It’s been roughly two months since CBS announced its investigation of the charges against now-former CEO Les Moonves and some of his colleagues. If you think it’s been too long since we heard how the investigation is going, you aren’t alone. So does The New York Times, which started the whole ball rolling.
So, c’mon NYT, level with us. What’s up?
CBS Inquiry Into What Went Wrong in Les Moonves Era Hits Snags as It Advances
The #MeToo movement may have affected the CBS Corporation more than any other mass media company over the past year. After The New Yorker and The Washington Post published articles detailing accusations against high-ranking men at the network, CBS parted ways with Leslie Moonves, its chief executive; Jeff Fager, the longtime executive producer of “60 Minutes”; and Charlie Rose, one of its best known anchors.
On Aug. 1 — nearly nine months after the network fired Mr. Rose and five days after The New Yorker published its first exposé about Mr. Moonves and the network’s news division — the CBS Corporation board announcedthat it had hired two law firms, Covington & Burling and Debevoise & Plimpton, to conduct a companywide investigation. In addition to examining allegations involving Mr. Moonves and CBS News, the inquiry would also explore “cultural issues at all levels of CBS.”
Since then, investigators have spoken with more than 250 people with pertinent information and have scheduled interviews with others, a CBS spokesman said in a statement to The New York Times.
Here is a look at how the investigation is proceeding.
Opinions of the inquiry vary among women inside and outside CBS
Paula Reid, a CBS News correspondent who met with investigators last month, praised the inquiry in a Twitter post. “The attorneys I met with (all women) were professional, compassionate & thorough,” Ms. Reid wrote. “I encourage others at @CBSNews to speak w/ them.” Other current and former CBS staff members, who spoke with The Times on the condition of anonymity, described the investigators in equally positive terms.
The scope of the lawyers’ work has not been limited to current and former CBS employees. Three of Mr. Moonves’s accusers who have been interviewed by investigators were not employed by the network, according to their lawyer, Gloria Allred….