Gleanings 20 September 2018

When bosses that are universally hated are cast on the ash heap, the grumbling of years, even decades, rushes out. Les Moonves: why was the the highest-paid executive among multimillionaire media executives? What did he bring that none of the other (mostly) men couldn't, to shareholders, to Sumner Redstone, to National Amusements, to the greater world (of entertainment)?

Virginia Heffernan busts out her long-held repugnance for the disgraced Moonves in the LA Times. (link) "What was Moonves’ job again? Shepherding Ray Romano vehicles into 22-minute time slots? Pushing middlebrow comedies and political candidates that even he despised onto mass audiences? Why did grownups — such as the CBS board and the journalists at that long-ago news conference — believe Moonves was so mighty that he deserved deference, genuflection and truckling? And possibly even, to some degree, women’s submission to his harassment and abuse?"

Then there's Jian Ghomeshi's cover essay in the New York Review of Books, edited by Ian Buruma. "both beneath our contempt and deserving of our full attention. It's textbook gaslighting, manipulation, recharacterization of facts... in short, classic abuser behavior," by Katie Anthony. (link)

Peter Howell Follows A Night In The Life Of TIFF Boss Piers Handling Toronto Star