Vox Sentences: China goes after its Muslim population

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China goes after its Muslim population; Moonves leaves CBS with a “thank you” while another CBS producer is ousted.

Moonves and Fager leave CBS after reports of sexual assault go public

Taylor Hill/Film Magic/Getty Images

• CBS CEO Les Moonves has left the company after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment and assault. [CNN / Brian Stelter]
• Now, Jeff Fager, the executive producer for CBS’s 60 Minutes, has been fired after he was caught sending “a bullying text message” to one of the network’s reporters. [NYT / John Koblin and Michael M. Grynbaum]
• The messages came after multiple publications reported accusations of harassment and assault by Fager. [Washington Post / Erik Wemple]
• In late July, journalist Ronan Farrow published an extensive investigation into accusations that Moonves had harassed six women and fostered a culture of abuse at CBS in which Fager operated. [New Yorker / Ronan Farrow]
• It wasn’t clear if CBS would take any action against their CEO or producer in the weeks following. The company conducted a board meeting, but left with few questions answered. [CNBC / Sara Salinas]
• But on Sunday, over a month after the initial report, Farrow published another article in which six other women raised more severe accusations: that Moonves had both harassed and assaulted them. CBS then gave Moonves the boot. [New Yorker / Ronan Farrow]
• But Moonves, known and remembered as a “titan” in the industry, isn’t suffering. He is ending his 20-year tenure at CBS with a “graceful exit” that includes a “thank you” from his company — and possibly a $120 million severance package. [Vox / Emily Stewart]
• It likely took Moonves so long to leave CBS because the women raising the accusations lacked the star power those accusing Harvey Weinstein had and, unfortunately, “people are tired of thinking about sexual assault and harassment.” [Vox / Constance Grady]
• Nevertheless, it’s safe to say that Moonves’s departure is the #MeToo movement’s “most significant moment” to date. [Vox / Todd VanDerWerff]

China is holding ethnic Muslim groups in detention centers

• China has been holding hundreds of ethnic Uighur Muslims in detention centers since early 2017, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report. Former detainees say the centers are geared towards the erasure of an identity. [NYT / Chris Buckley]
• HRW reports that the crackdown began in 2014 when China set its sight on “eradicating” terrorism. [HRW]
• The organization alleges that the Chinese government is detaining a large number of Uighur and other Muslim minorities and denying them access to the outside world or the right to a trial. The government says that the HRW is “biased on China.” [CNN / James Griffiths]
• While these groups of Muslims are being treated like “enemies of the state,” some say that Uighur leaders have largely remained silent on the matter. [Middle East Eye / Azad Essa]
• Now, the Trump administration is considering issuing sanctions on China amid the ever-growing trade war. [HuffPost / Willa Frej]

Miscellaneous

• Amazon has announced a Christmas miracle: the e-commerce site will ship a variety of live, seven-foot Christmas trees straight to your doorstep with the click of a Prime button [The Verge / Chris Welch]
• The FDA has given Juul Labs, the maker of the wildly popular e-cigarette, 60 days to address the “epidemic” of teen usage and addiction to nicotine due to its product. If they can’t prove they can curb teen usage, Juul risks being shut out of the market. [Buzzfeed / Caroline Kee]
• To prove we are, in fact, living in a some twisted creator’s Mad Libs simulation, scientist and TV personality Neil DeGrasse Tyson defended Tesla CEO Elon Musk following his marijuana controversy. “Let the man get high,” Tyson told TMZ. [Newsweek / Meredith Jacobs]
• Teenagers are well aware of social media’s harmful effects, according to a new study. Over 75 percent of teens say “tech companies are manipulating users to spend more time glued to their devices.” Other swaths of teens report feeling lonelier, more anxious, and more depressed when using social media. [Recode / Rani Molla]

Verbatim

“You can’t just snap your fingers and solve these problems. It takes time to hire the people and train them, and to build the systems that can flag stuff for them.” [Mark Zuckerberg on how Facebook tries to tackle problems of the past two years amid “ceaseless controversy” / New Yorker]

Watch this: Why we say “OK”

How a cheesy joke from the 1830s became the most widely spoken word in the world. [YouTube / Coleman Lowndes]

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