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Les Moonves: #HeToo — 11 Comments

  1. There are varieties of “no”. “Oh, sir….” in a falsetto is one thing. “NO, you butthead!” Transgressing boundaries, possibly in trying to find them, can get a No of one degree or another.
    You have to be a certain kind of jerk to think that a hard NO! in a certain type of situation doesn’t have applicability when a different woman is in that situation.

    OTOH, when I was, half a century back, loosely affiliated with the Dean of Students office, I was presumed to know stuff and people should talk to me to find it out. “What do I have to do to get him to make a move?” was a question I heard from one woman or another maybe half a dozen times.

    Somebody said ambiguity made dating fun. But when you have a power differential, you should be very, very careful.

  2. Your commentary about the difficulty of knowing who is telling the truth in these situations is spot on. Very. difficult. Period.

    As you state, there are different reactions by different people to various degrees of “sexual assault.” Some women are mortified by being called “Honey” or “Hon” or “Sweetie.” Others don’t bat an eye lash at such terms. Some women are mortified by a man suddenly trying to kiss them uninvited. Others will just tell the kisser to keep his lips off her and mark him down as a dirty old man. They don’t think it’s a big deal.

    That people are losing their jobs and livelihoods over such things, which amount to a “he said, she said” uncertain state of affairs is cause for concern. A person’s ability to support him/herself is a serious matter.

    What to do about this state of affairs? I confess to have no good ideas. Maybe a campaign to establish ground rules for what is acceptable Surely, at a minimum, men and women should be able to say; “no, stop, or don’t do that again;” with some assurance that their wishes will be honored.

  3. You have covered all the bases on this subject. It is easy to believe the women are being truthful or at least to some degree. It is also easy to believe the men are guilty of taking advantage of females due to their staus as Mr. Bigshot. But we don’t really know.

    I am tried of this subject, but then I really am a gentlemen where my demeanor towards women is concerned. I never engaged in ‘locker room talk’. Thanks mom and dad.

  4. Back when Letterman was sorta funny he used to make lots of jokes about Les…brave Dave sticking it to the boss or something. But you never saw the CBS honcho anywhere near the camera.

    And maybe it’s just me…but I tend to believe every one of these sorts of accusations out of Hollywood & DC…Same people different make-up. Power corrupts you know.

  5. J.J.:

    In the case of Moonves (and many others, although not all), it’s not just that he made some unwanted passes at women. Some of the passes are alleged to have been more than kisses, and border on mild assault (although he always backed off ultimately). But even worse, IMHO, are the allegations that he threatened to fire people or harm their careers if they told on him, or retaliated after they fended him off.

  6. The whole situation (#MeToo, sexual harassment, he-said/she-said, corporate CYA) is completely unstable. Never mind the inventory of past predation or indiscretion. Never mind the insuperable priority of current management to clean this crap up and “move on.” Never mind the inherent weakness of the evidence, often from decades ago and little more than unsupported swearing to what one might remember about whatever one might remember of something that might have happened.

    The instability is the metaphorical equivalent of using a lit match to find the exit from a powder magazine.

  7. Too many have been exposed as long time predatory abusers at CBS for Moonves to have long promoted a “culture of respect and opportunity”. The fish rots from the head down.

  8. This subject is sort of worn out for me. Also: I’ve never been a big fan of Ronan Farrow. Back to the Hollywood casting couch — that’s almost always been how young actresses got parts. Not a very pretty business when closely examined.

  9. Moonves was doing what many in power are tempted to do. Those who succumb to using their power to exploit others are scumbags of the worst sort. Moonves may well be a scumbag of the worst kind. I don’t know. That said, how do we propose to stop such behavior? With a Spanish inquisition sort of campaign accusing and punishing all accused transgressors, both the innocent and the truly wicked? So many of these expose’s come from years past (often many years past ) with rumor, innuendo, hearsay (everyone knew!), and long delayed reporting as evidence. How do we separate the wheat from the chaff? Can we put people in a court under oath as happened with Bill Cosby? Or will the accused be tried in the court of public opinion and punished by loss of job? Where are the standards? Where is the justice? Most of what is happening today resembles mob justice. Sad.

  10. People may have wondered why I was so hostile to Hollywood starting from 2007, although for various reasons I wasn’t reckless enough to show it in the open except whenever people would talk about watching movies in the US.

    Now you don’t have to wonder. Some of us already knew about this through our own powers and methods. Meanwhile, the rest of humanity merely has to wait until the media tells them what is going on, THEN THEY BELIEVE. Not before.

  11. Back to the Hollywood casting couch — that’s almost always been how young actresses got parts.

    Wait until the media tells you about child eating cannibalism and pedos. Then you might start getting worried, but not until then.

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