The Celebrity Perp Parade

Long time CBS anchor and PBS host Charlie Rose, Senator and former comedian Al Franken, and now longtime NBC anchor Matt Lauer are all accused of inappropriate sexual behavior.

It shouldn’t surprise me after working in media for 40 years that what you see is not always what you get. We create images. On the news side, media outlets try to create an image of honesty and integrity. News anchors seem to be trustworthy. Charlie Rose appeared a bit arrogant to me, but also looked intelligent and honest. Matt Lauer appeared to be an honest family man and grateful for the positive turns in his career. Neither seemed like the kind of men who would engage in sexually inappropriate behavior.

And as I began to write this post, news broke that Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion fame was fired from PBS for sexually inappropriate behavior. That is hard to believe.

Image. Image. Image.

Politicians, on the other hand, often seem like corrupt, untrustworthy liars. Franken, however, did not seem like that. The accusations against him pre-date his political career. He was in media then. Hmmm.

There have been numerous examples of celebrity men, in media or politics or other high-profile occupations, using that power or celebrity to engage in sexually inappropriate behavior. The celebrity perp parade is long and getting longer. Women are gaining the confidence to stand up and report the behavior and abuse and hopefully the strength to stop the behavior in its tracks.

Famous men are used to getting a pass, but that era might finally be coming to an end. Of course the leader of the parade, ‘president’ Trump, is still getting a pass for well-documented inappropriate behavior. Why?!  Why aren’t ‘we the people’ shouting Trump’s signature line: “You’re fired!”

As the Charlie and Matt stories have developed, it appears there was a years-long pattern with each of them that was mostly kept silent. The wave of ‘me too’ revaluations has given more women the power to speak up and had given media management the extra incentive to quickly take appropriate action.

And since I began writing this, a few more politicians and media moguls were outed by advisors ... the parade got longer. Even some of the women who previously accused Trump were in the news again.

All this led to an interesting conversation with a male coworker the other day. He said that at one point in his career he sometimes dated female coworkers but he would never do that now if he was single now.  Hmmm, I did too. A long time ago, but I browsed my memory banks to see if I crossed any lines. No, as far as I know.

I think this is one of the points of the ‘me too’ movement. To get us thinking; and to reinforce that this kind of behavior is unacceptable.

Even though I’m very disappointed that some high profile men I normally respect have turned out to be purveyors of this behavior, I’m glad that shining a light on this topic might have a positive benefit.