“This fish stinks from the head.”

When veteran entertainment journalist Nikki Finke pulled out that old chestnut, she was referring to another scandal involving a powerful and seemingly untouchable figure at CBS being investigated for engaging in inappropriate sexual relationships with his staffers.

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I’m referring to David Letterman, host of the “The Late Show.”

At that time, Letterman had surged past NBC’s “The Tonight Show” in the ratings, owing to the latter’s recent changing of the guard from Jay Leno to Conan O’Brien. Letterman was and is still seen as a legend in the comedy world. Back then, he was one of the jewels in CBS’s crown.

When the “Late Show” host came clean about his affairs in response to an extortion plot, a number of media outlets pressured CBS and the show’s production company, Worldwide Pants, to conduct an internal investigation. It did not.

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Thus Finke was inspired to publish this spiky Deadline read:

As I’ve reported previously, and more than once, CBS boss Les Moonves professionally and personally crossed the line of propriety when, of all the women in the world from which to choose, he began a series of adulterous affairs with network underlings, but it was his relationship with. . . Julie Chen that broke up his 24-year marriage. Not only did Viacom bigwig Sumner Redstone overlook that, but the old coot himself over the years, whether he was married or not, openly shtupped one of his producer girlfriends while she had Paramount and/or CBS deals. Which are all violations of so many corporate codes of conduct that I don’t think I can count that high.

Finke dropped that grenade in October 2009, almost nine years ago. Nobody said boo because then, as it does now, CBS held a perch at the top of the ratings.

This takes nothing away from Ronan Farrow’s extensively reported account in The New Yorker, which dropped on Friday and at long last revealed what is likely but a shred of Moonves’ longstanding pattern of sexual misconduct. Quite the opposite.

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Farrow’s report has done the previously unthinkable by dragging just a few of the rumors about Moonves that have been circulating in the entertainment industry into full view.

Additional accusers may emerge in the wake of Farrow’s New Yorker piece, as was the case with the industry’s defenestration of producer Harvey Weinstein that Farrow helped set in motion.

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For now, Farrow’s story includes six women who, on the record, describe being forcibly touched or kissed during business meetings that occurred between the 1980s and the late 2000s. The most famous of them is Emmy-nominated actress Illeana Douglas.

Moonves may not be as familiar to the average viewer as Harvey Weinstein, whose public downfall sparked the launch of the #MeToo movement. For a time Weinstein was almost as famous as the actors and directors whose careers he made, including Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and a number of actresses who have since gone public with their own tales of harassment or sexual assault at his hand.

Farrow won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Weinstein, and rightly so. He and the New York Times journalists who initially broke the story took down a man who had evaded judgment for years, using his money, influence and privilege to obstruct justice, bully his victims and kill any stories about his abusive behavior.

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But to put this in perspective, if that was akin to harpooning a whale, unmasking Moonves is a frontal attack on a Mosasaurus, that giant sea beast in “Jurassic World.”

READ MORE: The joys of hate-reading the rich: Why raging over a wealthy intern's money diary feels so good

Moonves is the chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation. This makes him the overlord of CBS and The CW broadcast networks, Showtime and the CBS All Access streaming service. And CBS Television Studios, CBS Studios International, CBS Television Distribution, CBS Interactive, CBS Films, CBS Television Stations and publishing house Simon & Schuster.

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He also sets the tone of the corporation’s culture. To this end, a repeating refrain among current and former CBS and CBS Corporation employees to whom Salon has spoken separately, all on the condition of anonymity, is that CBS has the atmosphere of an old boy’s club where abusive managers cover for other abusers, even promoting them on occasion.

Meanwhile, as the New Yorker story details, victims have little to no recourse through human resources. In a number of cases involving below-the-line staff, some have been fired.

With all the stories of #MeToo the misconduct tends to get the most attention. The lasting impact on the career trajectories of its victims or allies who choose to report misconduct, however, tends gets lost in the headlines. And Moonves’ story provides an example of the rolling impact that one man’s exploitative attitude, and his willingness to enable that behavior in others, can have on the lives of scores of employees.

Farrow’s piece quotes Debra Katz, a lawyer specializing in sexual harassment, who explains this simply: “It can put a set of enablers in place, who protect powerful people when they get challenged for misconduct, and who work to discredit and manage out women who come forward with allegations.”

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Or, in the words of another industry veteran who asked not to be named, “It’s predators protecting predators.”

In the New Yorker article Douglas describes a 1997 visit to Moonves’ office for a meeting following a table read for “Queens,” a CBS sitcom in which she was cast. On the occasion of that meeting, he pinned her down on a couch and began “violently kissing” her.

Although Douglas says she rebuffed him by joking her way out of the situation, the incident was followed by subtle acts of psychological intimidation as Moonves began showing up on set. Eventually she was fired from the production.

Other accounts show a similar pattern: unwanted kissing and physical contact, sometimes threats to stay silent. Rebuffing Moonves’ advances could have a high cost, ranging from Moonves reneging on work opportunities presented before propositioning them to outright termination.

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CBS denies nearly every detail of these allegations. However, early on Friday CBS Corporation released this statement:

All allegations of personal misconduct are to be taken seriously. The Independent Directors of CBS have committed to investigating claims that violate the Company’s clear policies in that regard. Upon the conclusion of that investigation, which involves recently reported allegations that go back several decades, the Board will promptly review the findings and take appropriate action. The timing of this report comes in the midst of the Company’s very public legal dispute. While that litigation process continues, the CBS management team has the full support of the independent board members. Along with that team, we will continue to focus on creating value for our shareowners.

