Toxic culture shift coming

Photo: The Canadian Press

Women who say they were sexually harassed or mistreated by powerful men in television news have banded together to form a support network aimed at changing a newsroom culture they say has given men a free pass to misbehave for decades.

The women behind the Press Forward initiative tell The Associated Press they want a zero-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct at networks, better awareness of legal rights for women coming into the industry and better accountability for executives to ensure safety and improvements.

"Women should not have to go to work and worry that something like this is going to happen to them," said Eleanor McManus, who said she was a 21-year-old job seeker when then-ABC News political reporter Mark Halperin tried to kiss her during a meeting in his office. "Women should not worry that mentors may act in an aggressive manner toward them. That's not fair."

Press Forward evolved over the last two months after McManus and other women went public with allegations against Halperin, CBS and PBS host Charlie Rose and NBC's "Today" show host Matt Lauer, and others.

After Lauer's firing, NBC initiated a review of its handling of the matter and implemented in-person training on sexual harassment awareness and appropriate behaviour in the workplace.

McManus said some of the networks have already expressed an interest in working with Press Forward.

May, now a lawyer, wants Congress to consider changing federal law so that sexual harassment victims have more time to file a complaint. Currently, they have up to 300 days.

Changing the culture of television news so that men and women are on equal footing — with the same opportunities for advancement — is vital to ensuring its future, Setrakian said. That means not only eliminating the sexual misconduct that has caused scores of women to leave the industry, she said, but getting rid of double standards that judge women on their appearance.

"The current culture is muddling the meritocracy," Setrakian said. "It's pushing talented people out. It's allowing toxic behaviour to affect the performance and contribution of certain colleagues. That's bad for business."

Marcy McGinnis, who worked her way from secretary to senior vice-president at CBS News, said as much as women should be told what resources are available to them if there is an incident, men need to know how to act in the workplace.

"Then we wouldn't have to train women how to deal with it," said McGinnis, who now works at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. "Why don't we go to the source and fix that?"