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60 Minutes corespondent Scott Pelley says he was let go as host of the CBS Evening News because he spoke up to his bosses about the “hostile” workplace within the network’s news division. In an interview with CNN’s Brian Stelter on Sunday’s Reliable Sources, Pelley explains, “We’ve been through a dark period of the last several years of incompetent management and sort of a hostile work environment within the news division. I lost my job at the evening news because I wouldn’t stop complaining to management about the hostile work environment.” Pelley — who served as anchor of the CBS...

No generous severance package for former CBS Corp. chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves. The CBS board of directors announced Monday that it has completed its investigation into the myriad allegations of sexual misconduct against its former chief and has decided there are grounds to “terminate for cause.” The most recent hit against the embattled executive came last month in the New York Times, which quoted a former actress named Bobbie Phillips who alleged that Moonves forced himself on her in 1995, when he ran Warner Bros. Television. The story came almost three months after a bombshell report in The New...

CBS on Friday pledged to give $20 million to 18 organizations dedicated to eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace as the network tries to recover from a scandal that led to the ouster of its top executive, Les Moonves. The announcement comes as the network’s crisis deepens, with details emerging from an ongoing investigation into Moonves’ conduct and news surfacing of other instances of sexual misconduct at CBS. In the latest revelation, CBS acknowledged that it reached a $9.5 million confidential settlement last year with actress Eliza Dushku, who said she was written off the show “Bull” in March 2017...

Time's Up Legal Defense Fund and Time's Up Entertainment are among the 18 recipients of a $20 million donation from CBS Corporation, an amount determined when Leslie Moonves was pushed out as CEO over sexual misconduct allegations, according to a press release issued Friday. The money was earmarked for groups focused on "eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace." The funds will be distributed within 60 days of execution of the agreement, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. The amount each group will receive was based on their proposal and "capacity to absorb funds relative to their annual budgets."...

CBS has hired the consulting firm Rally to help disperse $20 million to groups dedicated to supporting #MeToo and promoting workplace safety and equality for women. The announcement comes less than a month after the company parted ways with longtime CEO Les Moonves after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. CBS expects to announce the recipients of the funds by Dec. 14. …

Is Julie Chen on the verge of being evicted from her own daytime talk show? The Talk co-host was once again M.I.A. during Monday’s broadcast, extending her leave of absence in the wake of Les Moonves’ firing into Week 2. Chen’s continued absence was not addressed by her fellow Talk panelists and guest host Carnie Wilson, who instead discussed Carrie Underwood’s tearful CBS Sunday Morning interview and Mike Seidel’s dramatic hurricane coverage for The Weather Channel at the top of the Monday’s show.

ane Fonda believes the downfall of Leslie Moonves won’t be the last we’ll see among powerful entertainment industry executives. “It’s a shame he didn’t behave, [but now] it’s come back to get him,” Fonda said at Thursday night’s Los Angeles premiere of the HBO documentary “Jane Fonda in Five Acts” at the Armand Hammer Museum. Moonves departed on Sunday amid a cascade of sexual assault and misconduct allegations. “This has been happening for a long time and it’s been an epidemic of behavior like this on the part of people who have power,” Fonda said. “I think the #MeToo movement...

After taking a hiatus from her post on The Talk Julie Chen returned to CBS to host Big Brother, but chose not to address the latest allegations of sexual misconduct against husband Leslie Moonves for most of the show. That was all until the very end of the episode where she seemed to show support for her husband, by signing off on the show with: "I'm Julie Chen Moonves. Goodnight." It was off script from her usual sign off and the first time she has used the last name Moonves on the show. The morning after her husband Leslie Moonves...

Julie Chen did not appear on Monday’s Season 9 premiere of “The Talk” on CBS the day after her husband, Leslie Moonves, was ousted as CEO-chairman of CBS Corp. “I am taking a few days off from ‘The Talk’ to be with my family. I will be back soon and will see you Thursday night on ‘Big Brother’,” Chen said in a statement. Host Sharon Osbourne kicked off the show saying, “It’s a very bittersweet day for a Season 9. We’re about to talk about something that affects everyone’s lives at CBS. I’ve never been nervous in my life, and...

