It has been a very bad couple of days to be in the media. First, Dan Bongino sadly exited Fox News, followed by the shocking departure of Tucker Carlson from his top rated show on the same Fox network. Of course, it hasn’t been all bad news as the sour Don Lemon was fired after his show aired Monday morning in what many believe was a moment of opportunity for CNN to make the move, while everyone was looking at Fox. Turns out it didn’t work.
Seemingly lost in the shuffle was the announcement Friday that a top NBC executive had been fired for being a very bad boy at work. Comcast, NBC’s parent company dismissed NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell over what they are calling an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with a woman at work. As the CEO, any relationship outside of strictly business is inappropriate. Comcast released this statement: “Comcast today announced that the Company and Jeff Shell, Chief Executive Officer of NBCUniversal, have mutually agreed that Mr. Shell will depart effective immediately following the Company’s investigation led by outside counsel into a complaint of inappropriate conduct,”
“Mutually agreed” means ‘we can fire you or you can quit’. Pretty easy choice. It is much easier to explain a mutual parting on the resume than a firing. Either way, the end result is the same; Shell is out for his malfeasance with a female employee.
It is not even permissible for the manager of a Wendy’s to be in a relationship with an employee, so Shell’s lack of judgement is startling, and not something Comcast can just let slide.
4/24/23, Media Bloodbath Day:
CEO of NBCUniversal Jeff Shell has been ousted from the company after an investigation revealed that he was having an 'inappropriate relationship' with a female employee at the company.https://t.co/T8dzDzJoSQ
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 25, 2023
Shell released this statement: “Today is my last day as CEO of NBCUniversal. I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret. I’m truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down, they are the most talented people in the business and the opportunity to work with them the last 19 years has been a privilege.”
Based on the quality of content from NBC, it is a dubious statement to say that they are the best in the business, but at least Shell owned his mistake, not that it mattered. At the end of the day, in a high profile position like Shell occupied, there was no coming back from fraternizing with employees.
Comcast president Mike Cavanagh released a joint statement with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts: “We are disappointed to share this news with you. We built this company on a culture of integrity. Nothing is more important than how we treat each other. You should count on your leaders to create a safe and respectful workplace. When our principles and policies are violated, we will always move quickly to take appropriate action, as we have done here,”
A complaint had been filed by someone nameless in the company that prompted the outside firm to investigate, and apparently the evidence was too damning so Shell came clean and got the boot.
The lesson here? Not to be crass, but you don’t get your honey where you get your money. Jeff Shell isn’t the first to learn this hard lesson, and unsurprisingly he won’t be the last, but the bet is he lost a lot more than a Wendy’s manager would for his bad behavior.
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