There seems to be no particularly vigorous denial out there that Les Moonves of CBS didn't do all or most of the abusive things he's been accused of doing. He's admitted it — perhaps not as explicitly as some might like but you have to figure he has lawyers advising him on how not to make things any worse for himself than they already are. The controversy now seems to be about what should happen to the guy.
CBS Corporate is engaging experts and more lawyers to determine the scope of his wrongdoing. It probably extends beyond the actions laid out in the Ronan Farrow article but how far? That may lead to the answer to the bigger question of What now? When a Louis C.K. or Jeffrey Tambor is disappeared, it impacts one show or one company or one small cranny of show business. Moonves was one of the most powerful people in television. Having given Moonves all that power, CBS has a duty to police the improper ways he abused it but they also have a duty not to nuke their own company and in the process hurt others.
What should they do? Beats the heck outta me.
This is not a perfect analogy but it's worth bringing up: Some years ago, I had a wonderful physician. He was a lovely man and he was as good a doctor as you could ever find: Kind, compassionate, intuitive and very, very good at his job. He was the kind of doctor who could look at you and know what was wrong before you even listed your symptoms.
One day, he did something very, very wrong. It wasn't the same thing of which Moonves stands accused but it was in the ballpark. In my physician's case, it was inexplicable and I mean by him. It was like demons had taken possession of his brain for two minutes and only two minutes…and it was not part of a pattern of misbehavior. Perhaps it could have become that but it was a one-time incident…which was still one time too many for the Medical Board. He lost his license to practice medicine and I lost the best doctor I ever had. A lot of his patients felt that way and while we turned out in support of this man, our pleas were denied. From the standpoint of the Board, he had to go — period, end of discussion. Even his victim felt the punishment was too severe.
I kept discussing it, if only with myself. It seemed wrong to throw all that medical expertise and wisdom away. I asked his successor why there wasn't some way the ousted medico could continue to advise or perhaps practice under controlled supervision. "Unfortunately," my new doctor replied, "It doesn't work like that. It should but it doesn't."
What Mr. Moonves did must be stopped…and I wonder to what extent it has been. The sheer existence of the MeToo movement and the public shaming and penalties have doubtlessly made some powerful men think, "I'd better knock off that shit." Even the vilest, most immoral boor can clean up his act if he's afraid of getting caught. I'm not suggesting they all will or have but some of them have to have stopped for fear of winding up like Harvey Weinstein.
This week, somebody must have stopped because he thought, "If Les Moonves can get caught, so can I." Too bad there's no way to measure how many have but it'll be interesting to see how many men (or even women) of power are henceforth caught harassing less-powerful employees in 2018. I'd like to think there will be none but then this also occurs to me: The punishment for the misdeeds of Moonves may turn out to be him taking his zillions of dollars and living the rest of his life in one of his many homes doing all the same things except not running a TV network. CBS and its stockholders may suffer more.
I'm not leading up here to any recommendation because I don't have one. But I thought there was a more constructive way to punish my former doctor than what they did and I can't help but think there's a better procedure to spank the Les Moonveses of the world than to give them golden parachutes and early retirement.