Social media takes a lot of punches for enabling sexual harassment. But the past two months have shown that it has also provided consumers with an unprecedented power to make their market preferences heard loud and clear. And right now, the market is demanding that companies do something about sexual predators and pests in their midsts. The firing of Matt Lauer — the “Today” show star who reportedly commanded a salary of $25 million per year — by NBC News is just the latest example of a company moving swiftly to protect its brand in the face of sexual misconduct allegations.

The obvious take here is that the chairman of NBC News, Andrew Lack, made a cold economic calculation: Mr. Lauer might have been a rainmaker for the network, but keeping him on was no longer worth it in the face of potential lawsuits, damage to the brand and lower ratings.

Reading the just-published details of Mr. Lauer’s alleged behavior, failing to fire him seems unthinkable. He reportedly showed his penis to a colleague, bought another a sex toy with an accompanying note about how he wanted to use it on her and had a secret button under his desk to lock his office door from the inside. And that’s just the first wave of reporting.

But there’s another, more positive, takeaway from Mr. Lauer’s firing, which is that corporations are susceptible to the moral suasion of the public. This might not look like what millennials imagine when they talk about “corporate social responsibility” and “ethical capitalism,” but it’s hard not to see it that way.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/opinion/matt-lauer-sexual-harassment-nbc.html