CBS News and NBC News were the respective former homes of serial sexual harassers Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer, before they were exposed publically. Those networks were now ignoring the three sexual harassment lawsuits leveled against Bloomberg L.P., the financial and media company founded by 2020 Democratic candidate Michael Bloomberg. Credit where it’s due, ABC News had aired their investigative report on the matter during their Good Morning America and World News Tonight flagship programs on Monday.
“Tonight, new questions about Michael Bloomberg and the company he founded that made him a billionaire. ABC News has learned that Bloomberg's company is currently facing three lawsuits for sexual harassment and gender inequality,” reported chief national correspondent Tom Llamas Monday evening. “The lawyer who brought those cases says Michael Bloomberg fostered a sexist corporate culture.”
The charges currently being litigated were filed dating back to 2016. During World News Tonight, Llamas reminded viewers that Bloomberg once faced charges similar back in the ’90s, including pressuring a woman to kill her unborn baby to keep her job:
LLAMAS: He's faced similar accusations before. In the 1990s, one of his regional sales managers, Sekiko Sakai, claimed in a legal complaint she told Bloomberg she was pregnant.
BONNIE JOSEPHS (Sekiko Sakai’s former lawyer): She thought he would be pleased that she was pregnant. She said that to him. And he said to her, "Kill it."
LLAMAS: Sakai resigned shortly after her child was born and filed a lawsuit alleging that she "Understood the statement of Michael Bloomberg to mean that I should have an abortion to keep my job."
“If Mr. Bloomberg is running for president I think the public needs to know what actually happened in his business,” Josephs told ABC in a soundbite aired on GMA.
Llamas noted the accusations against Bloomberg closely matched quotes attributed to the billionaire in a 1990 book called The Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg.
“If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they'd go to the library instead of to Bloomingdales,” one quote read. Another said: “I know for a fact any self-respecting woman who walks past a construction site doesn't get a whistle will turn around and walk past again and again until she does get one.”
In an interview with ABC which aired on GMA, Donna Clancy, the lawyer for the three women currently suing Bloomberg’s company, told Llamas: “We have investigated the company for the last four years and the culture is such that women are not valued, in fact, they're objectified.”
“And Clancy says there's a reason why voters may have never heard of other allegations like these,” Llamas added. “It's because Bloomberg's company agreed to financial settlements with nondisclosure agreements attached silencing the women who are complaining.”
This reporting by ABC and the silence from CBS and NBC, came three weeks after they boasted about Bloomberg announcing his presidential campaign and ignored his manipulation of Bloomberg News to be solely against President Trump.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s World News Tonight
December 16, 2019
6:43:46 p.m. EasternDAVID MUIR: We're going to turn now to the race for 2020, and allegations tonight of sexism against Michael Bloomberg. The billionaire is accused of making crude and insensitive remarks toward women at his company. There have been a number of lawsuits and now a collection of Bloomberg's alleged comments from the 1990s is sparking new controversy. Here's ABC's chief global affairs[sic] correspondent Tom Llamas tonight.
[Cuts to video]
TOM LLAMAS: Tonight, new questions about Michael Bloomberg and the company he founded that made him a billionaire. ABC News has learned that Bloomberg's company is currently facing three lawsuits for sexual harassment and gender inequality. The lawyer who brought those cases says Michael Bloomberg fostered a sexist corporate culture.
He's faced similar accusations before. In the 1990s, one of his regional sales managers, Sekiko Sakai, claimed in a legal complaint she told Bloomberg she was pregnant.
BONNIE JOSEPHS (Sekiko Sakai’s former lawyer): She thought he would be pleased that she was pregnant. She said that to him. And he said to her, "Kill it."
LLAMAS: Sakai resigned shortly after her child was born and filed a lawsuit alleging that she "Understood the statement of Michael Bloomberg to mean that I should have an abortion to keep my job." Bloomberg has strongly denied making the comment. But, Sakai told the New York State Division of Human Rights he made several sexist statements to her, as well.
Eventually, she settled her case and signed a confidentiality agreement. But her first lawyer, Bonnie Josephs, tells us at the time, she interviewed a dozen Bloomberg employees who described a sexist atmosphere full of raunchy language and behavior.
JOSEPHS: At the Christmas parties or other kinds of parties, the male employees sometimes put plastic breasts on them, which squirted water from the nipples of the plastic breasts.
LLAMAS: The allegations echo what's found inside this booklet from 1990, The Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg. A collection of quotes assembled by one of his top staffers as a birthday gift. Among those quotes – “If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they'd go to the library instead of to Bloomingdales.” Bloomberg says he doesn't remember making those comments. ABC News pressing him on the campaign trail.
UNIDENTIFIED ABC REPORTER: Do you think you've made any mistakes in the way that you treated female employees at your company?
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: I don't. Not everybody's happy. But we have an enviable record of treating people the same in terms of compensation and promotions and authority.
[Cuts back to live]
LLAMAS: But David, a Bloomberg campaign spokesperson acknowledging, quote, “Mike has come to see that some of what he has said is disrespectful and wrong.” And tonight, one of Bloomberg's rivals, Elizabeth Warren is reacting to all of this, saying, any woman who has been NDA with Michael Bloomberg or his company should be released so they can speak freely if they want to, also saying that Bloomberg should have to answer for those past comments. David?
MUIR: Tom Llamas reporting on the 2020 campaign. Tom, thank you.
