Abuse of Power

You may have never heard of Lord Acton, a British politician, historian, and writer in the 19th century. He’s credited with the phrase, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” It has been proven over the history of civilization. Unchecked power is a dangerous drug. A story broke this week in the Los Angeles Times about an investigation into allegations of racists remarks, bullying of female managers, and the blocking of efforts to hire and retain Black journalists at some of the 28 CBS owned television stations. The President of the Division Peter Dunn and his number two man David Friend, the Vice President and News Director at WCBS-TV in New York, have now been put on leave while there is an investigation by an outside law firm. A couple of years ago allegations of sexual misconduct led to the firing of CBS President Les Moonves, Anchor Charlie Rose, and 60 Minutes Executive Producer Jeff Fager. Dunn and Friend remained in their jobs.

A former News Director at KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Margaret Cronan and four other female employees at CBS stations were troubled that the Moonves investigation didn’t go after the bad behavior they claim they were subjected to by Dunn and Friend. At first the company defended Dunn saying, “In response to the CBS investigation in 2019, senior management at the time addressed the situation with Mr. Dunn, and the company has not received any complaints about his conduct during the period since then.” Dunn has had no comment.

CBS has had a history of allegations of unfair treatment of Black journalists. Former KYW General Manager Brien Kennedy who was hired and fired by Dunn hired Cronan. They described Dunn using racist and humiliating remarks about lead anchor Ukee Washington who is black and is one of the longest serving most respected journalists in Philadelphia. Dunn had approved of Washington being elevated from the morning news to the main early and late news anchor position. Cronan and Kennedy said there were repeated instances of Dunn and Friend making racist remarks about other Black journalists and blocking the hiring of Black journalists. Cronan left the station after less than two years. Kennedy was fired and has filed a complaint with Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission claiming he was fired by Dunn in retaliation for cooperating with an internal review into misconduct by Dunn.

I worked as a manager at two CBS television stations over 25 years in Philadelphia. I was the Managing Editor at KYW-TV for 14 years, including the two years that Dunn was the General Manager. He was a tough, demanding boss with few people skills and could be overbearing. He was feared. Not a person easily challenged. I never heard him use racist or sexist language. He grew much more powerful when he became President of the stations division in 2009.  It’s reported the division generated $1.6 billion dollars in revenue during that time. That’s lot of power. The more power some leaders have, the more they want. The more they believe they can get away with. They’re more unguarded. They feel they have the right to say and do what they want especially when they’re making billions for the company.

There are many recent examples of powerful men being made to answer for their behavior. The powers at Penn State were afraid to tell Joe Paterno it was time to retire and then discovered the child sexual abuse that one of his top assistant coaches, Jerry Sandusky, was engaged in for years. Paterno claimed he didn’t know. Bill Cosby sexually assaulted dozens of women over decades, and thought he was too powerful to get caught. Voters had to wait four years to get our former president out of power, and he continued to abuse his power to the last pathetic day of his term.

I don’t know what this investigation will discover about Peter Dunn. Even though I’ve been retired for five and half years from KYW-TV, I feel regret that the good journalism I and others tried to produce everyday will be tarnished. I applaud the people who have now come forward to demand change and accountability. It should make the powerful afraid to abuse power.