This refers to Moonves’ current litigation with Shari Redstone, Sumner Redstone’s heir. Shari Redstone wants to merge CBS and Viacom; she is the majority shareholder in both companies through National Amusements Inc., a trust controlled by the Redstone family. Moonves is suing to keep the entities separate.

Meanwhile CBS has been the subject of several #MeToo stories, the most famous starring former anchor Charlie Rose. Eight women initially came forward to accuse Rose of sexual harassment, as reported in the Washington Post. Since then his list of accusers has expanded to 35 and counting.

According to Farrow’s report, Rose was taking advantage of a hostile work environment cultivated by “60 Minutes” executive producer Jeff Fager. Farrow spoke to six of Fager’s former subordinates who told him that, “while inebriated at company parties, [Fager] would touch employees in ways that made them uncomfortable.”

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However, this isn’t merely a story about a handsy manager. Fager’s alleged actions, or inaction — in Rose’s case, managers were made aware of the allegations on at least three occasions, the article says — signaled to other people on his staff that their misbehavior would have no consequences. At CBS News and elsewhere, the New Yorker piece indicates, abuses were sometimes rewarded:

“Thirty current and former CBS employees described harassment, gender discrimination, or retaliation at the network. Many said that men accused of misconduct were promoted, even after the company was made aware of those allegations.”

Salon wrote about one such producer, Brad Kern, following up on a story that originated in Variety in December 2017.

Kern, formerly executive producer and showrunner for “NCIS: New Orleans,” was the subject of two separate HR investigations at CBS within a year of him taking the reins on “NCIS: NOLA.” Included in the allegations are reports that Kern sexually harassed and discriminated against his female employees, targeting working mothers in particular, in addition to making racist comments. One of the employees who submitted a complaint against Kern was fired.

Kern was able to finish the 2017-2018 season as its showrunner, even after the report emerged, although he was demoted to the role of consulting producer. Yet when the writers’ room resumed work at the end of May, Kern was still there, interacting with a number of people who had witnessed or been subjected to his toxic behavior.

In June CBS Television Studios hired an outside investigator to look into all past harassment and misconduct allegations that were brought against Kern.

Right before that, CBS also signed a two-year overall deal with Kern.

"When Brad Kern's deal was renewed after two HR investigations and multiple articles exposing his abusive conduct, I'm sure some people wondered why CBS would want to continue doing business with someone like that,” a former CBS employee told Salon. “I think after reading Ronan's story the answer becomes very clear.”

Several sources to whom Salon has spoken about Kern also mentioned that he would joke about the investigations in the writers’ room after CBS closed them. One posited that Kern’s relationship with Moonves was likely the reason that he kept his job while, for example, the co-showrunners of “Star Trek: Discovery” — a gay man and a woman — were immediately terminated, allegedly for verbally abusing their staff.

“Abusive and predatory men are rewarded at that company. They are protected at all costs,” the former employee says. “The fact that CBS made an entirely new two-year deal with Brad Kern after numerous stories about his misconduct should tell you everything you need to know. His discriminatory behavior was rubber-stamped by that corporation and now it's very clear why."

Over on The CW, “Supergirl” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg was fired due to accusations of abuse and harassment. The New Yorker article reveals that a vice president at Pop, which CBS operates with Lionsgate studio, filed a complaint describing a workplace environment rife with harassment and discrimination by male colleagues, “It wouldn’t be happening at Pop if it wasn’t covered up at CBS, and if CBS wasn’t complicit,” she told Farrow. “They know, and it’s been tolerated.”

Kreisberg. Kern. Rose. Letterman. Start your climb from the tail, and eventually you’ll get to Moonves.

Although CBS' stock fell 6 percent on Friday, reaction on social media since the New Yorker piece published seems relatively muted. Actually, one female CBS executive came forward to publicly voice her support. . . for Moonves.

Among the general public, the frenzy seems smaller than what Weinstein’s crimes inspired. It’s early yet — the story came out Friday afternoon — but, still.

Part of this may be due to Moonves’ lower celebrity profile, even if he is a far more powerful figure than Rose, or Weinstein, or Louis C.K., or Kevin Spacey, or Matt Lauer or any of the other men felled by #MeToo. Moonves was not in front of the camera, or even regularly on sets.

Part of the problem may be that Douglas is not as lofty a star as Rose McGowan, Annabella Sciorra, Ashley Judd, Mira Sorvino, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie or many of the other women Weinstein victimized.

Maybe it’s a matter of scale: In a perfect world, one woman’s accusation of harassment or assault would be taken seriously. In our world, 60 women had to come forward and say they’d been attacked by Bill Cosby before the public noticed. And a male comedian had called attention to their stories onstage before law enforcement set the wheels of justice in motion.

Another difference? Cosby and Weinstein were not men at the peak of their social or cultural influence when their criminal behavior caught up with them. Moonves is the admiral of a multibillion-dollar media corporation.

America loves to excuse the exploitative actions of wealthy, powerful men. At this moment, more women have accused the president of the United States of harassment of sexual misconduct than the number that has come forward with allegations concerning Moonves. But please remember that this isn’t just about these six women.

Douglas and the others who have gone public with their stories — an act destined to earn them far more grief than praise and which may indeed end their careers — represent hundreds of women and men operating in a corporate culture where it appears that the human resources department is rarely a solution for aggrieved parties, but can be a gateway to more problems. Where Moonves and those surrounding him are reportedly enabling wolfish managers making life untenable for those who report to them, because they're confident they won't be punished for it. Where women’s career aspirations have been thwarted, blocked or derailed because of misogynistic behavior, while those responsible for derailing them receive a title bump and a bigger paycheck.

These six women are pointing to the source of the rot. The industry at large would benefit if CBS decided to lead by example, air the place out and start fresh.