Trump ambassador nominee had unsettling management style, women say
Source: The Washington Post
By Robert O'Harrow Jr. February 17 at 6:35 PM
Doug Manchester, the billionaire nominated by President Trump to be ambassador to the Bahamas, made a fortune as a real estate developer in San Diego while also earning a reputation for his philanthropy, conservative convictions and lavish lifestyle.
In 2011, Manchester, then 69, decided to buy the struggling San Diego Union-Tribune. Over the next four years, he employed an unconventional, anachronistic management style that upended the newspapers culture and made many female workers uncomfortable, according to more than a dozen current and former employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
During the taping of a promotional video, Manchester once pulled a reporter in for a hug so intimate that it startled onlookers in the newsroom, multiple people said. He complimented young female employees on their looks, and he and other senior managers required some of them hired for a new in-house television operation to wear short black dresses and serve as hostesses for advertisers and other guests at Union-Tribune events, current and former employees said. And he once asked an on-air program host to dye her hair platinum blond, complaining that her roots were showing, employees said.
During that time, one woman received a small settlement after complaining about unwanted hugs from Manchester as well as unwanted texts from John Lynch, then-chief executive of the newspaper, Lynch told The Washington Post, though he characterized both claims as an effort to get some money. In the fall, an anonymous caller complained to the newspapers current owners that executives knew of offensive behavior by Manchester and his team but did little about it, a company spokeswoman acknowledged. Manchester sold the newspaper in 2015.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trump-ambassador-nominee-had-unsettling-management-style-women-say/2018/02/17/71860678-0a90-11e8-baf5-e629fc1cd21e_story.html
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