Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Budweiser deals with backlash to its advertising, senior women trust their employers less than their male peers do, and cable news has a day of reckoning. Have a terrific Tuesday.
- Dropping anchor. If you turn on cable news today, your usual programming—no matter your viewing habits—might look a little different. Yesterday, anchor Don Lemon was ousted from CNN and Tucker Carlson was terminated as a Fox News host. While those major stories swirled, more details emerged about the firing of NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell.
The three stories all have their own intricacies, but a common thread is the alleged mistreatment of women at major networks. Don Lemon's firing after 17 years at CNN comes weeks after he referred to GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley, 51, as "past her prime" on air; the incident reportedly lost Lemon a lot of goodwill with CNN colleagues who viewed the comment as sexist and ageist. (Lemon later apologized for the "inartful and irrelevant" remark.) Variety has reported on Lemon's alleged history of open hostility toward women, including his own guests and colleagues. (Lemon denied claims he mistreated coworkers behind the scenes.) His popularity with audiences had simultaneously fallen, making his continued employment "untenable," the New York Times reported. Lemon said in a statement that he was "stunned" by the decision and that there "are larger issues at play."
Carlson's exit, a seismic shift for cable news and conservative politics, follows Fox's decision to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems over lies about the 2020 election results. That settlement is certainly notable since the case featured Carlson's private text messages that conflicted with his on-air claims of election fraud and criticized Fox News management. But Carlson is also the target of a March lawsuit in which a female producer accused Carlson of promoting a hostile work environment, rife with sexism and antisemitism. The Los Angeles Times reported that the suit brought by Abby Grossberg, who was fired earlier this year, is in fact the reason behind Carlson's abrupt departure. (A Fox spokesperson previously said the network would "vigorously defend Fox against all of her legal claims which have no merit.") Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan Murdoch and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott reportedly made the decision to terminate Carlson's employment without so much as a goodbye show. The former host has not spoken publicly about his departure.
And on the executive side, Shell was fired after NBC parent company Comcast investigated what the former CEO called an "inappropriate relationship" with a woman at the company. In fact, CNBC International anchor Hadley Gamble complained of both sexual harassment and sex discrimination by Shell. Shell has not publicly responded to Gamble's claims; in an earlier statement, Shell said, “I’m truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down."
More than five years after #MeToo rocked the entertainment and media industries, it's tempting to think that the movement successfully cleaned house—with alleged bad actors like Les Moonves and Bill O'Reilly gone. But the three mega-exits this week show that the fast-paced industry of TV news is still an environment where alleged misconduct can fester. The departures should prompt top-to-bottom cultural reckonings, rather than elicit the false hope that this round of whack-a-mole will be more effective than the last.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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