There is a difference between being pissed off with someone, and outright attempting to crush their spirit by demolishing their career. That, according to Huffington Post, is precisely what a CBS head honcho had done to Janet for well over a DECADE. It all stared in 2004, after Janet’s and Justin Timberlake’s Super Bowl “Nipplegate” scandal, and it’s reportedly been on and poppin’ ever since.
What Started The CBS Exec’s Alleged Years-Long Grudge Against Janet
If y’all haven’t heard of CBS CEO, Les Moonves, let’s get into who he is. He’s was a top executive at CBS from the 1990’s to 2018, when he was allegedly forced to resign after being accused of sexual harassment by six women within the entertainment industry. His buyout from his CBS contract was reportedly upwards of $100 million.
As one HuffPost reporter was researching the sex assault allegations against Moonves, the topic of what he’d reportedly been doing to damage Janet Jackson’s career arose. According to the publication, dude has had it out for Janet ever since CBS had to pay a $550,000.00 fine for FCC violations, as a result of Janet’s and Justin’s “Nipplegate” 2004 Super Bowl performance.
From the jump, Janet and Justin have repeatedly said the whole nipple-on-the-loose incident was a mistake. Word on the Old School curb is that Moonves didn’t believe it was a mistake, but rather an attempt to ‘stir up controversy.’
One would think that the issue Moonves had, was the $550K CBS had to cough up, but according to Huff Post journalist, Yashar Ali (who spoke directly with those working underneath Moonves), it was because even though Janet apologized to Moonves, she did not bow down to him with a “sufficiently repentant” apology. However, Justin supposedly did. Translation: Janet refused to be the ‘submissive Black chick’ Moonves was seemingly expecting…and thus, he probably felt offended that she had the audacity to be not only a woman with dignity, but a Black woman with dignity…just my viewpoint, but I digress…
There’s also this– according to the publication, Justin Timberlake cried tears of sorrow and regret in a private meeting with Moonves as he tearfully apologized to him. Moonves supposedly liked Justin’s apology…and thus, did not tamper with his career, according to the report.
Janet reportedly issued an apology, but apparently did so with dignity, and refused to sob to Moonves. According to Huff Post, Moonves was offended by that self-dignified display of professionalism and pride in Janet’s apology.
What CBS Exec Did To Allegedly ‘Destroy’ Janet Jackson
Moonves then reportedly vowed to destroy Janet, by having her blacklisted and her career has taken a hit ever since:
Via HuffPost: Moonves banned Jackson and Timberlake from the 2004 Grammys broadcast airing on CBS the week after the Super Bowl. But Timberlake was allowed to perform after he tearfully apologized for the incident, according to conversations Moonves had with my sources.
The CBS chief executive, according to sources who spoke to me, was furious that Jackson didn’t make a similarly contrite apology to him. The fallout from the incident inflicted significant damage on Jackson’s career ― which until that point had produced 10 No. 1 hits ― and still reverberates to this day.
Moonves ordered Viacom properties VH1 and MTV, and all Viacom-owned radio stations, to stop playing Jackson’s songs and music videos. The move had a huge impact on sales of her album “Damita Jo,” which was released in March 2004, just a month after the Super Bowl.
There’s more, the Huff Post reporter also revealed the further damage and anger Moonves had for Janet YEARS later:
Via HP: Seven years after the 2004 incident, Moonves told several sources he was furious when he found out Jackson had signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster for her book True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself. Simon & Schuster is owned by the CBS Corporation.
“How the fu*k did she slip through?” Moonves asked while recounting the story to a source who spoke to me. He told another source that heads were going to roll as a result of the deal.
The reporter also said that Moonves’ obsession to destroy Janet is so “aggressive” that, ‘one source said they couldn’t speak to me on the record because “I’m not interested in having that man following me to the grave and trying to screw me over the whole time.”’
Moonves has a long held reputation of holding grudges with folks who don’t play the game his way. According to The New York Times, one of his six sexual assault accusers –actress, Cybill Shepherd– stated that he intentionally damaged her career, by canceling her sitcom, “Cybill,” career after she’d turned down his advances. Actress, Bobbie Phillips, claims Les sexually assaulted her in the mid-’90s and in 2018 she reportedly publicly called him out on it for allegedly trying to bury the allegations. Wow.
