Page 58 - Forbes - USA (October 2019)
P. 58
“I said to him, ‘I will do this, but this Minutes executive producer Jeff
is your battle,’” she recalls. “It wasn’t my Fager for “violating company poli-
battle for me. It was my battle for him.” cy”—specifically, threatening a CBS
reporter who was following up on
S hari Redstone says reports of sexual misconduct at the
company. Rose apologized for his
she had no master
blueprint for the fight
all of the allegations were accurate.
ahead. “It wasn’t a inappropriate behavior but said not
54 long-range plan be- But the most powerful executive
cause I kept having short-range chal- at risk was Moonves, who in July
lenges,” she says. 2018 found himself the focus of a
E
N By March 2016, Dauman and Via- story published in the New York-
O com board member George Abrams er reporting allegations of sexual
T
S had both been removed from the sev- misconduct and threats of retri-
D
E en-person family trust. That pair sued, bution. Moonves resigned in Sep-
R
challenging Sumner’s mental com- tember 2018, and six new mem-
I
R petency and accusing Shari of ma- bers joined the CBS board. With
A
H nipulating her father. Then Dauman interim CEO Joseph Ianniello in
S
was removed from the Viacom board place, the company moved swift-
E
L along with four other pliant directors. ly to repair a culture described as
I
F A new legal challenge was mount- toxic and misogynistic—donating
O
R ed, but before the courtroom dramas $20 million to organizations com-
P
could play out, Dauman agreed to a lu- mitted to eliminating workplace
Bob Bakish
crative exit, which included $58 million in sever- ViacomCBS’s harassment, installing a new chief people officer
ance pay. new CEO won and naming a woman, Susan Zirinsky, president
confidence with a
Shari was faced with one more significant op- digital strategy he of CBS News.
ponent, an executive she’d considered a trusted perfected overseas. “I was speaking before a women’s group . . .
friend, who stood in the way of the merger she felt and they said to me, ‘After everything you’ve been
would be in the best interest of the company and through, why shouldn’t every woman in this room
its shareholders: CBS chief executive Les Moonves. be pessimistic?’” Redstone recalls. “ ‘Because I’m
Moonves was hired by Sumner in July 1995, here, because we can do this.’ But this is a moment
taking over as president of CBS Entertainment in time where, I think, we can’t drop the ball. We
when the Tiffany Network was the laughing stock have an opportunity and a responsibility to do
of the television industry. The savvy program- what we can to have an impact.”
ming executive, who had green-lighted Friends
and ER, set out making hits like CSI, NCIS and er two chief rivals having been
Cold Case, transforming CBS into the nation’s H dispatched and imploding, re-
most-watched broadcast network, winning him- spectively, Redstone’s ascension
self the CEO title and titan status in the process. went from a long shot to almost
Moonves had little interest in taking on the woes a fait accompli. While it wasn’t
of the network’s struggling corporate sibling, Vi- made official until this past August, when CBS
acom, and even went to court to block the merg- and Viacom announced their $12 billion merg-
er with Viacom. er deal, Shari Redstone began looking to the fu-
Then came the #MeToo movement, which quick- ture last year.
ly ensnared CBS. The company first fired CBS This To get there she will need to keep the family on
Morning host Charlie Rose, citing reports of “dis- her side. Sumner’s 80% stake will be divided in
turbing and intolerable behavior,” and then 60 two on his passing, half for the benefit of his de-
scendants, whose trustees will include Shari and
her son as well as others with long ties to mem-
T H E Y A S K E D , “A F T E R E V E RY T H I N G YO U ’ V E
bers of the family, including divorce lawyers for
B E E N T H R O U G H , W H Y S H O U L D N ’ T E V E RY Sumner and his former wife, Phyllis, and a Na-
W O M A N I N T H I S R O O M B E P E S S I M I S T I C ? ” tional Amusements executive. The other trust
will be for the benefit of Phyllis. In other words,
S H A R I A N S W E R E D , “ B E C A U S E I ’ M H E R E ,
more drama could be on the horizon. CHRISTOPHER GOODNEY/BLOOMBERG
B E C A U S E W E C A N D O T H I S .” Shari Redstone will have a critical ally in Bob
Bakish, who had been running Viacom Internation-
al Media Networks. Initially designated as interim
CEO, he was viewed as keeping the seat warm un-
O C T O B E R 3 1 , 2 0 1 9
F O R B E S . C O M
