should not apply to such a serious crime as rape any way - determine which cases go to trial, not the decision of the plaintiffs.
1
I just don’t get it. Corporate America has been proactive on this for decades. Back in the 90s, my company brought in professional actors to demonstrate inappropriate scenarios to avoid. They now give us a digital course and quiz to study for annually. I’m sure there are still issues, but as far as I can tell with us office workers, harassment is the exception and not the norm. People aren’t clueless, and we demonstrate that every day. But when you look at news and entertainment, it’s like they’re fresh out of Mad Men.
4
Exactly. My corporation made training mandatory. Our local community college just instituted mandatory training on line before one can register for the winter term. It is a 99 page course.
Or fresh out of Uber...
Yes, but from what I saw inside the major corporation where i worked, the top executive and creative talent got a free pass, while mid-level "fungible" employees were given a legally tight reprimand or forced exit. It's "do as I say, not as our profit-drivers do."
There ought never have been any "network news stars" in the first place. Take a look at the promos for national and local news programming: cutesy at the local level; overly reverent at the national level. It has beocme all about the "stars" not about honest journalism.
1
Why not recall Clarence Thomas? Many are losing their jobs. Why not him? There is so much clear evidence against him that joe Biden and others ignored. If anyone should be removed, it is Clarence Thomas. I don’t understand why it’s only entertainers who are punished.
9
"I don't understand why it's only entertainers who are punished."
Wrong.
It's only liberal entertainers and, may I add, politicians, who are punished. They are falling over themselves to apologize, to quit their jobs, to be fired without putting up a fight -- while reactionary conservatives in the same positions stonewall, deny the accusations, accuse their accusers of lying, and keep their jobs.
You think conservative shock jocks don't manhandle their secretaries? Or Bible-belt politicians who decry immorality and blame gays and feminists for the country's troubles?
But yes indeed, recall Clarence Thomas. And let's please recall Donald Trump, who now after apologizing for what's on that Access Hollywood tape now says it's a fabrication.
I have had friendly arguments with people who eat meat because as they say always, "Man is a natural omnivore, and we eat animals". O.K., then males are natural predators. Surely a large part of our behavior as regards sexuality is also predatory. You don't just flip behavior that has been "normal" in one generation. The behavior is instinctive and not something you change by firing someone or by law. We ARE animals too, you know!
This is not to say I condone this behavior but to point out that males (and females) are addicted to animal products in the same way that a lot of males are attracted to animal flesh. This needs to stop in order to make for a more peaceful and less dominionistic world where male's behavior contradicts social ideals.
1
Yes, humans are addicted to eating. For good reason!
What about the institutions where these men have worked for years? I do not believe that in the case of Matt Lauer or Charlie Rose or Mark Halperin or ... that the decision-makers in the institutions were ignorant of this behavior. It's too rampant. Unless the institutions are accountable too, there will be no change.
1
They are human beings, for goodness sake, not gods. They aren’t actors playing characters, either, a la Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxrable. They’re men.
This, right here, shows why people in these positions often have mighty swift tumbles off the pedestal, because they and their egos fall for the hype that their bosses create and that viewers are too quick to buy. As a consequence, these personalities see themselves as larger than life and above the standards of conduct that the rest of us mere mortals are expected to follow. Bosses are just fine with these talking egos as long as the ratings and revenue remain high and the shenanigans are kept quiet.
This points, too, to how network television news has devolved into cults of personality. They aren’t journalists in the strict sense of the term anymore, like a Cronkite or Murrow; rather they are entertainers who just happen to lead news divisions. Hard news and tabloid journalism are now one and the same.
Admittedly, this is a complex issue. But to your commentary: We all, to some degree, are responsible for such people as Lauer, Rose, O’Reilly, etc. as we have elevated them to a position they do not deserve, be it from our short attention spans and shallow defnition of “news,” or because we’re looking for a “trusted individual” to be there everyday, guiding us through the morass. But I repeat: They are men, not superheroes, and our star+struck eyes are too often blind to that.
2
November 30 2017
How the human mind / spirit betrays itself in in the annals of literature and for good reason – to learn why things happen to average and then some…….
The quote, from Julius Caesar, Act 1, scene 2, is by Cassius:
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
Great values are: for, of, and forever about –
Family, virtue, honor and emulations to
JJA Manhattan, N.Y.
1
NBC placed so much investment into Lauer, has to come to terms, is now worthless. The network has 20 years of content investment that now cannot be used. NBC should be suing Lauer for breach of contract for millions. Lauer's shortcomings has put fellow co-workers a precarious position for their future employment. The shake up is in the works.
It all comes back to the capitalism model.
Each of these men earned tens of millions of dollars annually. Why did they get paid so much? Why didn't HR act?
Because their shows attracted advertisers. Advertisers pay millions for the ads -- which are endless. Products sold via the ads generate millions for their corporations. Corporations pay big dividends to stockholders, and they also pay senior management tens of millions of dollars per year.
It is just ridiculous. No one needs $28M or $40M per year in income. I don't even think that Rachel Maddow, as informative as she is, needs or even deserves $7M per year. Especially when the median income in this country is somewhere around $55,000 / year.
And then all those millions go to buy off Congress so nothing ever changes.
The whole thing is completely broken.
2
I think it's unfair to hold men accused of sexual impropriety to a standard that did not exist last year or even six months ago. I'm not saying what they did was right or commendable or good, only that the culture of outrage that exists today did not exist when these offenses were committed. Other than men who physically restrained or attacked women violently - that is flat out criminal and should be prosecuted if possible - most of these allegations are about "hitting on" women in a way the woman found offensive, overly aggressive and/or intimidating. But, in that more permissive era - again, this was the world that existed just months ago - it was part of the culture.
Things change. Thirty years ago being gay, could, literally, land you in prison and utterly destroy your life. Just being suspected of being gay was enough to ruin your future forever. Today, gays can marry with the blessings of the state. (Despite the haters.) It is a different world, and we adapt.
Destroying a man's career because he was sexually offensive seems wrong to me. Whatever the punishment is for these men, it should not be fatal and render them irredeemable forever. We once believed the world was flat. Most of us no longer do. We learn as we go.
2
Whoa. There have been serious consequences for sexual harassment, assault and rape for years, even decades. Victims of both genders are coming forward because they have multiple platforms now, including self-driven social media, to make their voices heard. We as a society have to encourage people who have been subjected to sex abuse to speak up, without fear of losing their jobs or being subject to penalties. Where any person holds a position of trust in the media in a publicly held company, the moral character of that person is central to their credibility. We are already seeing clips of Lauer interviewing men about their roles in sex harassment, and we saw how he went incredibly easy on Trump during the campaign. We now know that NBC knew about the Weinstein case -- and refused to be the media platform for its release to the public - we did not know why, but it looks like it may have been another layer of protection for Lauer and his enablers. The media companies have done right - or in the case of Lauer, finally done right when forced - by firing those involved, as they have no credibility as journalists any more. They can pick other careers - fiction writing, pumping gas, flipping burgers - but they are useless as journalists as they cannot be depended on not to introduce bias in reporting to stay away from their own problems.
Let me guess: you're a man. These "standards" are not new. I've lived on this planet for over 4 decades. Plenty of men I've encountered and worked with in my life don't behave like the men profiled in this article. These allegations -- locking a door on a co-worker and having sex with her nonconsensually, parading naked in front of one's subordinates -- are actual crimes (i.e. rape, indecent exposure). We're not talking about someone merely asking a woman out, even aggressively, and her turning him down.
I am a man, yes. And, as I made abundantly clear, I was not talking about things like locking a door (kidnapping), exposing oneself or non-consensual sex (rape). Those are indeed crimes. Let's take Al Franken for example. A staged photo obviously intended to be comical (she wasn't actually touched) or a tongue too enthusiastically employed during a comedy sketch (rehearsed, yet!) is not to me an offense worth losing a career over. And George Bush Sr patting a female's behind at the age of 90+ does not to me constitute a serious crime. Give the old guy a break.
As for me, I have had unwanted sexual advances, including groping, from both men and women since I was seventeen, but I did not feel the need to call a press conference or the police. I handled it myself - without violence - and trust me, it never happened twice. I suggest some of these women learn to stand up for themselves, or grow thicker skin.
1
Inasmuch as American news is highly sensationalized news reporters are a vital ingredient used by networks to obtain "market share." No wonder then that along with huge salaries and great notoriety, their egos go to the sky and they lose all notion of what is normal and decent especially with those who are weaker such as young aspiring women whom they often see as prey. But being fired will do them some good and bring them back to reality.
If you notice one thing about all these men as well as one's in other industries such as entertainment and other corporate environments is that they were all involved in this behavior for a very long time and yet every single company has pleaded total lack of knowledge of any of this behavior. How ridiculous.
