For those of us hoping things had changed, all that after Harvey

Weinstein

#MeToo commitments from the entertainment and media industry to do better, be better were sincere, Monday was a very complicated day.

On Sunday

,

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell was fired for what he called an inappropriate relationship. On Monday that

What

revealed to

be the subject of

a sexual harassment suit filed by CNBC correspondent

Hadley Gamble

. That same day

,

both ends of the political spectrum took a beating with the nearly simultaneous firings of Fox host Tucker Carlson and CNN host Don Lemon.

There are numerous possible reasons why Carlson threw out his role in the Dominion lawsuit, which cost Fox $787 million. This revealed his contempt for not only truth and human decency, but many of his Fox colleagues and superiors. But many insiders cite a lawsuit brought by his former booking producer Abby Grossman accusing Carlson of harassment and sexism.

No lawsuit has been filed against Lemon, but persistent complaints about his on-air sexist remarks and the behind-the-scenes treatment of his female colleagues apparently made him more of a liability than a star.

Don Lemon was the brightest star on CNN. Then he became the story

All things considered, it was hard not to think, well, it seems like all those sexual harassment training videos were useless.

But maybe not. Perhaps Monday was a good day, representing the messy, imperfect pattern of two steps forward and one step back of actual change.

Yes, Carlson losing his job over a sexual harassment charge is a bit like Al Capone going to jail for tax evasion. Still, considering he replaced Bill O’Reilly, a serial offender

WHO

only got the ax after it was revealed that Fox had quietly paid $32 million in sexual harassment settlements over the years,

Carlson is his resignation

indicates something that could be called progress. (Or maybe, after spending nearly a billion dollars on settlements with OReilly, Roger Ailes, and now Dominion, Fox is realizing the literal cost of its toxic culture.)

Yes, Shell is also open to accusations of hypocrisy (not to mention stupidity).

H

as harassment. It was Shell who helped orchestrate and then announced Ron Meyers’ 2020 departure from NBCUniversal after it was revealed that an additional

–

marital affair made Meyer vulnerable to extortion attempts. Shell described Meyer as acting in a manner that we believe is inconsistent with our company policies or values.

But at least with

a

last lying bloom of inappropriate relationship, he’s gone.

Commentary: Cable news remains strong. The reaction to Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon proves it

Lemon, who backed out in 2021 against a departure

–

host Brooke Baldwin’s complaint that CNN was a boys’ club (the whole line from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

–

up was anchored by men) by saying “we have enough women in power”.

,

unintentionally

,

proved how important gender equality is.

Lemons’ sexist on-air remarks about 51-year-old Nikki Haley not being a viable presidential candidate because women are at their best in their 20s, 30s and maybe 40s and women’s sports get less attention because men are more interesting to watch were met with full reception – Throttle pushback from his female co-hosts (and viewers). Amid the uproar, previous allegations of uncollegiate behavior resurfaced, as did many of the tensions that had existed between him and his female colleagues.

First, CNN executives announced that because they were taking these things “seriously,” Lemon would receive “professional training.” Then they apparently decided that wasn’t enough, and now he’s gone too.

It’s all about the money, short and long term of course. Litigation is expensive, continued outrage can hurt ratings, and certain personality patterns can hurt brands, especially, as seems to be the case with Fox News and CNN, which

That

attempts to repair and/or change.

But it’s also about the culture. Now that we’ve seen the ubiquity of sexism and sexual harassment in various workplaces, and the resulting damage, we can never undo it, although there’s a lot of debate about how to prevent it (all those training videos!) include assault, rape or patterns of predatory behavior.

In fact, in recent years many have feared that some of the previous cases, particularly Weinstein’s (who is in prison on multiple rape and sexual assault convictions), were so horrifying that sexism in the workplace would not be taken seriously if there was no involvement involved. physical injury or a persistent pattern of abuse.

The dismissal of these three men seems to suggest otherwise.

Yes, it would be easy and natural to look at these guys and think, here we are again. Will it ever change? That’s true if you look only at the men, all of whom believed that the rules of the workplace and culture did not apply to them.

But if you look past the men and the companies that employ them, at least one

small degrees

change is visible. For whatever reason, financial, optics, brand management, the media giants in question have parted ways with some of their most powerful players. If not precisely preventively, then relatively quickly.

Of course, there is a chance that more will be revealed in the coming weeks, but the fact that the firing of these men surprised everyone offers some hope. (For Shell and Carlson, the

do

appear that lawsuits were necessary, but in any case they were not quietly settled with little or no consequences for the alleged perpetrators.

)

And that’s as it should be. Companies don’t have to do multiple news surveys to listen to employee allegations and complaints. It shouldn’t take a chorus of women divulging the details of some of the worst hours of their lives for other women to feel safe enough to speak out and believe they will be heard when they do.

Sexism and sexual harassment should not be ignored or treated as a perk of stardom, nor should it be glossed over with workplace awareness and training.

There should be consequences for inappropriate behavior, and at least there were on Monday.