Why activist group Sleeping Giants hasn’t gone after CBS and Les Moonves

LA
County prosecutors have declined to press charges against CBS CEO
Les Moonves (pictured in September), stemming from an allegation
that he sexually assaulted a woman he worked with in the late
1980s.
Chris Pizzello/Associated
Press

• The activist Twitter account Sleeping Giants is laying
  off CBS amidst the ongoing investigation into sexual misconduct
  allegations against CEO Les Moonves — for the time
  being.
• The group is holding back and letting the investigation
  play out.
• Previously, Sleeping Giants has publicly pressured
  brands to stop supporting Breitbart as well as several Fox News
  shows.

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Activist social account Sleeping Giants
isn’t sleeping on CBS.

But when it comes to the ongoing string of claims regarding CEO
Les Moonves’ alleged behavior toward women, Sleeping Giants is
taking a wait-and-see approach.

The activist Twitter handle, which is
run by a pair of veteran ad industry freelancers and has more
than 175,000 followers, has made its name by publicly challenging
advertisers over their support of what it deems as offensive
content.

Its describes itself as “a campaign to make bigotry and
sexism less profitable.”

Sleeping Giant previously went after Bill O’Reilly following
allegations against the former Fox anchor. It has also encouraged
boycotts of right-leaning publication, Breitbart.

“After the election, we just couldn’t believe that the guy who
pushed Breitbart’s racism and bigotry was going to be in the
White House,” a
proprietor for Sleeping Giants told GQ. “They were using
their influence to attack immigrants and women. They were
anti-LGBT. They had a “Black Crime” articles tag. It was just
gross.”

 

But as CBS’s Moonves faces allegations of him forcibly kissing
and even pinning down one woman,
per The New Yorker, Sleeping Giants is holding back.

“We’re waiting to see what happens with this [CBS] investigation,” said a spokesperson. “We’ll keep pressing for
answers, though, if it goes on too long.”

So far, there’s been no sign of advertisers
pulling ads from CBS, as Business Insider reported. That
could change, of course, depending on how the investigation
develops.

On Thursday, the
Los Angeles Times reported that the CBS’ board of directors
has known about a police investigation into allegations against
Moonves for months.