I will confess that my blood pressure rose by a couple of points when I saw this ominous, clickbait-able headline in my numerous alerts on Friday morning, accompanied by the ominous graphic that we’ve recomminssioned here.
The Return of Jeff Shell at Paramount Raises #MeToo Questions
Regular readers of these musings know I’m a staunch defender of Shell’s track record as an executive. I know that because I’ve actually worked with the man and seen his brain and negotiating tenacity in action. I benefitted directly from it, and hundreds of others, including many who now hold top positions at linear and streaming entities around the world, also greatly benefitted from his acumen. Paramount is the fourth media conglomerate at which Shell will hold a key executive role at over a career that now spans more than 30 years. Anyone would be hard-pressed to find a more capable and auspiced individual who is up to taking on the shambles that Shari Redstone’s mismanagement and the departure of thousands of capable executives who built the assets of CBS, the one-time Viacom networks and the storied studio itself left those assets in.
My first thought was perhaps to lay some smack at the author referenced in the kicker to this headline:
“It creates a chilly climate for women,” says Jessica Calarco, author of “Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net”
A quick check of Calabro’s biography from her website shows that clearly she has spent scant little time in the employ or the boardrooms of the media companies that Shell has headed:
A Sociologist and Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jessica is an award-winning teacher, a leading expert on inequalities in family life and education, and the author of Holding it Together: How Women Became America’s Social Safety Net (Portfolio/Penguin, 2024).
Her previous books include Qualitative Literacy: A Guide to Evaluating Ethnographic and Interview Research (with Mario Small; University of California Press, 2022), Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School (Oxford University Press, 2018), and A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum (Princeton University Press, 2020).
So, hey, she’s a researcher trying to sell books. I can almost understand her motivation.
So then my thinking was, who’s giving her this pulpit? Perhaps it was the story’s author, THE WRAP’s Sharon Knolle. Writers often do have agendas. Ask THE RINGER’s Claire McNear.
But to her credit, Knolle offers up more balanced and nuanced approaches elsewhere. This extended series of quotes demonstrates that:
Carol Miaskoff, associate legal counsel for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, also said that Shell’s hiring could prove a major headache. “If he were to repeat this, having him as president really exposes [Skydance-Paramount] to liability,” Miaskoff told TheWrap…Referring to Shell, she added that it would not be appropriate to paint a previous offender as someone that would make the same mistakes. “On the other hand, if he does do it again, there are certain kinds of vulnerabilities and complexities,” Miaskoff noted.
And besides, it’s more than likely Knolle didn’t write, or sign off on the headline.
So then one needs to look at who does have that responsbility. And that would be THE WRAP’s outspoken publisher Sharon Waxman.
Waxman has been waxing more than poetic prolifically of late, most recently co-authoring (with Knolle) a detailed and highly complimentary overview of who and to what financial degree Kamala Harris is supported in Hollywood. And Waxman apparently signed off on giving amplification to this viewpoint from someone who is apparently still willing to wage war:
Nicole Regalado, vice president of Campaigns at the feminist nonprofit UltraViolet, says that hiring Shell after his high-profile firing “sends the wrong message to women.” UltraViolet has led media campaigns against famous men who were outed as sexual abusers in the early days of #MeToo, including former NBC anchor Matt Lauer…
“What we’ve noticed here at UltraViolet is the entertainment industry is going through yet another reckoning when it comes to the workplace safety of women,” Regalado told TheWrap, referring to the numerous lawsuits filed in New York and Los Angeles in 2023 due to a temporary lifting of the statute of limitations.
“The #MeToo movement didn’t go away. The harassment in the industry still exists. Women are still unsafe in many of these entertainment companies,” she said. “Whether or not these companies are willing to do more about it is really up to us as consumers and as individuals.”
Although Shell, unlike Lauer, has never been accused of any form of sexual abuse, Regalado said the group is considering launching a similar “high pressure” campaign over this.
Would you be surprised that when you load the homepage for Regolado’s nonprofit, you get this splash ad?
I’ll simply ask these women these questions:
- How are your businesses performing lately? As well as the ones Shell ran?
- Might a struggling publication like Waxman’s possibly be concerned that someone with the belt-tightening reputation of Shell come in and cut marketing budgets, as he notably did during his most recent reign at Comcast and NBCUniversal?
Indeed, Knolle’s piece points out some of the actual facts behind Shell’s particular case.
Shell was let go from NBCU without severance in 2023 after CNBC anchor Hadley Gamble accused him of a decade-long campaign of sexual harassment. He apologized at the time, but characterized his relationship with Gamble as merely “inappropriate.”
Which corroborates much that I’ve personally heard from those that know Shell personally And it was not Gamble, but rather a high-priced hire of hers named Suann McIsaac, that somehow turned it into this summation which Knolle also referenced:
Gamble’s attorney…told The New York Times that Shell had engaged in “a decade-long campaign of sexual harassment” against her client and dismissed his apology as “revisionist history.” Gamble left CNBC shortly after Shell’s departure. She did not respond to TheWrap when asked to comment for this article. MacIsaac, who told the Times that Shell “targeted” Gamble before he even met her, also did not respond to TheWrap.
Of course not. You know that phrase about money talks, etc., etc.
And as for the post-mortem:
Two insiders at the media company told TheWrap that no one on staff has objected to Shell’s hiring and that the media executive has “done the work” both publicly and privately to repair his reputation, as well as his relationship with his wife and daughter…Shell remains married to his wife, Laura.
So if the actual “victims” have resolved all of this, what possible purpose does reviving this discussion and yet again reminding people of this, serve for anyone?
I really wonder what the likes of Calabro and Regalado would consider appropriate restitution for a victimless crime that, by all reports from those actually in the know, was at one point a consensual relationship? A lifetime ban? Prison time?
May I please assure these saber-rattlers that this wasn’t the first time, nor will it be the last, where employees engaged in inappropriate behavior thousands of miles from home. All indications are nothing went on in the office itself. And, sorry ladies, women do willingly participate in this sort of behavior themselves. I would ask someone like MacIsaac if Gamble had recordings of anything that she cites as irrefutable evidence. The woman did work for a major international network, you know.
Jeff Shell is a highly competent, proven and determined executive at a time when this industry, and particularly Paramount, is in dire need of that, far more than someone that overly cautious folks supplying survey answers might see as a “threat” to their comfort level. Unless they’ve personally dealt with Shell, their opinions are just that, and I would ask them if they’d rather run the risk of having someone less qualified in the position to save those jobs at all.
And as for Sharon Waxman, save your vitriol for the likes of Jay Penske. I’m sure you know where he’s got his own skeletons hidden, and his track record is a lot easier to tear down.
Until next time…