I think the most important thing that this is showing is that human resource departments at large companies have no interest in defense of employees who not only have complaints about sexual harassment but also various forms of discrimination, be it sexual, age related or racist but are there to protect the firm by any means necessary including turning against individuals with legitimate complaints that violate federal and state practices.
The Board of Directors of these companies need to set up independent committees that review the actions of HR divisions in these companies where sometimes individuals who look for them as saviors from traumatic and unfair situations later find out that they themselves are viewed as the enemy.
41
Human Resources at big corporations care much more about keeping things running smoothly than handling an individual complaint of harrassment be it sexual or other types. This is why they seek to pay off the complainant and 'turn the page" as quickly as possible. Many complainants, too, prefer a payoff to making a formal complaint in court and revealing unpleasant events to a lawyer or a court of law. This is why until now so many powerful men where never truly bothered by complaints of misconduct - payoffs bring silence.
Responding to "Mindboggling" from NYC: the Board of Directors of any corporation is as invested in profits as its appointed directors, the CEOs, CFOs, etc., and those appointees' protectors, the Human Resources Department. No Board of Directors is going to set up an independent group to examine complaints of discrimination unless to do so raises the company's stock price.
History has shown that change comes from the bottom up, from the agitators uncomfortable with the status quo, rather than from the top down, where the people in power control all the resources to enhance their own comfort.
Often enough, too, there is no change until someone at the very top is affected, and then puts their great wealth and prestige behind effecting change. Say (offering a highly theatrical example to make the point), if a woman raped and impregnated Donald Trump at gunpoint, you would quickly see Executive Orders regarding sexual assault, abortion, and gun control.
1
When Reagan did away with the "Fairness Doctrine"in the 1980s, television networks started to integrate their news departments into their more profitable entertainment divisions, hence, entertainment/news, news/entertainment, virtually no difference and their stars started to move around from one to the other.
When one is placed on a pedestal, ratings are high and one receives millions of dollars for their efforts, clearly a sense of being indispensable and having a sense of entitlement comes in to play whereby whatever they choose to do, there will be no repercussions. Bill O'Reilly was the perfect example, if the advertisers didn't start falling away in droves, he would still be on the air.
5
This will only get worse as the income division of our society is exacerbated. The control and power of the few will lead to more abuses of the many.
15
I am increasingly saddened at how our social mores are shifting so far afield from basic decency, then become further distressed when watching reports with my ten-year-old son who questions why powerful men in news media do these things to women. Today I had to formulate a response explaining that Rose and Lauer felt entitled to disrespect these women. My son can't fathom why a man would do that. When high profile and influential men manipulate and oppress women through their abusive and predatory behaviors, we parents raising boys today face exceptional and daunting challenges, not just finding current role models but explaining why these men were allowed to maintain their status in the first place.
5
When Trump said, on the Access Hollywood tape, "...when your are a celebrity ...you can do anything..." or words to that effect, he summed it up perfectly. Americans are obsessed with celebrities and there is a tacit belief that celebrities and other wealthy people are entitled to play by different rules that allow for bad behavior that the rest of us would never get away with. Add to that the power that these men had over the women they harassed (and more) and the end result is almost inevitable. Yes, they have built reputations of trust because to deliver news effectively, the audience must trust you. But in private, they are just boys who have to prove to themselves that they are in control.
13
Some people seem confused about what's acceptable in the workplace. Here's what needs to be understood: When you are at work, you're there to work--not to pursue, intimidate or make sexual overtures or demands of others. Your employer is paying you to work. Period. If you've crossed the line in error of judgment or deliberately -- you need to review the sexual harassment codes, take a leave of absence, and trained to understand why your behavior is out of line. If your supervisors are involved, more may be dictated. But if you hope to keep your career or redeem yourself in the case of egregious behavior, man up for heavy lifting. Especially if you've amassed a lot of money, fame, power, and --abused that privilege while at work. Your victims deserve much more than an apology and your amends may require financial restitution and in-patient care for sex addiction. Instead of words, right now you should be listening to victims, steeping yourself in the "yuck factor" until you really get it; the cost and damage others have paid for your arrogance and self-importance.
25
Down here on earth, in the realm on humans, you should know that people at work do many many other things besides just work.
1
"And NBC and CBS, like Fox News before them, now face questions about where their managerial systems broke down."
Well, in their defense, the networks have been behaving this way since their inception (and they simply copied their contemporaries in the film industry in that regard). Their management system did not fail them so much as the political climate shifted precipitously. Even if they had introduced changes (and it's hard to argue that their swift responses indicate otherwise), these charges (many of which date from years ago) would have been unavoidable.
5
“The networks bear extra responsibility because they did so much to make them into the larger-than-life — and, therefore, not-true-to-real-life — characters they became.”
Yes and NBC bears responsibility for building up their Apprentice personality Trump. This responsibility is greatly compounded by refusing to release the Apprentice tapes that are reported to showcase Trump’s sexism, misogyny and racism. What kind of even half-way serious “ news” organization would cover that up?
40
Yes.
NBC must release those tapes so the other 33% of America who are still unconvinced that Trump must be removed from office can see them.
3
The NBC decision not to broadcast the Ronan Farrow Weinstein bombshell report should also be investigated in this light.
Regarding the Male Media Stars - too few men in too many shows. Did we really need to see Matt Lauer all over the place? Did we really need to see Charlie Rose man an early morning show in addition to his other duties? Any rational business would hire more people, in case something happens to their star.
3
Meanwhile, the most old-boys-clubs of them all, Congress (the House, in this case) has decided it might be a good idea to have their members undergo some sexual harassment training. You know, like most organizations did twenty years ago. Way to get ahead of the curve!
19
It is heart-rending to watch/hear/read about women and men who are shocked with these allegations. Gail King and Samantha Guthrie both talked about what great friends Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer are.
Now is the time to clear up the discussion and keep it on reasonable terms.
This is not about the "man". This is about MALE BEHAVIOR that is unacceptable to women but has been approved and fostered by society for centuries. Rape, pillage, plunder. To the victor go the spoils. Those are man thoughts.
Women and unwanted sex are not "spoils". It doesn't matter what an individual man thinks - unwanted sex and sexual suppression, intimidation, harassment and/or abuse are NOT acceptable in any way at any time. It's past time for men to understand that.
Since this is a systemic problem many men will be accused of unwanted sexual behavior. Let's talk about behavior - not individuals - and have a meaningful discussion that actually moves society ahead.
18
True sexual equality is only achieved by the asexual. The rest are just pretending. It would simplify matters, that's for sure. Long lines outside the women's room would suddenly disappear.
Mr. Rutenberg, it is not a failure of the Network News Star System. I almost laugh every time I read/listen to a man trying to explain this behavior away. It's rampant throughout society. It has been acceptable to men and women. No more.
The failure is the male-model, woman suppressing society we have lived in. Fortunately, women across The United States of America and around the world - over half of humanity - are stepping up, calling men out and saying No More as they take one-half the power in the world in every segment of society.
The Con Don and his Robber Baron brethren might get their way temporarily but Socially Conscious Women and Men will make sure it's short-lived.
We have seen evil and WE THE PEOPLE will not stand - or die - for it.
23
We pay people too much. Actors, doctors, news anchors, basketball players, business people.... and government representatives raise much too much money. It makes them feel entitled.
If we taxed them at the top rate of 65% as we once did, everything would cost half as much.
51
How are you lumping doctors who spend years training at great personal and financial expense, work long hours trying to save people's lives together with actors, news anchors....?
Why should a news anchor receive 20 million dollars a year?
Because that's how much someone wants to pay them.
The star system isn't itself to blame for sexual predation, but it is an artificial realm that offers a sense of being special, being above normal life. And of immunity.
Elevation to wealth and celebrity isolates into a life of privilege, which can be mistaken for the right to take privileges.
The star system was always the enemy of journalism. Reporters are for seeing and telling what is true and anything beyond that detracts from and diminishes their essential place in our experiment.
64
The common threat to these "prominent' revelations of sexual abuse is that these men were powerful, wealthy and were seen as finical assets for their respective companies. Add to this mixture patriarchy, lack of internal controls, and an atmosphere where women, if present at all were expected to go along to get along.
These workplaces didn't take equality seriously, especially when it might interfere with what their star performers expected. None of this is surprising or unusual.
Only when women finally gained enough traction in these industries could their stories of systemic abuse no longer be denied. When legal experts ponder the meaning of equal opportunity, critical mass hiring and meaningful affirmative action they can use this continuing moment as an object lesson.
At the end of the day the vindication of these women came about because of the pioneering work of radical feminist activists like Professor Katherine McKeenan, who developed the legal theory on sexual harassment that eventually was written into law.
To date I have not seen her name even mentioned by the New York Times. Those of us who learned so much from her work need to correct this mistake.
36
but I think her name is Catherine MacKennan.
