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Moonves Busted: Twitter in a Tizzy Amid Sexual Misconduct Claims Against CBS CEO

Leslie Moonves, a public proponent of the #MeToo movement, has been accused by his former female employees of what he has been fighting against. He denied threatening to ruin anyone's career, while admitting that some of his attempted "advances" had ended in embarrassment.
Sputnik

CBS Corporation, a US broadcasting and media company, said it would take "appropriate action" as it was investigating allegations of sexual misconduct against its chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves.

In a statement to Reuters, Moonves admitted that his attempts to "make advances" may have made some women uncomfortable, but claimed to have never misused his status to derail anyone's career.

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The claims of personal misconduct surfaced in a report published by The New Yorker on Friday, in which six women who had professional dealings with the media tycoon accused him of sexual harassment in different time periods between the 1980s and 2006. Four of them detailed a "practiced routine" of "forcible touching and kissing" at business meetings; two accused Moonves of physical intimidation or threatening to break their careers.

The allegations sparked outrage in the internet, with many users calling for Moonves' resignation and other calling it just "the tip of the iceberg."

Leslie Moonves is one of the biggest media moguls in the US. In February 2016, he became Chairman of CBS, one of America's most-watched TV networks. Moonves has been a vocal supporter of Hollywood's #MeToo movement, which brought up numerous cases of sexual harassment and assault in the country's media industry. At a conference in November, he described the campaign as a "watershed moment" for the country.

"I think it's important that a company's culture will not allow for this. And that's the thing that's far-reaching. There's a lot we're learning. There's a lot we didn't know."

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