Bowing to pressure brought on by a sexual harassment scandal, CBS Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves is expected to resign late Sunday, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly. His resignation would mark a stunning fall from grace for one of Hollywood’s most revered entertainment executives. Negotiations over the terms of his departure accelerated following a new report Sunday in the New Yorker magazine, which detailed six women’s allegations of sexual misconduct involving Moonves in the 1980s and 1990s. Now a total of 12 women have alleged that Moonves made...

The CBS CEO, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, is accused of unwanted kissing and touching in a New Yorker article set to be published Friday. The New Yorker is poised to publish an article by Ronan Farrow that includes allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of embattled CBS chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. A spokesperson for The New Yorker says, “We don't comment on pieces we haven't published." Sources with knowledge of the article say it delves into the broader culture at CBS and will publish later today on the magazine’s...

CBS chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves is accused of sexual misconduct by six women in a New Yorker exposé published Friday, the latest high-profile media figure at the center of allegations of misconduct as a result of the "Me Too" movement. Six women who previously worked with Moonves told The New Yorker's Ronan Farrow that Moonves sexually harassed them, while four described forcible touching or kissing. “What happened to me was a sexual assault, and then I was fired for not participating,” Emmy-nominated actress and writer Illeana Douglas told the publication. “There was the big sell—he was telling me, ‘You’re...

Ronan Farrow to publish an article in the New Yorker implicating CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves in Harvey-Weinstein-like behavior. CBS stock has fallen, etc. with the usual fallout.

The coverage of Trump is so lopsided that it’s impossible to deny any more. ...The problem isn’t that Trump is getting the coverage. Supporters of Trump no doubt see statistics like this and argue that he’s the front-runner and therefore deserves lots of coverage. This is true. But what Trump’s supporters either don’t understand or simply don’t care about is why he is getting it. ...CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves explained it in blunter terms to the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco (as The Hollywood Reporter originally reported): “It may not be good for America,...

Before its acclaimed premiere at TIFF, 'Truth' — about the scandal that ended the anchor's CBS News career — was screened for a special viewer: CBS president and CEO Moonves, who was not impressed. Truth, director James Vanderbilt's drama about the "Memogate" scandal that ended Dan Rather's CBS News career, was touted as a world premiere at Toronto. Rather himself turned up at the event to praise the film's accuracy and its (very sympathetic) portrayal of him. But it turns out the movie was shown months earlier to a special viewer: CBS Corp. president and CEO Leslie Moonves. And the...

Look at the size of that wad! It's huge! And it is all 100 dollar bills! How much you carrying there, Les? $5000? $10,000? $20,000? More? As we have seen, the networks declined to report that their CEOs including CBS CEO Les Moonves who earned over $54 million this past year were "overpaid." Perhaps they were embarrassed to report this. However, even more embarrassing is that Moonves is so cheap that he used a big wad of hundred dollar bills to stiff a restaurant parking valet out of a tip as you can see in the video on the Page Six report of the New...

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves on Wednesday alluded to problems with the NFL — presumably accusations of violence perpetrated by star players Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice — but said the network's ratings for Thursday Night Football were "above expectations."

CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves gave his embattled anchor and her news division a vote of confidence yesterday, telling a staff meeting that Katie Couric "is my anchor today, tomorrow and in the future." But the public display does not change the reality that Couric is likely to relinquish the anchor chair after the election, according to two top network executives who declined to be named discussing a private meeting. Moonves asked to address the Friday staff meeting, held at the CBS News offices in New York and broadcast to network bureaus around the world, out of concern that Couric...

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER will report tomorrow: 'Former 60 Minutes Wednesday executive editor Josh Howard has told colleagues that before he resigns, the 23-year CBS News veteran will demand that the network retract remarks by CBS president Leslie Moonves, correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name'... In the event of a lawsuit, Mr. Howard has told associates that he would like to see Moonves put under oath to talk about his own roles in the network's stubborn, hapless defense of the flawed segment on President Bush's National Guard service. Howard has also indicated to colleagues that he...

<--snip--> More surprisingly though comes news now about why Imus suddenly turned up on Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show so quickly after his firing — and did a lot of press that some people feel harmed him and fed the controversy. Some feel all those media appearances led to Imus’ dismissal. Now I’m told that Imus was coaxed into doing them by NBC senior vice president Phil Griffin. Imus, sources say, wanted to just to apologize to the Rutgers women’s basketball team he offended and leave it at that. In fact, they say, he apologized to the team several times...