The Dangerous Insufficiency of ‘No Means No’

There is an approach to the giving of constructive criticism that is sometimes referred to, in the corporate world and beyond, as a compliment sandwich. The method, if you’re not familiar with it, goes, basically, like this: If you have a criticism to make of someone, you couch the complaint in a pair of compliments, thereby cushioning the complaint’s negative emotional impact on the recipient. You’re doing amazingly, but that said if there were one thing I’d like to change, it’s that your sales numbers are terrible/your work ethic is horrible/I keep seeing you napping at your desk, but ultimately thank you for being kind/a Pisces/so deeply pure of heart.

I mention the workings of the sandwich because of the statement Les Moonves issued to The New Yorker in Ronan Farrow’s story detailing allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against the CBS chief executive—allegations made by several women who have been in his employ, and allegations which, Farrow suggested, reflect a broader culture of misogyny and impunity at the network. The statement went, in full, like this:

Throughout my