Everything is terrible

Will nothing redeem our hopeless nation?

Hell.

Imagine, for a moment, stepping out of our time and place — drifting back to a past century, perhaps, or encountering an alien anthropologist eager to understand something about early 21st-century life in the most powerful nation on Earth — and having to explain Les Moonves' severance package.

For over a decade Moonves has been paid tens of millions of dollars a year for his contribution, as CEO of CBS Corporation, to entertaining the American masses. That's made Moonves a very rich man. Now he's been credibly accused — by a dozen women — of sexual misconduct. That got him fired. But his contract stipulates that, pending the results of an internal CBS investigation, he will walk away with as much as $120 million extra, as a kind of parting gift, for his troubles. Because capitalism. And freedom. Or something.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.