Monday, February 17, 2020

CBS Radio Hit With New Sexual Harassment Lawsuit


Sexual harassment at Les Moonves’ CBS was so bad that even human resources staff was vulnerable to unwanted sexual advances, an explosive new lawsuit claims, The NY Post reports.

Jacquelyn Musiello, a former payroll specialist at CBS Radio, quit her job in 2017 due to the “physical and emotional distress” of being sexually harassed by the talent, and witnessing countless situations in which others were as well, according to the Bronx state court lawsuit.

She is seeking $10 million in damages and class-action status.

Jacquelyn Musiello
During her five years at CBS Radio, Musiello says she fielded complaints from female co-workers who described “sexual comments,” “unwelcome touching” and “innuendoes” from supervisors and radio personalities on a “nearly daily basis.”

But CBS bosses, including Musiello’s HR supervisor, did nothing but laugh, the lawsuit says.

In one 2016 instance, Musiello recounts walking in on a female and male employee having sex in a conference room after work hours. When she confronted them, the employees questioned her authority, she said. When Musiello told her boss, Margaret Marion — who is named in the complaint — of the incident, she “laughed it off,” the lawsuit added.

The suit also describes uncomfortable encounters Musiello had with former WCBS 101.1 FM personality Dan Taylor, who stepped down from the company in 2019 after a misconduct investigation found that the company had ignored complaints of racism and sexism by three employees.

Dan Taylor
Musiello also fielded complaints from other female staffers about Taylor in her work as a human resources exec, including Taylor’s soliciting women to join him on his private plane. But when Musiello told her boss, Marion, of the complaints about Taylor, she was given the runaround and eventually told to instruct the women to simply “stay away” from him.

“There was a deeply embedded sexist culture that extended from the top down,” said Musiello’s lawyer Donna Clancy.

The frat house-like culture at the company, particularly the radio division — which was sold in 2017 to Entercom — has been the subject of several lawsuits, as The Post has previously reported.

CBS declined to comment while Entercom did not return a query for comment. Marion did not respond to e-mails for comment.

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