Stephen Colbert opened his show on Monday by addressing allegations of sexual harassment against his boss, CBS CEO Les Moonves.
The allegations appeared in an article by Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker last week. Colbert, acting as though he didn’t know what the article was about, did a spit-take when the newsreel revealed the author was Farrow, who has become well known for exposing allegations of sexual misconduct against powerful men over the last year.
After the monologue, Colbert addressed some more-serious comments to the Moonves situation. After quipping, “are we still broadcasting?” Colbert reiterated that sexual harassment is and always has been wrong. “We know it’s wrong now, and we knew it was wrong then. And how do we know we knew it was wrong then? Because we know these men tried to keep the stories from coming out back then.”
Colbert also had some kind words for Moonves, whom he said had supported the show from the beginning. “Make no mistake, Les Moonves is my guy… and i like working for him. But accountability is meaningless unless it’s for everybody.”
At a previously scheduled meeting on Monday, the board of CBS (CBS) started the process of selecting outside counsel to investigate the allegations. There had been speculation that the board might ask Moonves to step down, but the board took no such action.