Women’s Group to NBC News: Fire Noah Oppenheim

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, October 11, 2019

CONTACT: Brett Abrams | brett@unbendablemedia.com

Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of the leading national women’s group UltraViolet, explained:

“Early excerpts from Ronan Farrow’s upcoming book make it clear that NBC News executives – namely President Noah Oppenheim – failed to hold sexual abusers at the network accountable. NBC’s internal investigation was a sham designed to provide cover to executives – not a real analysis of the ways in which NBC contributed to and fostered a culture where sexual predators could act with impunity.

“Yesterday’s release of past writings by Oppenheim, in which he defended a convicted sexual abuser, hammers home the point that this refusal to take serious action was intentional and deliberate. This is unacceptable.

“We’ve seen what real change to address sexual abuse at a major network could look like: after firing Les Moonves, CBS now has an HR officer on every show and in every department, and a robust way to report complaints to an outside line. While no single policy can eliminate the pervasiveness of sexual abuse in the workplace, CBS has made it clear that they are committed to addressing the issues at the network and developing robust solutions to protect their employees from future predators.

“It is time for NBC to do the same, and that means new leadership at the network. Noah Oppenheim has proven to be both unable and unwilling to do what is needed to protect employees at NBC from abuse and he should be fired.”

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Survivors deserve accountability — not silence