I never quite understood the multi million dollar celebrity status of people who are little more than glorified news readers!! Easily replaceable by robots!! These fellows have been removed from the air and hardly anyone but the media has missed a beat in their daily lives. Even the programs they were once part of continued almost as if nothing had happened.
Inflated egos tend to abuse other people because they think they are actually important in the scheme of things when actually they are not. I'm glad these swelled heads have been brought back to earth. If they are criminally at fault let's see how important they are among the population of state prison.
38
If only they would just read the news and not perform it.
Fergawdsake, no one can tell me that Rachel Maddow is worth $7M / year for saying in 20 minutes what Judy Woodruff on PBS could say in 7 minutes.
If these people didn't demand such ridiculous salaries, we wouldn't have to wait through interminable commercials for pharmaceuticals with horrific side-effects, or adult diapers.
1
it is a celebrity culture problem, extending into sports, business, politics, etc. you see yourself on tv or in the papers and magazines, read all the hagiographic coverage, and you start to believe you are indeed more than human, and deserving of special dispensation from both common decency and the law.
1
When do the women in these systems of News Networks and Hollywood studio's and Network going to stop turning a blind eye to the fact that this went on for years. Please for the sake us us who have daughters stand up and say enough! For every time someone said "Oh that's' just Matt Lauer being Matt" or "Harvey being Harvey", how many women were in situations because these behaviors were "Green Lite" because it's just the system.
Let's kill that attitude now please!!!
18
The news media, just like every other industry out there, needs to step back and ask themselves:
1. How and why do we promote men? Intellect, skill, appearance...
2. How and why do we promote women? Intellect, skill, appearance...
3. What is different about the standards we hold them to?
4. What is different about the two standards?
5. How are the pay and perks different? Why?
6. How does your organization treat the lowliest of employees. How much respect do they get? Are senior staff allowed to treat them disrespectfully?
7. How much power do the "stars" have in promoting others?
If you answer all of these questions, and TALK about them as a group...you will know how vulnerable you are...
10
Come on NYT. I have no need to try to defend Garrison Keillor but placing him in the same heading with someone who walks naked into a woman's space (and worse) is absolutely ridiculous. In fact he needs no defending (neither does Franken). He answered brilliantly. If what Keillor did was wrong then I as a woman should be accused of misdeeds also. Many a time have I placed my hand on a man's back or shoulder with absolutely no intention of "leading him on".
14
More proof that people learn nothing. Remember Arthur Godfrey? Remember the 1950s film "A Face in the Crowd?" So long as the huge meatball element in the population insists on being deluded and confusing performers' roles with actual personalities, this will go on. When Alan Alda was on " Mash, " he was asked to speak at doctors' meetings. Why should a guy on TV be so different from the over-important, pompous groper next door? In a rational world, somebody like Trump being President would be perceived as fake news.
11
Another movie is "The Great Man," about an Arthur Godfrey type figure.
Celebs have been getting a pass on exploiting women for some time now. time for it to stop.
9
"For the news business, this is the way it has to be: Its main product, after all, is integrity,..." Is this a joke? Maybe in Walter Cronkite's era.
6
"Integrity," objectivity and a "mandate to serve the public" in television (not print) all went the way of the dodo when Ronald Reagan and his FCC chairman Mark
Fowler deregulated broadcast, eliminating The Fairness Doctrine which required
balance and, as Fowler said, "let the market decide. Television is just a toaster with pictures." After that profit became the sole motive for owning/operating television stations and networks. If the boys running the networks, stations and shows thought their "guys" like Lauer were the geese that laid the golden eggs of
ratings (and they did/do) no price was too high and no behavior intolerable. And, btw, most of them, including women, while skilled on-air presenters, are not very smart. With a nod to Groucho Marx, they've just "learned to fake sincerity" and "gravitas." The movie "Broadcast News" was a timely and accurate portrayal of
its decline.
1
How is one to know whether a “sexual advance” is unwanted short of making it and getting rejected?
4
1. If you are at work, don't make a sexual advance.
2. If you have power over that person, don't make a sexual advance.
3. If the person is underage, don't make a sexual advance.
4. If you have to restrain them, DON'T DO IT.
Well, we're all shocked to find that a cult of personality throws up some toxic personalities. Of course, merely being as bright as a small appliance bulb was never considered as a disqualification, although you have to be pretty dim to think you can get away with some of the stuff these guys pulled. But for those who continue in the game, their general lack of anything except charisma will not be an obstacle to fame, fortune, and the chance to tell assemblies of gullible youngsters to "follow their passion".
Notice also the preponderance of old white guys. I wonder what Kanye West will get for his latest admission of sin? Not much, I think.
3
I hope this "trickles down" to the many levels below the stars on camera. As someone who worked for decades in television, I can tell you that men behaving criminally vis a vis women colleagues are at all levels. The low-level person who writes a schedule for a single mom production assistant, for example --and I am not talking about myself here, but making a point -- has incredible power over that person's life. If you don't think some of those men are abusing their power in the same horrible ways, then you are very naive. What will it take to root out this damaging behavior at ALL levels? Unfortunately like stupid economic policy that keeps coming back, I don't expect this "trickle down" to get to lower level predators either.
15
I don’t get how these guys are not convicted and in jail?
So if your a rich celebrity your above the law? I am surprised Geraldo Rivera hasn’t been fired with all his alleged sexual assaults?
11
And "The Newsroom" was cancelled. Sad. Very sad.
5
We have years of allegations and retirements in the military and occasionally police- without anything changing in their vertically integrated misogyny.
10
Just pause for a moment in here , do not put Garrison Keillor in this pile of sexual perpetrator until further proof.
It was one time and he apologized promptly with email and apology was accepted by the woman and now she is surfacing with a layer ?
One woman could destroy a life in a jiffy and I am a woman .
How about the predator in chief, why his name is not there ?
14
I am glad that all these big name sex predators are loosing their jobs and may be they should be in jail. But Franken, Conyers, Trump and many other politicians are not loosing anything? Why Clarence Thomas is still in Supreme Court? Only pervert Spitzer paid the price but he did not assault anybody. Finally , I feel very bad for the wives and children of these predators, my sympathy is for their family members.
6
I have never understood how networks (or any other major public company) ascribe or determine the value of their so-called star performers - what metrics are used to measure value; would it make any difference if that 'star' was replaced by a no name or a robot for example (we are all expendable); and, would anyone, in the long term, really care? How on earth is it decided that a Lauer or O'Reilly is worth the tens of millions in salary dollars? And where is Megan Kelly now?
It is instructive to look at Hollywood, the ultimate star factory - would a superhero film be any less successful if a marquee actor was replaced. Surely Iron Man with or without Downey would still be Iron Man and rake in tens of millions (and I have lost count of how many different actors have filled the role of Spiderman or Superman). In short, the value of these stars are over-rated and I am not sure the departed (with millions in severance) will be particularly missed. The sun shall still rise everyday and life marches on . . .
8
The Star System has been driven by greed. No one is worth $25 million or more a year to dish out sensation grabbing news and whopping ratings. Lucrative ad revenue chasing network bosses created this Star System and they ignored with impunity the sexual misconduct of the stars. Laws have been flouted both by the stars and their employers while they sold their brand of political and moral principles to a worshipping audience. These stars also were condoned by their opposite sex coanchors who must've certainly heard about some of the salacious goings on. One, Katy Couric seems to have spoken out years ago and was ignored. What about the others? Before the advent of mass telejournalism the Press was indeed the Fourth Estate. Now it is the serf of the ad revenue fiefdom. Can this socially flawed but lucrative business model be reformed?
15
The reports against the media, entertainment, and political figures we're seeing are of unwanted sexual advances over a substantial period of years. Would these successful men have continued to make advances if they were regularly met with failure?
Were they actually "scoring" on a regular basis? Were they surprised when some of their selected "prey" rejected them?
Perhaps they were used to easy "consensual" sex because of their celebrity status.
As Henry Kissinger said during the time he was considered the "most eligible bachelor"in Washington, "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."
6
Like comedians, politicians, and actors, television news anchors and reporters are performers. Their images are carefully cultivated with demographics and advertising dollars in mind. So it should not be shocking that who they really are, revealed by how they conduct themselves off screen, belies what audiences are manipulated to believe. Usually the true selves are unremarkably different from the constructs. But when the inconsistency between the two glares, we are reminded that we have been misled.
Now that the line between private and public is almost non-existent, we know more about celebrities than we might care to. That they cannot get away with what they thought they did in secret is a good thing.
It is not so good if we fall for the myths that the networks and public relations people feed us. Neither is the apparent endless fascination with the sexual improprieties of the mighty.
