Ex-CBS executive: Network ‘has a white problem across the board’
A former CBS executive on Tuesday ripped the network for what she called a lack of diversity, saying the company has a “white problem across the board.”
Whitney Davis, an African American woman who left CBS in February, made the remarks in an essay she wrote for Variety. In the piece she alleges employee misconduct during her 13 years at the network.
{mosads}“The company has a white problem across the board,” wrote Davis, who was director of entertainment diversity and inclusion. “Did you know that there’s not one black creative executive working at CBS Television Network or CBS Television Studios?”
She added that CBS was “fraught with systemic racism, discrimination and sexual harassment.”
CBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Davis, who once worked for the “CBS Evening News,” alleged that a senior producer for the program “always wanted to touch my hair while sharing an inappropriate sexual joke.” She also alleged that another co-worker said his father “has f—ed black women, and he loved it.”
Davis said she didn’t report the incidents out of fear of losing her job.
“Although I couldn’t confirm that my career had been sabotaged, I felt as though I had hit a glass ceiling working in news,” she wrote.
CBS has been mired in sexual harassment controversies over the past 18 months. Several top names have been ousted from the network, including former Chairman Les Moonves, former “CBS This Morning” co-host Charlie Rose and former “60 Minutes” executive producer Jeff Fager.
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