When the News is the News: A Textual Analysis of NBC and CBS networks’ Response to Sexual Harassment Allegations in the Wake of the #MeToo Movement Morgan Paige Cline Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In Communication Marcus C. Myers, Chair Nneka J. Logan Chelsea L. Woods May 6, 2020 Blacksburg Virginia Keywords: Image repair, crisis, #MeToo, NBC, CBS, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose When the News is the News: A Textual Analysis of NBC and CBS networks’ Response to Sexual Harassment Allegations in the Wake of the #MeToo Movement Morgan Paige Cline ACADEMIC ABSTRACT As the #MeToo movement swept the nation from Hollywood to Washington, within less than a week’s time in November of 2017, longstanding news anchors, Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose were fired from their respective news networks because of sexual harassment allegations. As a result, each network had to grapple with repairing a destroyed image while simultaneously fulfilling the duty to report on news objectively. This qualitative analysis examined NBC and CBS’s response to the allegations of sexual harassment against each anchor, allegations of withholding information and allegations of ignoring complaints through the lens of image repair theory in order to identify if any of the strategies were present in the networks’ response. Applications of image repair discourse to news media organizations is a relatively novel examination and it highlights the complex duality of an organization’s right to uphold its image but obligation to present the news objectively, even when it has become the news. When the News is the News: A Textual Analysis of NBC and CBS networks’ Response to Sexual Harassment Allegations in the Wake of the #MeToo Movement Morgan Paige Cline GENERAL AUDIENCE ABSTRACT As the #MeToo movement swept the nation from Hollywood to Washington, within less than a week’s time in November of 2017, longstanding news anchors, Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose were fired from their respective news networks because of sexual harassment allegations. As a result, each network had to grapple with repairing a destroyed image while simultaneously running business as usual. This study examined NBC and CBS’s response to the allegations of sexual harassment against each anchor, the allegations of withholding information and allegations of ignoring complaints made by employees over the past two decades, all the while attempting to fulfill the duty of objectively reporting the news. This study examined each networks’ response using a crisis communication theory and offers an extension to the theory that can be utilized by news network organizations and the like. iv Table of Contents Chapter 1: When the News is the News: A Textual Analysis of NBC and CBS networks’ Response to Sexual Harassment Allegations in the Wake of the #MeToo Movement .................. 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Methods .................................................................................... 4 Image Repair Strategies .............................................................................................................. 8 Image Repair Applications ........................................................................................................ 12 Research Questions and Methodology ...................................................................................... 19 Table 1. Image Repair Strategies and Categories ..................................................................... 22 Chapter 3: Analysis of Charlie Rose and CBS ............................................................................. 24 3.1 Corrective Action ............................................................................................................ 26 3.2 Denial & Defeasibility ..................................................................................................... 28 3.3 Blame Shifting ................................................................................................................. 30 3.4 Bolstering......................................................................................................................... 32 3.5 Denial............................................................................................................................... 33 3.6 Bolstering......................................................................................................................... 38 Summary of CBS News Analysis ............................................................................................. 38 Chapter 4: Analysis of NBC and Matt Lauer................................................................................ 40 4.1 Corrective Action ............................................................................................................ 43 4.2 Denial & Defeasibility ..................................................................................................... 46 4.3 Blame Shifting ................................................................................................................. 50 4.4 Bolstering......................................................................................................................... 51 4.5 Minimization ................................................................................................................... 53 Analysis Summary .................................................................................................................... 57 Chapter 5: Implications and Discussion ....................................................................................... 60 NBC News and Matt Lauer ....................................................................................................... 60 CBS News and Charlie Rose ..................................................................................................... 62 Similarities in Responses .......................................................................................................... 63 News Media Organizations Using Image Repair ...................................................................... 67 Chapter 6: Conclusion and Limitations ........................................................................................ 70 References ..................................................................................................................................... 74 Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 80 Appendix 1. The Today Show................................................................................................... 80 v Appendix 2: NBC Nightly News .............................................................................................. 83 Appendix 3: CBS This Morning ............................................................................................... 84 Appendix 4: CBS Evening News .............................................................................................. 85 1 Chapter 1: When the News is the News: A Textual Analysis of NBC and CBS networks’ Response to Sexual Harassment Allegations in the Wake of the #MeToo Movement In late November of 2017, two high profile news networks terminated long standing anchors due to sexual harassment allegations. CBS fired Charlie Rose on November 22, 2017 and NBC fired Matt Lauer on November 27, 2017. All the while, the #MeToo Movement was sweeping the nation taking down various well-known figures ranging from those who worked in the entertainment industry in Hollywood to news anchors in New York City (Chicago Tribune, 2017). Not only did these organizations face the anticipated challenges with repairing a ruined image, they had to carefully implement image repair strategies while in the midst of a nationwide revelation. The #MeToo movement, originally founded in 1997 by Tarana Burke, regained momentum after actress Alyssa Milano posted on Twitter in October of 2017. The tweet read, “If all the women and men who have been sexually harassed, assaulted or abused wrote ‘me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem. #metoo (Stevens, 2017). Overnight, Milano’s tweet had more than 40,000 replies (Stevens, 2017). During this time, Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose were only two of dozens of men who were exposed for their despicable behavior. As displayed in the Chicago Tribune’s #MeToo Timeline of Events, men who worked in the news industry, entertainment industry, politics and sports industry were taken down due to allegations of sexual harassment and mistreatment (Chicago Tribune, 2017). The cultural reset caused by the #MeToo movement caused chaos for dozens of organizations that were covering up sexual predators within their organizations (Chicago Tribune, 2017). This study specifically focuses on how NBC and CBS reacted and responded to sexual harassment allegations made against its respective long-time anchors in the midst of a relevant cultural movement. Beginning with Charlie Rose’s termination on November 21, 2017, 2 closely followed by Matt Lauer’s termination on November 27, 2017, this study analyzes the on- air transcripts, including conversations between news anchors and official statements from each respective news network through the lens of image repair discourse to image repair identify strategies. The systematic and protected