3
We have to ask ourselves why there are so few publically known male harassment cases? Is it because there are so few women in commensurate levels of power? Maybe, but doubtful. Seems more like it's more ingrained and specific to men in positions of power and the persona and behaviors engrained as a 'right of passage' to their assent to power. The 'good ol' boys' club is still very much alive and with it all of its specific language and behaviors that are rewarded. Maybe things will start to change. Hope so, but not holding my breath.
3
All good news, but let's stop calling it a "national reckoning." No one is talking about sexual assault and harassment in low income communities, among victims who are disproportionately women of color, and in non-glamorous industries like domestic work, construction, fast food, retail, etc.
These stories, while interesting, are only being covered because the perpetrators and victims are privileged white men and women who happen to be working in privileged industries such as media, Hollywood and politics. And when it happens with one of their own, the media coverage is relentless, the navel-gazing total.
Frankly, most people couldn't care less what Hollywood actors or Big Media celebrities are doing to each other. And your "national reckoning" won't begin until you broaden your demographics and coverage, and you start talking about the problem of sexual assault and harassment in the real workday world.
157
so true, minorities aren't even in the picture frame because no mater how professional we are, we don't even get an interview. These old white men show how disturbed we are as a society and it starts from the very top.
These entitled white folks and a few minorities including politicians live in gated communities and truly don't care about what goes on with the rest of the world till they are caught.
Funny wonder what Anthony Weiner is thinking,
"Frankly, most people couldn't care less what Hollywood actors or Big Media celebrities are doing to each other."
No? I actually think it is far easier for us on the whole to watch these dramas play out than to address what happens in our every day lives.
The hope is that it will filter down, that companies will no longer ignore or downplay accusations of sexual harassment. Of course it happens elsewhere but if a huge media star can be dislodged so can the manager of a restaurant or a supervisor in a corporation. When women are believed more lawsuits will be filed and then those companies will pay attention.
I worked for a company that ignored a woman's complaint. She filed a lawsuit. They still did nothing. She won the lawsuit and a large settlement because the company did not protect her. The perpetrator did not get fired -
union protection - but he did have to pay half and the HR director was fired and new procedures put into place. It didn't completely solve the problem but it no longer ignored it, either. It's a process and this is a huge first step.
These men are visible, and they are merely the tip of the iceberg. They do not represent a 'failure of the network news start system.' They represent patriarchy. Their victims are women who are more empowered than 90% of us. I've been on the receiving end of men's unwanted attention since my early teen years, from working as a cashier at a fast food restaurant--the restaurant industry is replete with sexism--an assistant at an ad agency, and a city school teacher.
So while, yes, networks may 'bear extra responsibility' for raising these men to super-human status, patriarchy bears *the* responsibility for raising all men to status superior to all females. It's the assumed belief, and practice, that women are inferior, that needs to end. Everywhere, in every job, in every corner of the planet, from the fields, where women and girls are raped by farm workers, to the schools, where girls are casually grabbed and groped by boys, to the board room, where women are mocked, demeaned and silenced by male co-workers. We are tired of this.
17
This isn't a media failure, this is a human failure. It's a failure of the mono-theistic male dominated/female denigrated culture of thousands of years. It's disingenuous to point out media organizations failure to reign in this behavior when it happens EVERYWHERE.
Perhaps we need to come to terms with what happens to humans when they have power (which includes naturally endowed features like height, good looks, talent). Women are not immune either, and we each have to recognize how power creeps up on us and how we're using it. We're often unconscious to the power we have.
6
Great and insightful piece. Star systems can create people who take advantage of their clout. I think it can bring out the best, and the worst, in people. Most of these guys would have likely behaved in the same way, but with far fewer women and with more discretion. I never worked at NBC, but I knew of Lauer's reputation. What I did not know is the extent to which he poisoned the Today Show. The show certainly had its ups and downs before Matt. But after he joined, I found him a real step down from Bryant Gumble. And I stopped watching it altogether. I never warmed to his pretty boy act and his clear desire to shine so brightly that his reporting lacked depth.
2
How can these people be relied upon to provide accurate news when they are unable to recognize the difference between right and wrong, and then hypocritically report on the alleged misconduct of others?
8
The very media and political darlings of the left like Lauer, Rose, Conyers, Franken, Clinton, and Keilor who made themselves out to be champions of women's rights and equality have proven themselves to be exactly the opposite. They are the sexual predators and power hungry deviants that they so often railed against whenever they appeared on a public stage. The question now is, do they get a pass? What about prosecution and punishment? Or will their crimes against women all be swept under the rug, which is what usually happens when Democrats, liberals and progressives are caught in the act.
4
Power corrupts. It's difficult to be human and not be corrupted by power.
We might want to ask ourselves what is it about each of us that gives our own personal power to celebrities? Why do we treat some people as being more special than we are? We are complicit in exalting and giving others too much power, and that includes allowing our government over the past few decades to enact policies that grow the divide between rich and poor, giving too few people too much power.
1
I'm afraid the sexual harassment now being exposed in the television industry may be just part of a larger web of corruption. Just as the lure of TV ad revenue deterred networks from accusing their star news hosts of wrongdoing, the lure of ad dollars may have played a role in the networks tipping the scales toward putting a controversial but popular entertainer in the White House.
Perhaps it's time for networks to go back to the days when News was News and Entertainment was Entertainment, minus the patriarchy, of course.
2
All of these people punished for allegations and yet no arrests? Most of them sound guilty, but how can we be sure without the legal process of prosecution and defense. I'm fairly sure that the allegations against Clarence Thormas, for example, were invented by the abortionist lobby because he had criticized Roe vs Wade, yet 25 years later he is still referred to as if he was guilty as charged -- sorry, as accused, because he never was charged.
1
The simple answer is the statute of limitations runs out and then there is no judicial recourse.
Years after the days of slavery came to an end on paper, somehow we still naively believe that America is an egalitarian country despite everything we see to the contrary. Myth is certainly a powerful tool and not just to evangelicals.
5
Garrison Keillor does not in any way deserve to be lumped in with the predatory behavior of the others pictured in your article. He fully explained the one time his altruistic behavior was, by accident, given to be a come-on. He apologized immediately and followed up in a written statement. This was accepted. Months later he heard from a lawyer.
That is not predatory in any way
4
The issue is not a “Network Star System”
It’s a star system in every field - look at finance, tech, sales of any kind.
When you’re doing a great job, people will look the other way.
4
When it comes to money, more often than not, people are willing to look the other way. In so many areas of life those with talent, money and power are never questioned about their faults, addictions or moral failures.
As a money worshiping society we've allowed these types of behaviours to continue for much too long. Money changes everything. Always has.
Lauer and these others were cash cows and employment security for the major networks and studios. Don't rock the boat has been the modus operandi. And these men knew it and abused others. Power freaks all.
1
Are any untoward acts committed on women by these powerful men all such that they should given the same punishment? "Harassment" and "assault" are different from each other, as is rape, which in my opinion is what occurred in Lauer's office on that woman. Should every one of these characters be publicly exposed, fired and their reputations ruined? Do we/should we treat a bank robber the same as a murderer?
I'm troubled by that and by the possibility that a person could also be wrongly accused.
5
If we think of animal behavior, specifically alpha male behavior in some species, it is common for alpha males to be sexually aggressive with females as a way to maintain their alpha status and to mark their territory. Maybe that is one way to explain, but NOT excuse, these media celebrities' actions, because humans, while still mammals, supposedly have higher intelligence and free will. So, when human males behave like animals they are surrendering their free will and giving in to primal mammalian urges, which makes their actions beneath those of animals that have no free will. This rampant bad behavior shows that men need to be constantly reminded of their free will-their ability to choose-and that it is not their thoughts and feelings-primal as they may be- that causes harm, it is their actions. Society as a whole, not just businesses and organizations, must do a better job of reigning in human tendencies that derive from our animal nature and keep in mind that what separates man from animals is self awareness, a moral conscience, and self control. We obviously need more education on this subject at all levels-K-12, colleges, and in the military, business and politics.
7
OK, these guys did very bad things. And apparently, repeatedly. It is very good that American society is taking women seriously, and the men are suffering consequences.
However, none of the men were using assault weapons, or other murderous weapons.
Let’s get the moral outrage revved up against those who have weapons that can kill, wound, change forever our lives.
Let us change our culture in a way that empowers the majority of us not crazy enough to buy, fetishize, carry and use guns.
Not for a minute to diminish the very real problem of sexual assault. But assault by a bullet is a pretty big problem also
1
Once again the public is left off the hook - our whole culture revels in celebrity worship and idolization, from media figures to athletes to actors to those who don't seem to do anything at all (Kardashians, anyone?). It's fine to like how a particular person delivers the news or how well a football player can throw the ball, but we fail by making the leap that they are somehow thus bestowed with something far more - they're wiser and more knowledgable than us mere mortals, no? An actor with barely a high school education is someone we should listen to on climate change or politics, for example, because, well, they have nice clothes and act moderately well. So what if a football player routinely engages in domestic violence when he's a "hero" for winning last week's big game? That politician is cool or hot (look at the inane fawning in some quarters over the Canadian PM) and thus their every pronouncement is worthy of becoming an internet meme. That funny comedian on late night must be who we turn to for news and to decide matters of national importance because, hey their snark is just great, no? None of the foregoing makes these people any better or smarter than the rest of us, but you couldn't tell from their salaries or adulation.
