Moonves Out at CBS as 6 More Women Accuse Him of Sex Offenses

Update from The Associated Press:  

CBS said Sunday that CEO Leslie Moonves has resigned, hours after more sexual harassment allegations surfaced involving the network’s longtime leader. A statement posted on CBS’s website says Moonves’ resignation is effective immediately.

The network’s chief operating officer, Joseph Ianniello, will serve as president and acting CEO while CBS’s board of directors looks for a replacement. 

Six more women have come forward accusing CBS CEO Leslie Moonves of sexual harassment or assault, according to a report published in The New Yorker on Sunday. He is accused of forcing a woman to perform oral sex as well as exposing himself, groping, and committing physical violence, intimidation and career-damaging retaliation.

Moonves is negotiating his exit and has been offered a $100 million package, according to CNBC. Last month, The New Yorker published a report that detailed six other women’s accusations against Moonves of harassment, intimidation and abuse.

“It’s completely disgusting,” writer Jessica Pallingston, one of the accusers, told The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow about Moonves’ potential exit deal. “He should take all that money and give it to an organization that helps survivors of sexual abuse.”

Pallingston has accused Moonves of coercing her to perform oral sex on him during the ’90s when she worked as his temporary assistant. Several massage therapists also accused Moonves of sexual harassment.

“The appalling accusations in this article are untrue,” Moonves told The New Yorker. “What is true is that I had consensual relations with three of the women some 25 years ago before I came to CBS.”

Television executive Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb, who worked with Moonves in the late ’80s, said she filed a complaint with the Los Angeles Police Department accusing him of abusive behavior including forcing her to perform oral sex on him and throwing her against a wall. “You sort of just go numb. You don’t know what to do … it was just sick,” she said.

Two law firms have been hired to investigate the accusations for CBS.