Bill Donohue comments on the way CBS CEO Les Moonves is handling the controversy over Spencer Clawson’s remarks made during the live feed of “Big Brother 15” on August 5:
Les Moonves has had several days to fire Spencer Clawson from the reality show, “Big Brother 15,” but he refuses to do so. However, two other contestants were terminated [from their day jobs] for making racial slurs.
On the live feed of the last episode, Clawson joked how he likes to masturbate to child pornography. “I love it when they’re around 3 or 4 years old,” he said. “My favorite ones are when you can tell they’re in a basement.” He added that masturbating to child porn “is my favorite thing there is.”
Moonves’ wife, Julie Chen, is the host of this show. Moonves said the show was a “social experiment” and that his wife “would kill me if I didn’t” watch every show. “What you see there [in the show] unfortunately is a reflection of how certain people feel in America.”
In 2007, radio shock jock Don Imus made a racial joke on CBS. Moonves didn’t say that his joke was “unfortunately a reflection of how certain people feel in America.” He simply fired him.
Moonves explained his firing by saying Imus “has flourished in a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people. In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step not just in solving a unique problem, but in changing that culture, which extends far beyond the walls of our Company.”
Bottom line: CBS has infinitely more tolerance for those who joke about child porn than it does for those who tell racist jokes. Our culture cannot put up with the latter, but it must accommodate those who delight in the spectacle of 3 and 4-year-olds being sexually abused.
Contact Les Moonves: lmoonves@cbs.com