We admire a lot people for the wrong reasons, mostly superficial ones, nowadays. It's rather pathetic and it's getting worse.
5
Except for those who are particularly informed and effective interviewers (only Charlie Rose comes to mind--certainly not Matt Lauer), it seems that the value to the public of anchors resides in the ability to read the news. Obviously, the organizations that pay Lauer et al. have correctly determined that enough people are attracted by the personalities they observe on the tube (and hear on the radio) to justify paying the outsized salaries, and until recently, keeping the pigs employed.
1
The problem is that alpha-men like Lauer and Rose are precisely the kind of men that our society values most and that most people, including women, idolize. I do not see this changing. If you have ever been around one of these guys, any male celebrity, you would see the spectacle of women, all sorts of women, just throwing themselves at them. It's incredible. These alphas live in an entirely different level than most men.
2
Women only idolize extremely wealthy men because they have a lot of dough, which means survival if you're a pretty woman with no marketable skills.
It's just that simple -- the hierarchy of needs. You need a place to live and food to eat.
Boy, do I miss Walter Cronkite??
I will never forget that famous New Yorker cartoon.
It showed an executive back home ftom a long day.
He has a drink in his hand, tie slightly undone and feet propped up; he says to tv, "ok, Walter, lay it on me?"
Or something like that.
A total dependence on truthfulness and integrity of Mr. Cronkite.
And please do not tell me anything nasty about him even if it is true.
I still believe in Santa.
39
"“Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed,” Mr. Lauer wrote in a message issued by his public relations team." - NYT
I bet. This is called, in military parlance, a strategic retreat aimed at minimizing financial and criminal penalties. It wreaks of calculated insincerity. Yet, again, I always regarded Lauer as a phony. If his audience had consisted of people like me... he would have never had an audience.
I sized him up as a glib narcissist that had convinced himself that he was a "legend in his own mind". This undoubtedly fueled the license he felt he had to abuse others.
And, yes, Jim Rutenberg is right. The network was in on the take and benefited mightily from cultivating such a personality. It's ironic that this is why they let him go. Let no one be fooled. The decision was driven by finances... not morality.
Lauer was the guy who used a button at his desk to lock female victims in his office before he raped them and they passed out? And he wants to now quibble about "some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized"? Ted Bundy move over.
“There are no words to express my sorrow and regret for the pain I have caused others by words and actions."
Sure there are. "What portion of my assets can I liquidate and give you as partial restitution for the years I have stripped you of your sense of self worth?" and "Guilty as charged, your Honor."
1
I simply put don't believe any of these accusations. It seems more like powerful figures are being toppled by people able to make accusations for actions that happened in some cases decades earlier ... it isn't right. Your responsibility as an adult doesn't end just because something bad happens to you and if someone has truly acted inappropriately then your responsibility is to act RIGHT AWAY. When the actions are fresh and the memories are strong. Something tells me that many of these accusations over time will be revealed to be hallucinations of overly sensitive people who now get to define what is appropriate, which is truly evil. Simply put if you don't act when it happens, you shouldn't act. As a memory, talk to police officers, is not the rock-solid piece of evidence victim culture pretends it is. As those being accused of misconduct have to now rack their brains for actions taken years, if not decades, earlier. It's a witch-hunt that mindless liberal America should be ashamed of taking part in.
1
What is not said here is that these three men were kept on when actually their talent and competence were already much, much worse than other rising stars.
Charlie Rose should have been replaced by PBS long, long time ago. In one interview with the new chief of the Cherokee nation, a woman, Rose was not even aware they had a written language and almost seemed unaware of the Trail of Tears. And Rose is from NC?!!
What we need is younger talent and a big change in media boardrooms and top executive suites that are too much controlled by ensconced uber-males who perpetuate the careers of other uber-males. Of course, it isn't just in the media sector - practically everywhere you want to look.
Of course, the BBC has a lot to answer for as well.
1
Trump is proven right again. Fake news is being read by manufactured stars in a show where a fake group of friends are presented to laugh and/or commiserate with each other. The goal? Either to get viewers to buy the sponsor's products, or buy the political agenda pushed.
1
Millions of gullible viewers going after these so called media "celebrities" and the sly conspiratorial deeds of the giant media "outlets" trying to stack up competitive "ratings" around these personalities are at the root of this scandalous behavior.
In a society where a little more educated and articulate "talking head" can make 20 million dollars a year as against millions of people who can barely eke out a living from a pay cheque to pay cheque, such grossly unequal behavior is very much expected.
Us women of a certain age who worked outside the home all have stories like this.....so it is not just celebrities. In 1964 I worked at a fast food restaurant and was slapped on the bottom whenever passing the owner in those close quarters. I was 15. Many of my jobs included sexual harrassment. Outside of work I have been raped twice and intimidated by numerous men until I reached 55 and was no longer attractive in that way. It is just the way it has been for women...we just tried to avoid it. I am glad things might change for the sake of granddaughters.
72
How true! Such bad behavior becomes news when it is related to celebrities. I believe there are millions of women who had your unpleasant experiences.
Politics, media, entertainment. All are filled with people who can be easily replaced. The recent revelations involve men with no technical skills or special talent. Even as a kid, I would laugh when hearing that Walter Cronkite was "The most trusted man in America" because I knew that all he did was read news out loud.
When the guys who pick up my garbage get fired, then I will panic.
The question - "progressive commentators are questioning why television personalities, news executives and Hollywood heavyweights are losing their jobs while the politicians facing accusations — a list that also includes the Democrats Al Franken and John Conyers Jr. — remain gainfully employed" - is a good question.
But an even more important question: How and Why did 60 million Americans vote for a man who acknowledged sexually assaulting women sending him to the WH. He got the job even as mouthed these "accomplishments."
There is something wrong in our society when we fire selectively even as we simultaneously vote a lecherous guy into the top office in the country.
2
The scope of this article is too small. The stature of men around the world in almost all human cultures, is and has been one that entails absolute power over women and their children. Whether that power is exerted benignly or forcefully, it is always there. Men may be killed on battlefields throughout history but women's bodies and minds are battlefields. So, to impugn the captains of the news industry alone for creating/allowing these men to grow into figures of outsized and exceptional power and influence is a mistake. This is not a new phenomenon. It is, in large measure, the fruit of the long and deep history of male subjugation and power over women. If it were otherwise there would be no President Trump.
Journalists, necessary today, don't make policy or tax reform that could destroy millions of Americans. System recounted here interwoven in fabric of every American seam. So yeah, Andrew Lack, chairman of NBC News, is responsible, Congress not so much. Focus should laser beam on Trump and Moore and until that happens, all else is fluff.
1
Why wasn t anything done when this happened between Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira - Amazing.
http://www.tmz.com/2017/11/29/matt-lauer-katie-couric-keep-bending-over-...
I never suspected these guys because I do not think about public figures sex lives. By way of explaining the apparent disconnect of the events and reports remember that we have a lot of adults among us whom are underdeveloped and that may be the reason they were targeted and why they have trouble reporting. Working in a lucrative labor industry I found the "leadership" played on and used this lack of development to manipulate people that are usually called unsophisticated. This was mainly put to the purpose of controlling them & those whom were not so unsophisticated. Some of this kind of work place practice is playing out in the case of Uber.
To me Lauer was always the guy on the make whose real talent lay in making friends with the right people.
Keillor, I'm waiting for the report at the end of the investigation. He's not the totally good guy he plays when he goes on air or stage, yet that character he plays is not something entirely manufactured there is a lot of him in it.
Rose reputation baffles me. He was a quieter version of O'Reilly as far as I can tell. If his subject was not saying what he wanted he constantly interrupted and supplied his own answers to his own questions. It was very much like watching a Fox news production being done by one man speaking to a different audience. The sex thing is not so surprising its how late in his life that this came out that is surprising.
O'Reilly, No one is surprised by anything but how long he managed to get away with it.
Almost all of TV news (national and local) at this point is a TV show first, then a news organizations second. There are exceptions though. CBSN is a great example of putting news first, show second. Of course, they’re only afforded that ability since it’s a digital streaming network and not on broadcast or cable. But our country is centered so much around TV it’s important to not just let TV news die. How to fix TV news? First step: rotating anchors and journalists. Stop building shows around a star, and build the show around original reporting with a comprehensive look at the most important news of the day.
3
The enablers.
