Andrew Mitton

What should hap­pen to David Let­ter­man?  He’s apol­o­gized twice on air.  Is that enough.  Should we just move on with things.  What sort of mes­sage does that send to view­ers.  What would have hap­pened if he wasn’t a celebrity gen­er­at­ing large rev­enues for the sta­tion.  Is there a dou­ble stan­dard here.

CBS’ 2008 Busi­ness Con­duct State­ment says: “If a con­sent­ing roman­tic or sex­ual rela­tion­ship between a super­vi­sor and a direct or indi­rect sub­or­di­nate should develop, CBS requires the super­vi­sor to dis­close this infor­ma­tion to his or her Company’s Human Resources Depart­ment to ensure that there are no issues of actual or appar­ent favoritism, con­flict of inter­est, sex­ual harass­ment, or any other neg­a­tive impact on oth­ers in the work envi­ron­ment.”  It appears that David Let­ter­man vio­lated this pol­icy.  If so, how should he be disciplined.

I also assume that CBS has inves­ti­ga­tion pro­ce­dures.  If so, then the right thing to do is treat Mr. Let­ter­man just like any other employee or con­trac­tor and fol­low their pro­ce­dures.  An inves­ti­ga­tion should take place and the mat­ter deliv­ered to the body that decides the dis­ci­pli­nary action.  Then, since this is a very pub­lic mat­ter, the dis­ci­pline should be publicized.

It does more harm to do noth­ing because all that says is that there is a dou­ble stan­dard.  One for the rich and famous and another for the rest of us.