LA Times Publisher Placed on Unpaid Leave Amid Inappropriate Conduct Investigation
Post-Weinstein, the Los Angeles Times has been at the forefront of coverage surrounding recent allegations of sexual harassment by powerful men, frequently within the entertainment and media industries. Now, its own publisher and CEO, Ross Levinsohn, was placed on an unpaid leave of absence Friday while the paper’s parent company, Tronc, investigates allegations of inappropriate conduct while working at other companies. The move follows an NPR report released Thursday that detailed past sexual harassment lawsuits and a long history of inappropriate workplace behavior, including fostering “frat boys’ club” vibes and the use of sexist and homophobic comments.
In a review of court documents and interviews with over two dozen former colleagues and business associates, NPR reporter David Folkenflik found that Levinsohn has been a defendant in two sexual harassment lawsuits both of which ended with paid settlements. In testimony, Levinsohn acknowledged that when he was a vice president at search engine company Alta Vista in 2001 he rated the “hotness” of female colleagues during office banter with other male employees, and speculated about whether a woman who worked for him was a stripper on the side and discussed with others whether she’d slept with a co-worker.
Another lawsuit was filed in 2007 against Levinsohn and other executives at News Corp.—the former parent company of several Fox television properties—by a video producer who claimed she’d been sexually harassed in the workplace by her boss, who worked under Levinsohn. According to the NPR report, she alleged that when she asked Levinsohn for a promotion, he pointed to a Fox Sports sideline reporter, a former pinup model, and said she “learned how to work her way to the top.” The producer also alleged Levinsohn and other executives allowed an atmosphere of sexual harassment to flourish.
In addition to the lawsuits, NPR detailed other instances of alleged offensive and unprofessional behavior. When Levinsohn was an executive at Guggenheim Partners, the company that once controlled entertainment industry trades The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, witnesses said they saw him “aggressively” kissing and touching a woman at a music party in Las Vegas in March 2013. The physical contact, as NPR pointed out, appeared reciprocal and consensual to the witnesses, but they said they felt it was inappropriate considering Levinsohn was married at the time.
Homophobic language was also a problem during his tenure at Guggenheim Partners. According to NPR, Levinsohn arrived late to a lunch in Los Angeles hosted by The Hollywood Reporter in May 2013 and “couldn’t get out quickly enough.” The event—sponsored by shoe designer Jimmy Choo—included celebrities and Hollywood fashion stylists, and Levinsohn told an THR executive he’d have to leave early: “As my buddy said, why would I hang out with a bunch of ladies and fags?”
A current Los Angeles Times reporter, who asked to remain anonymous, told Glamour that she wasn’t surprised to hear about Levinsohn’s alleged past behavior, but that the Times‘ office atmosphere doesn’t reflect it. “It’s a newsroom with a ton of queer people and really supportive management in general so there’s always this weird feeling here of like, ‘the people you work with every day are awesome,’ and then there’s this sort of shadowy corporate entity that sort of messes with us.”
“We didn’t have a ton of interaction with [Levinsohn],” she added, “but the few times he’d come here he sort of came off as kind of like a glad-handing bro. So, the characterization of what he said isn’t shocking, it’s just very depressing.”
In a letter to Tronc, 12 senior Times editors wrote that Levinsohn’s history and alleged behavior “jeopardizes The Times’ 136-year legacy of integrity. The organization should not be led by anyone who has engaged in this behavior, if it is true, particularly given the [Times’] role in investigating multiple industries and governments on the topic of sexual harassment.”
The news of Levinsohn’s leave came hours after a vote passed to ensure that, for the first time in the L.A. Times‘ 136-year history, newsroom employees will be represented by a union, the newly-established L.A. Times Guild.
Levinsohn, who came aboard after Tronc fired former editor and publisher Davan Maharaj, is among the most highly paid executives at the company and received a starting salary of $1 million last year, according to reports.