Time and time again as we are faced with misconduct situations, we see two types of enabler:
1) The perpetrator’s wife, who, as we have seen in cases involving Bill Clinton and Roy Moore, will often attack the characters of those lodging the complaints. The latter are presumed to have lied, to have sought financial gain or even to have led the husband on.
2)The Human Resources department, the existence of which gives the false impression that an employee is protected.
In far too many cases, such departments exist to help belittle the claims of those wronged and generally smooth things over to protect management.
We note, in Matt Lauer’s case, that even when a victim had to be taken to a nurse after his actions, the Human Resources department did nothing. I find such inaction staggering. Totally.
4
Please don't try to blame wives -- they're victims of their husbands' brutish behavior as well. Blame instead a warped system that almost always demands unthinking "stand by your man" loyalty from wives and partners. This too is a dynamic of patriarchy. Instead, celebrate the few (Elizabeth Edwards, for example), who had the courage to to call out both their unfaithful husbands AND the system of patriarchy that provided opportunity and protection for their behavior.
1
> Amy
“(Wives) are victims of their husbands' brutish behavior as well.”
For which we are all truly sorry but - by not speaking out - wives are allowing that behavior to continue. Although your point about Elizabeth Edwards is well taken, in the examples I have noted (and please add Melania Trump to the list), wives may have been victims but they have sought to thoroughly discredit the “other woman” and not their husbands. It thus makes it more difficult for the “other women” to come forward; knowing that their characters will be attacked.
Ultimately actions and reactions are committed by people and not systems. So a system maybe be warped but it’s only warped because people perpetuate it.
An insightful essay by Jim Ruttenberg. His conclusion is something that we should all take to heart:
"The networks bear extra responsibility because they did so much to make them into the larger-than-life — and, therefore, not-true-to-real-life — characters they became."
My education and upbringing forces me to look at the actual content of what the news media produces. That an individual is a TV anchor is unimportant, unless, of course, he or she has done the reporting and written the material. But as Jim writes here, presenters have become something apart, maybe beyond, the news that they report.
There is the famous Doonesbury cartoon where Zonker's plant advises him to go with his overwhelming feeling to trust Walter Cronkite. That's sets the tone for the way we perceive news media personalities today.
But taking advantage of one's position to garner unseemly relations with an employee is a product of the low moral fiber of an individual; there is a lack of compassion for how the other person feels. One uses the work environment as an opportunity to control a relation inordinately. Many of us were educated never to do that.
I have confidence that news media will find excellent personalities to convey the state of the world to their followers. But society has to come up with a way to instill respect and civility into the leaders that it produces.
4
I am reminded of the comments of a local news presenter when she left for greener pastures (in another field of work): "You have to understand: I read out loud to adults for a living."
1
A different type of transgression, but let's not forget what happened to Brian Williams.
1
Please: "to allow such sickening behavior to go unaddressed"
We have only allegations and media frenzy--no meat and potatoes yet, i.e., spurned love affairs or actual malfeasance.
Nice Sovietized narrative, though. Ad sales up--or just another "Ace in the Hole"?
Where are those Tail-gunner Joe hearings when you really need them?
Complete nonsense. What's good for media sensationalism is rarely good for the citizens. The misdirected, perhaps phony, outrage here is matched by the lack of attention to issues such as climate change, rampant gun violence, the pillaging of the poorer-than-millionaire class, the lack of access to affordable health care etc.
6
In Matt Lauer's case, the people I feel most sympathy for are his wife and children. No wonder his wife looks so sad in photos. Matt Lauer's worst assault has been on her dignity, and the dignity of their family. And what a terrible assault on his children's lives, all for the sake of gratifying his sexual impulses.
4
The biggest star of them all hasn't yet been felled by his own sexual harassment accusations, and I would like to see a true and full turnaround. When is Donald Trump going to be legally charged with his own sexual harassment scandals? When are his acolytes going to question Trump's ability to lead, his honesty, and his ethics? I'm waiting, but so far the media has been focused elsewhere. Why not shine the light on the Sexual Harasser in Chief?
20
I absolutely agree. Donald Trump needs to be held accountable for his actions. I wonder now many checks Trump is writing these days to silence the masses from coming forward. Or maybe he's just using his tried and true methods of intimidation, bullying and name calling. After all, that's how The Donald rolls.
1
The NYT leads with an photo of Garrison Keillor, Charlie Rose, and Bill O’Reilly to demonstrate how the networks failed in policing themselves. Yes, true. Almost.
In fact, the networks did police Fox News and O’Reilly, with stories about sexual harassment allegations against him for the last six or seven years. They failed to do so with the abusers on the liberal networks, even though their behavior was abundantly clear to network executives for years. It is exactly the double standard that has led most Americans to abandon the mainstream press, and exactly the reason that Trump’s message about the press resonates with so many people.
4
The media executives who refused to take seriously women's charges of sexual misconduct by their so-called stars should be fired as well. They aided and abetted such transgressions and their "outrage" at the gross behavior of these prominent figures, expressed in pro forma press releases, is simple hypocrisy.
53
Maybe these "stars" should not be paid such obscene amounts of money? Maybe then their egos could be in check just a bit? Maybe they would not feel so entitled and worthy of the hyperbolic praise they are showered with? Now they are writing their elegant contrition and wiping their tears with one hundred dollar bills as they cry all the way to the bank. Our culture of celebrity and worshipful devotion to extreme wealth has brought us sorrow and destruction. Just look at the monsters that now rule us.
103
We live in a world of mendacity where nothing is as it seems. Perverts pose as newscasters and entertainers, and our president openly lies in public. I realize that it has always been that way, and this is used as an excuse for its continuance. This is not "natural" human behavior, as the pristine mind of humans would opt for clear and accurate communication. They would have felt insulted and disrespected by anything less.
One day we will program the human mind in a computer, and this will enable us to finally understand how we think and what we have done to the natural thought process in our societies. Only then will truth become expected, if not demanded.
See:
RevolutionOfReason.com
TheRogueRevolutionist.com
1
Hopefully, the era of Too Big to Flail is ending.
5
The big losers are journalism and the concept of innocent until proven guilty. It is a very sad day, indeed, when respected publications turn to tabloid excess. It makes me question their overall credibility and professionalism within their won ranks. You have to wonder who is manipulating some of these exposes, too. That likely is a missing part of the story.
4
In reply to SchnauzerMom
Good point! Who indeed is manipulating these revelations? Is it the Democrats or Republicans? The Republicans, I would say, since they have most to gain when liberal news stars self-destruct.
1
The one I'll miss is Charlie Rose's PBS interview show. With most newscasters, it seems like they just have a talent for looking good and reading a script smoothly. Charlie Rose was a knowledgeable interviewer on a wide range of subjects.
2
Powerful and rich men in every industry (not only in media, politics, and entertainment,) commit sexual harassment. In fact, the acts are universal, and know no boundaries of occupations, race, religions, nations,and cultures. This is not an excuse, or no reason to make it acceptable, but societal, cultural, and legal constraints provide mostly rich and powerful men opportunities to harass women. When poor do it, we call it a crime and put them in jail.
The root cause of the problem is men and women are made differently, and the societal constraints in life are not compatible to account for the asymmetry, And, obviously that does not make it right, in any sense, for men to subjugate women. However, only making examples of the men of upper echelon is good but not sufficient to affect a long term change.
How do we collectively change to make the world just and fair is an old age question, and there are no easy, even plausible, answers. So, let's us not lose sense of proportion, common sense, and lessons of history.
2
Time to get rid of Conyers and Franken.....and then Trump.
4
I worked in both large and small universities. For the past 15 years, every one of them required that everybody complete live or online harassment training and pass a knowledge test at the end. They also now include training for every freshman student.
This is an excellent step in the right direction. All workers know what behaviors cross the line, which ones can be reported, and that disciplinary action including lawsuits can occur for misconduct. And we all know how to make a report of abuse.
Why isn't this a requirement for EVERY workplace including politics? At least make it clear what is and is not harassment. You need to know what road signs mean when you drive a car. Why can't we all learn what the road signs are for harassment and hold people accountable for small and large violations?
15
No big puzzle as to why news organizations depend upon stars -- the news has long been just another form of entertainment, put out there in order to attract an audience that can be delivered to advertisers. The audience is complicit too: if news organizations relied upon teams of bona fide experts to report world events, nobody would watch or read what they produced...
18
Many go into info-tainment and news shows after they fail at becoming actors.
The money is amazing and alluring too.
1
I work in a hospital of a large University. Each year we are required to complete learning modules about various issues and sexual harassment and discrimination are always there. Hospitals have always been centers for misogynistic behavior. Doctors abusing nurses is an old theme and it was addressed many years ago by every hospital I have worked in. There is little difference between what happens in the hospital and what is happening in the media except for the early awareness the media lacked.
