Two CBS hosts on Wednesday called for transparency in the news organization’s investigation into its former CEO, Les Moonves.
Gayle King, co-host of “CBS This Morning,” called for the network to publicly release a report with its findings from the investigation.
{mosads}”The board says they want transparency and they want to do the right thing. I’m also from the camp of we have to see what’s in the report so we know exactly what we’re dealing with and how you can change it, and how you can get rid of the people that no longer need to be here who are still involved in whatever this behavior is,” King said, according to CBS News.
Norah O’Donnell, who also co-hosts “CBS This Morning,” said the company was facing a “reckoning.”
“You can’t provide solutions until you know fully what the problem is, and what exists, and so that secrecy that still exists, the people that have covered up that behavior, that still needs to be clarified,” O’Donnell said, according to the outlet. “We have been promised that a new day is on the horizon, and we are holding firm to that idea.”
The comments come after CBS’s board of directors said Monday that Moonves would not receive any of the $120 million severance package that he was due as part of his employment contract because the company said it had sufficient “cause” to terminate his contract.
That decision followed a months-long investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Moonves. The board, in August, hired two law firms to conduct an investigation into workplace conditions at the network. CBS’s board has not said whether it will publicly release the findings of that probe, the outlet noted.
The New York Times reported earlier this month that it had obtained a copy of the Moonves report, which found that Moonves “deliberately lied” to investigators about the accusations against him, according to the Times.
Investigators also wrote in the report that the ousted CEO had “received oral sex from at least 4 CBS employees under circumstances that sound transactional,” the Times reported.
Following the board of directors’ statement on Monday, CBS News reported that it heard from 19 CBS News employees, including several who are in “senior” roles. According to the outlet, six said the findings should be made public to ensure accountability.