Ultraviolet Sends Letter to CBS Over Les Moonves

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By Summer Jarro
Special to RBR+TVBR


Several allegations of sexual assault and misconduct have recently been made toward CBS Corporation Chairman and CEO Les Moonves.

Even with the allegations made, CBS has continued to allow Moonves to remain in his positions at the corporation.

A report by CBS Money Watch published on Aug. 20 also stated that Moonves could possibly receive a $200 million severance package from CBS if he decides to leave the corporation before his contract ends in 2021.

Following the report, Ultraviolet, a national women’s group with one million members focused on fighting for women’s rights, sent a letter to the CBS Board of Directors demanding they fire Moonves and not give a multimillion dollar severance package.

The letter was sent to the board on Aug. 23 by Shaunna Thomas, who is the co-founder and executive director of UltraViolet, on behalf of the group’s members.

“We are in an age of a #MeToo culture in the workplace—of accountability for sexual perpetrators and abusers,” Thomas said in a press release. “Rewarding Moonves’ decades of sexual harassment and abuse with a two hundred million dollar severance package is shameful, obscene and unacceptable.

In the letter, Thomas points out Ultraviolet’s mission to begin believing in sexual assault survivors in order to end the violence against women and CBS’ hypocrisy on the issue.

“Despite CBS leadership’s purported support for survivors and the #MeToo reckoning, that same leadership chose not to believe survivors by allowing Moonves to return to business as usual and continue the clear pattern of gender abuse and discrimination demonstrated by multiple scandals at CBS,” Thomas stated, in the letter.

Thomas continues by urging the board to believe it survivors and hold its employees accountable for their actions. Ultimately this will help the progress being made to end sexual violence instead of damaging it.

“CBS and its executives must take a stand for survivors of sexual harassment and abuse by ensuring Moonves is fired and denied severance of any kind,” Thomas said, in a press release.