I have questioned my adult children that work for large companies asking about what they are told about inappropriate behavior in the workplace. My 33yo son who works for a multi national company said nothing was addressed but he knows better(quote end quote). My 31 yo daughter who became a manager earlier this year only was given education at that time. Why not when she started her job and every year there after.
We need to teach our children what is appropriate and I think that is going to happen. They can’t watch these high powered men loose it all and not learn something. Shame on those men but our culture allowed it. Thank goodness that culture is coming to an end.
31
To anybody who believes in the educability or possibility of improvement of humans in general, I have a bridge you might be interested in buying. This is an old story, and it will be repeated ad infinitum as long as we as a species exist.
1
As long as it is allowed to continue.
So what about the women who sat next to Lauer and these other men..knew of their bad behavior and said nothing. They are just as complicit. I don't believe for a minute the "that's not the guy I know" excuse. It's exactly the guy they know They profess to be journalists but they don't see what's going on right in front of them? Not buying it. Hoda, Savannah..and all the rest are equally guilty and they should go too - for remaining silent.
86
Why do so many assume these women did or said nothing? Maybe they were kicking and screaming all along, but their voices were silenced. Maybe they moved on, or out of the industry because they got choked down so often. Maybe they respected another womans' choice of whether or not to voice her story. Maybe they kept their head down so they could continue to feed their family. Maybe they did their best to warn other women.
And yes, maybe a few were complicit, just like the men who said nothing, did nothing, or even supported the violaters.
Blaming a victim changes nothing, blaming the people who exercise the power in these situations can bring about change.
2
Why blame them? This is why women don't report assault--no matter what the outcome, plenty of people will say it is their fault. There is no evidence Savannah or Hoda knew of Matt L's behavior. An accomplished predator would have been on very good behavior around his work partners/equals. These men are supremely crafty. I've known a few. For every person who says "I knew it!" there are a dozen who had no idea there was anything wrong.
1
In that case, I suppose we should fire all working adults?
Because let's be honest: we almost ALL (women and men alike) know someone who's not behaving correctly towards underlings, and as so many have already explained, you stay silent not because you agree with what is happening, but because if you don't you loose your job.
Fact is, this is NOT a problem of a couple of individuals behaving badly. It's not comparable to someone stealing apples and bystanders who pretend to not have seen anything.
It's a SYSTEMIC problem, caused by our culture as such, where women are still not being treated equally, professionally, and where "real men" are supposed to have a "brutal, monstrous nature", as one NYT op-ed (written by a male, of course ... ) recently wrote.
Solving this problem will only be possible if we ALL recognize that WE have to change, as a culture. We have to learn to define men and women differently, so that boys can grow up respecting who they are and as a consequence who women are, rather than having to follow role models where brutality is being seen as proof of "manhood".
So how do WE, as women, treat the men in our lives (colleagues, friends, sons, ... )? Do we contribute to cultivating this man-monster myth, or do we accept to update our conceptions and take recent scientific research into account, that shows that even in the animal world sex is so much more interesting and rich than males being brutal ... ?
1
The entire mass media appears to be catering to the public frenzy regarding allegations of sexual harassment. These allegations range from Garrison Keillor's 'hand on the bare back' to Roy Moore's dating minors (alleged sexual activity). In between we find all others, including Trump.
USA is labeling all of these acts as horrid requiring the same punishment. There is no consideration as to social norms of the day and motivations from both parties.
Over-reaction is never helpful in any situation because it leads only to witch hunting. No good will come from the current approach towards resolving this problem. Corporations cannot afford to lose top performers of any sort, and given the ratio of men to women in executive levels (typically promoted by men), one must now wonder how many women will be promoted in the future? Corporations will examine the 'risk-benefit' of female promotion; today the risk far out weighs any benefit.
13
They can easily afford to lose those who may be involved in lengthy and expensive sexual harassment or assault law suits in the future.
Bottom line is money. And they lose it from advertisers and consumers when the star is a bad person who does evil things.
2
We don't really have to go so far as burning witches to death at the stake, public castrations will probably suffice. Last thing we want to do is release any more unnecessary CO2 by burning.
2
We were given a disturbing glimpse into this troubling world of unchecked male power in Matt Lauer's now-infamous interrogation of Hillary Clinton in last year's so-called "national security debate", stage managed by NBC News.
In an unbridled display of pure male aggression, Lauer began the "debate" with 20 minutes of bullying, hectoring and repetitive questions to Clinton regarding her use of her private email server, even though the debate topic was international relations and national security. He constantly interrupted her, criticizing and talking over her attempts to answer his questions.
To compound this error, Lauer then followed up his Hillary Inquisition with 20 minutes of softball questions to his fellow Alpha Male, Donald Trump, allowing Trump to speak without interruption or critical comment.
What we are now seeing is a much-needed generational change in attitudes toward male power and behavior. It can't come quickly enough.
251
It's heartening when men speak up like this. I'm glad it's not women vs. men, but decent people vs. abusive ones.
See the story about how many of these men were obsessed with Clinton's emails. https://www.salon.com/2017/11/29/matt-lauer-and-the-emails-how-accused-h... Charlie Rose really badgered Hillary about this as well in a way I can't imagine he would have done with Colin Powell. Powerful men seem often to be very threatened by the idea of a powerful woman.
1
Oh, yeah, Lauer forced HRC NOT to campaign in Wisconsin and Michigan, and lose. And pigs fly, too. What an unmitigated load of horse apples.
As to Mr. Rutenberg's thesis -- who's O'Reilly? Who's Charlie Rose? Already, they are quickly fading into the distance of history. Not on TV regularly, immediately, no one thinks about them. The great Paddy Chayefsky explained it best, in his film classic "Network" --
Howard Beale: Why me?
Arthur Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.
It's easy to go after the guys in the media but until voters start caring how politicians act (are you listening Alabama?) and shareholders and corporate boards start policing behavior within corporate America this isn't going to stop. It's still all about the bottom line and my brand of politics.
75
Yes... and when a flaw is so prevalent in society it can sometimes be easily turned aside with a Trump-like perspective of "and your point would be?", i.e. "so what?" This is but one horrific flaw of many horrific flaws in our President, and his response is "so?" I was truly horrified that the Press Secretary, when asked about his new statements about the Access Hollywood video, replied that the people answered those questions when they stepped into the voting booth and apparently, that this makes him above reproach. Please. Will someone ask them to repeal the Electoral College system before the next election.
2
A cult of personality arises when a regime uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods such as government-organized demonstrations to create an idealized, heroic, and at times worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. A cult of personality is similar to divinization, except that it is established by mass media and propaganda usually by the state,
6
Two observations:
how powerful is the visual media in USA life, enough to persuade an unsuspecting public that media figures are not just another ordinary set of neighbors down the block, and
is it also probable that many female personalities in the media are no different than their male counterparts?
2
'' For their networks, these stars, whose talent for storytelling was matched by their ability to charm audiences...'' ~ I am sure there were many ''writers'' behind the scenes that have not gotten the credit they deserved, and putting their own ''personal'' stamp on the ''news'' has gotten tiresome.
Treat news departments and the true journalists that make them up with more respect and resources they deserve. Take away the personal slants ( political or otherwise ) and start educating the public with the stories that need to be told.
The dumbing down of America with these talking heads continue. They, in turn, will continue to abuse their artificially created power.
56
I will be happy when this examination extends to the corner shop, grocery store, business office and local pipe factory. Until then, the impact of these high profile horn dogs will be negligible, for most women.
45
Keillor alongside O'Reilly? Based on what I heard this morning on NPR, I'd like to go on record as stating that this hysteria has gone too far when what Keillor did is used for this level of persecution. In no way does it rise to the level of O'Reilly, Weinstein, or even the juvenile high jinks of Franken. Something's wrong here.
55
Agreed - but I am not sure we have the complete picture. There is always more to a story than what we know or what is made known to us . . .
We don't know what happened with Garrison Keillor. We only know what he says, which is not at all the same thing.
1
As one who has followed the "local" reporting on Keillor, I would say that his situation has been blown out of proportion. Interviews with other staff members and the lack of any other information coming from MPR indicates that this is an isolated incident. Also, he was not "fired from MPR", as all of his enterprises are under his control. MPR (and, by inference, NPR) cut ties with his businesses. Apparently, this will go to court, since lawyers are being used by MPR and the accuser (and, I presume, by Mr. Keillor). Given the probability of litigation, both sides have restricted their comments. But that said, there needs to be some logic between the level of sexual harassment/assault and the ultimate penalty. Based on the stories about Lauer and Rose, there is no comparison to Keillor and there should be no comparison in the penalties.
How ironic that these news programs were selling "integrity" but were morally corrupt.
Time to let women step up and play. Who knows, they may actually live up to the "integrity" these shows are selling.
17
You just know there are so many more predators out there, so many more to fall. But we'll find out about only the famous ones, not the run-of-the-mill contractors, managers, CEOs, etc.
