Amazon.com boss resigns in sexual harassment scandal

This video from the USA says about itself:

Meet Tarana Burke, the Activist Who Started #MeToo Campaign to Ignite Conversation on Sexual Assault

17 October 2017

Amid the ongoing fallout from sexual assault and harassment allegations against Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, a former contestant on “Celebrity Apprentice” has subpoenaed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for all documents relating to her and any other women who have accused the U.S. president of unwanted sexual contact. We look at how this has reignited a conversation about sexual assault with women using the #MeToo hashtag, and speak with activist Tarana Burke, who started the campaign about a decade ago. “’Me Too’ is so powerful, because somebody had said it to me, and it changed the trajectory of my healing process,” Burke says. We also speak with Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, and Soraya Chemaly, a journalist who covers the intersection of gender and politics.

From the New York Times in the USA:

Roy Price Quits Amazon Studios After Sexual Harassment Claim

By JOHN KOBLIN

OCT. 17, 2017

The head of Amazon Studios, Roy Price, resigned on Tuesday, just days after a producer publicly accused him of sexual harassment, a spokesman for the company said.

Mr. Price, who was in charge of Amazon’s efforts to create original movies and television shows, had been suspended last week.

Last week, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Isa Dick Hackett, an executive producer of the popular Amazon show “The Man in the High Castle,” said Mr. Price had lewdly and repeatedly propositioned her in 2015.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

Hackett had already sounded the alarm at Amazon shortly after the incident, but the corporation did nothing with her accusation.

Sexual harassment in the American entertainment industry has been a lot in the news since film producer Harvey Weinstein started to be exposed this month. He is accused by actresses and other women from the movie world of sexual abuse and rape.

Price is said to have known of the abuse by Weinstein. Rose McGowan, one of the actresses who raised the issue of abuse by Weinstein, said she had told Price of the assault. With that information, the studio boss is said to not have done anything.

The New York Times article continues:

Mr. Price became a bit player in the Weinstein story when Rose McGowan, an actress who had reached a settlement with Mr. Weinstein in 1997 after an episode at a film festival, posted a series of tweets directed at Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon. In them, Ms. McGowan said she had told the head of Amazon Studios that Mr. Weinstein had raped her….

Before that series of tweets, Ms. McGowan had directed a Twitter message at Mr. Price concerning Mr. Weinstein, asking, “Remember when I told you not to do a deal with him and why?”

Mr. Price, a Harvard alumnus who once worked at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, had been an executive at Amazon for the last 13 years. He oversaw several TV shows, including “Transparent” and “The Man in the High Castle.”

From Rolling Stone in the USA today:

Bob Weinstein, the brother of Harvey Weinstein, was accused of sexual harassment, Variety reports. Amanda Segel, who served as an executive producer on the Weinstein Company drama The Mist, said the film and TV executive made numerous unwanted advances towards her during the show’s production.

On Monday, Weinstein Company board of directors member Tarak Ben Ammar announced that the company had reached a preliminary agreement for a cash infusion from Colony Capital, an investment firm owned by longtime Trump friend and top campaign fundraiser, Thomas Barrack: here.

LUPITA NYONG’O SAYS HARVEY WEINSTEIN PUSHED HER TO MASSAGE HIM “I panicked,” the actress said. Filmmaker Quinten Tarantino said he knew enough and should have spoken up over the years about Weinstein’s behavior. And this Texas Congresswoman believes it’s the “responsibility of the female” to prevent sexual abuse. [HuffPost]

Former gymnast McKayla Maroney just revealed new allegations of sexual abuse against former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. In a Twitter post published early Wednesday morning, Maroney detailed years of alleged sexual abuse she says she endured at the hands of Nassar. The Olympic gold medal winner wrote that she was inspired to come forward after reading all of the stories women have shared with the hashtag #MeToo: here.

WHEN THE TRUSTED BECOME THE ACCUSED “The Army is grappling with a resurgence of cases in which troops responsible for preventing sexual assault have been accused of rape and related crimes, undercutting the Pentagon’s claims that it is making progress against sexual violence in the ranks.” [WaPo]

How Harvey Weinstein And Kenneth Cole Covered Up A Shady Deal. A case study in how Weinstein wielded power to get what he wants: here.

Bill O’Reilly Settled New Sexual Harassment Claims, Then Fox Renewed His Contract. In January, the Fox News host was said to have agreed to a $32 million settlement with a former network analyst, the largest of his known payouts: here.

On Friday morning, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos awoke in one of his luxurious mansions nearly $7 billion richer, after Amazon stock rose more than 8 percent as a result of a strong third quarter earnings report released Thursday. Over the course of trading Friday, Amazon’s stock value continued to rise, finishing roughly 13 percent higher than the day before, propelling Bezos’ wealth by $10.4 billion and making him the world’s richest person. His net worth now stands at $93.8 billion, a solid $5.1 billion ahead of Bill Gates: here.

House to vote on giving Amazon $53 billion deal to become main Pentagon supplier: here.

Worker’s at Amazon’s main hubs in Germany and Italy have launched walkouts to hit the US e-commerce giant at a time when it hurts most — Black Friday and Cyber Monday — the busiest online shopping days of the year: here.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing company owned by Amazon, announced Monday that they are launching a new “AWS Secret Region” cloud designed to host government data classified as “Secret.” The AWS Secret Region is the most recent product of the company’s $600 million deal reached in 2013 with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the military-intelligence apparatus, and signals the complete integration of Amazon with the government and spy agencies: here.