I still feel like now all forms of crossing boundaries are being treated as"equally bad" while there really are gradations in there.
On the one hand there are aspects that are making it feel a bit like a witch hunt, but I have to wonder if in some of these lesser cases what the individual realizes is that they've done worse and if they choose to fight it they will only force their other victims to speak up since someone is finally listening. If they step down early on, when the accusations are for relatively lesser infractions they may spare themselves and their victims additional pain.
Consider Franken - a forced kiss, a hover hand-grab while his victim was sleeping, and he's holding his ground - but now you have others coming forth with
slightly worse accusations. Cosby's silence and reluctance to confess undoubtedly caused others to come forward and continue to come forward.
But once they admit their wrongdoing and make at least a pretense of contriteness, the accusations stop. I'd guess that once they are sufficiently chastised/punished other victims feel no need to come forward.
The "troubling discussions" Lassetar had seemed more ominous than what's coming out in the press, and my first thought was that they essentially showed him all the statements they've gathered, and then agreed together (probably with a pack of lawyers, etc) on what each side would release to the press and what each side would do. And so far it seems to be working - he's not losing his job, he's taking a 6 month sabbatical - and it may even be a paid sabbatical. Release a statement, wait long enough for it to blow over, and maybe that will be sufficient.
But the lightness of the punishment may also recognize that the crime wasn't as bad as others have suffered at the hands of other assailants.
Regardless, this is all trial by the public, so there's bound to be a great deal of variance in the punishment. The statute of limitations for the vast majority of these crimes is well past, most states having felony statutes of limitation around 5-6 years, though some are as long as 10 years for specific sexual crimes (such as sexual crimes against minors).
And on top of that - it's salacious and makes for a good story in the media.
All that said, punishing people for minor offenses will put everyone on notice that certain acts will not be tolerated, and hopefully will overall reduce sexual crime as a society because even the minor things are career changers.