36
Jim Rutenberg, “also noted the different responses to the cascade of accusations, comparing how figures in the news media and Hollywood have lost their jobs while politicians remain employed.”
That is an assumption that everyone is guilty. Why the the news media presume guilt? Why is it, especially with these rash of sexual harassment claims, that the accused are automatically assumed guilty? Do you really believe it is not a possibility that some of these people just have a willingness to jump on the bandwagon to gain some attention and/or a cash settlement? Does everyone really believe that after 5,10,20,30 years that they suddenly found the “courage” to come forward?
I don’t believe that everyone is lying. I take sexual harassment and assault very seriously, but also seriously enough to question whether or not every accusation is true.
8
"And NBC and CBS, like Fox News before them, now face questions about where their managerial systems broke down — as they inarguably did — to allow such sickening behavior to go unaddressed in ways that allowed the offenses to repeat themselves over years."
You mention CBS in connection to Charlie Rose, but the accusations happened at his production company that produced his show that aired on PBS and Bloomberg and was produced on the premises of Bloomberg Television. How is CBS Management responsible for what happens at Bloomberg or PBS or in a private production company?
6
Women at CBS have come forward since the initial allegations.
An old insane, failed, reality TV show host who decided to leave the entertainment industry for politics should face an even harsher penalty.
The sad news is tha politicians must for the most part self resign since there is no moral code of conduct assigned to them by their institutions other than an adherence to the letter (but not the intent) of the US Constitution.
31
More than $20 million dollars a year. Lauer and O'Reilly.
Think about that for a minute. More than a million dollars a month, every month.. More than most of us will make in our lifetimes, every month.
Oh, wait. We can't afford that new high end sports car? Just wait til next month when the next million plus rolls in - I know honey - it's hard. Be patient.
How can we expect human beings to luxuriate in this largess and somehow not feel special, different from the rest of us, entitled to certain freedoms we lessor individuals are not.
No one "earns" that much money. Matt Lauer did not work "harder" than a construction worker toting cement blocks all day, or a waitress on her second job, on her feet, to pay the rent and try to save the tuition for college for her oldest - without the help of his dad. "Harder" doesn't cut it.
More valued, obviously. So is a professional athlete who contributes nothing to society, and rakes in millions. A great many Americans do not watch any sports, these people are worth nothing to us.
And so much are they valued that they think they can get away with anything. The rules don't apply, only little people pay taxes. Let them eat cake.
This has to stop. Society cannot afford it. That there is even the term - the working poor - is an abomination. These men must be brought down to ground level, where the rest of us live and play by the rules.
208
You are spot on. The absurdities you cite are shameful and, to a great extent, we are to blame. We are complicit with the GOP congress about to reward millionaires and billionaires with huge tax breaks.
3
Nancy, you misunderstand the skills of these men: reading a teleprompter is really, Really, REALLY hard. ;^)
1
These men must be brought down to ground level, where the rest of us live and play by the rules.
Yes but I hope it does not come too quickly. I want each and every one to get their due time in the spotlight of shame. And I love the thought of the ones out there right now waiting for the ball to drop knowing full well it is coming.
Sweat.
4
The article states:
"For the news business, this is the way it has to be: Its main product, after all, is integrity, which, in the case of the networks, is personified by those who sit behind the desk."
At one time, perhaps, the main product was integrity. But the days of Walter Cronkite are long gone. Now, the news media worships the God of Ratings. And women are the sacrifices at the altar.
14
This harassment issue has overshadowed the pillaging of the American middle class via the Republican tax bill. Of course the NYT is covering both issues, but there needs to be some sense of proportion. These celebrities cited for inappropriate behavior are still sheltered by their wealth, while most of us will see an economic crunch for years to come.
42
Now that we know how out of control Matt Lauer apparently was, it defies credulity that the women at the top like Savannah Guthrie and Megyn Kelly were not aware of Matt Lauer's behavior. Why did they choose to ignore the rumors? Why did they do nothing??? Perhaps they need to fess up as well about the conspiracy of silence. There may be plenty of blame to go around.
30
Sexual misconduct/abuse is not a new problem but probably dates back as long as there has been power. Of course it is horrible, yet why is this hitting the news cycles like an atomic bomb at exactly the same time as most Americans are to be hit with the most damaging so called tax bill in over the last century?
I don't believe in coincidences.
13
This is not the failure of the Network News Star System. This behavior is systemic in our culture and particularly endemic in certain environments that thrive on this kind of 'masculinity.' The practice of treating women badly is in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Corporate America. It is in the professions of photography, medicine, higher education, and sports. It is in the theatre world, in dance, in the worlds of music and fine art. It is in politics and Yes, in the Media and Network News.
But it is only now coming into the harsh light of day because of the prominence of the men who stand accused. One need look no further than Bill Cosby to understand how easy it is to craft a public image that deftly, cleverly and disturbingly allows surreptitious behavior to be accepted for so long, and for so many people to be hurt by it.
We are a country enamored of luminaries of every type, whether it is athletes, actors, comics, directors or politicians. It matters not the bailiwick. What matters is what we have come to accept as 'normal' and 'acceptable.' And what we have told women they have to put up with in order to work and take home a paycheck.
The 'extra' responsibility the networks bear is in being in thrall to their money-making stars, and in not telling these men that women are not their pleasure toys.
90
"The notion of anchor as authority — a stubbornly male prototype that goes back to the pre-feminist days of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite — was flawed to begin with."
This seems to be the main thesis of this op-ed. Unfortunately, it doesn't come up with any argument to show why it would be true, and just summarizes what we already know.
Maybe that's because it isn't true in the first place?
Nobody can simultaneously engage in a busy job, AND read all the news out there, AND know how to interpret it. So especially in democracies and with 24/7 news cycles, we absolutely need news "anchors".
And of course, those can be male or female, the concept "anchor" doesn't have any sexual identity attached to it.
That today most of them are male has nothing to do with the media in particular, but merely reflects a patriarchal society/culture. And until now, in no matter what professional field, the male bosses had decided that no sexual harassment does NOT make part of the characteristics you need to have in order to get the job (no matter what job), even not a job where moral integrity is indeed crucial, as it is when it comes to news anchors.
As long as op-ed writers and public opinion makers aren't prepared to start questioning our culture in general (especially when it comes to what it means to be a "real" man), nothing will ever change - we'll just have lost precious anchors such as Rose.
As to O'Reilly: he never had any moral integrity in the first place ...
4
Although it’s certainly true that media (not just broadcasting) have their high-visibility, high-salaried superstars, with too much power, there are plenty of powerful, too-highly-paid superstars behind the scenes. These editors, producers and executives make most of the decisions which shape our media environment, including content and personalities assignments. The public rarely sees them, and hardly knows they exist. These backstage people have just as frequently been perpetrators of the male-power flaws we are seeing emerge among more visible personalities.
25
Melanie - I don't think this is just an issue with media types or "guys in corp america making millions", unfortunately. But, the good news is the attention this is getting should have a positive impact.
6
It's nice that this issue has come to the forefront, but this is the media. How many of these guys are in corporate America making millions like Donald Trump? What recourse do the rest of us have?
76
Melanie:
You raise such a good question. What recourse do you have?
One thing about this that struck a chord with me is that the woman in question went to HR with a lawyer in tow. It remains to be seen if she keeps her job and/or what happens to her career going forward.
However, no matter what the personal cost, all of us women must give serious consideration to blowing the whistle on this sort of overt abuse. We can begin by forcefully saying no to all of the micro aggressions and inappropriate comments and invitations. We can have strong confident voices and personas in the workplace, even if inside we feel meek as a mouse. We can ask men to be our allies in this fight.
This fight is not fair, but unless we fight it, it will never change. Perhaps you are not in a position to do so, but enough of your sisters in the workplace stand up for you, maybe there will be change. It occurred to me this morning that every man in a position of authority is going to be rethinking their words in the workplace and that is a good thing.
11
My experience (33 years) is that you have very little recourse if you expect that the perpetrators will be admonished or removed and that there will be no blowback on he women and yes, it's overwhelmingly women. HR works for the company and serves as a main player in the kabuki theatre of corporate interworkings, acting as the individual who appears to care about concerns of employees. In reality, their job is to minimize liability to the company and keep their own jobs in the face of displeasure from their own higher-ups who just want the immediate problems to go away. The company will go through the obligatory harassment "training;" snickers, jokes, false equivalence and disingeuous bleats from "the boys" about "what CAN we say?!" will ensue until the next episode. As my favorite boss (the first female general manager of a network owned television station in a top ten market used to say, "it's pretty simple. You don't fish off the Company dock. And you KNOW when you're fishing."
2
Mel, you must be joking. At HP, a CEO was fired in days, for what Conyers has been accused of, for years.
Recourse that, Mel. Really. Now.
1