CBS fires Charlie Rose after sexual misconduct allegations
3 women accuse the veteran reporter of groping them, walking around naked in front of them
CBS News has fired Charlie Rose after several women accused the veteran newsman of sexual misconduct.
Rose has been one of three hosts of “CBS This Morning” since 2012 and is also a contributor to “60 Minutes.”
PBS and Bloomberg also suspended airings of Rose’s nightly interview show after the Washington Post published an article Monday about women who said he groped them and walked around naked in front of them.
CBS News President David Rhodes said there is nothing more important than assuring a safe, professional workplace. CBS had already suspended him.
Rose’s co-hosts on the morning show, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell, were sharply critical of their colleague on Tuesday. King said the allegations did not fit the Rose she knew, but that “I’m clearly on the side of the women who have been very hurt and damaged by this.”
The women, who all worked for Rose or tried to work for him, accused the veteran newsman of groping them, walking naked in front of them and telling one that he dreamed about her swimming nude.
Three women went on the record in the Post’s deeply-reported story. Reah Bravo, a former associate producer for Rose’s PBS show who began working for him in 2007, told the newspaper: “He was a sexual predator, and I was his victim.” She said Rose groped her on multiple occasions and once, during a business trip to Indiana, called her to his hotel room where he emerged from a shower naked.
Kyle Godfrey-Ryan, one of Rose’s former assistants, was 21 when she said Rose repeatedly called her to describe his fantasies of her swimming naked at the pool at his Long Island home while he watched from his bedroom. She said she was fired when Rose learned she had spoken to a mutual friend about his behavior.
Megan Creydt, who worked as a coordinator on Rose’s PBS show in 2005 and 2006, told the newspaper that she was sitting in the passenger seat as Rose drove in Manhattan one day when he put his hand on her thigh. Five women interviewed by the Post described similar grabs to their legs in what many interpreted as an attempt to see their reactions.
Rose said that he has behaved insensitively at times “and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken. I have learned a great deal as a result of these events, and I hope others will, too.”
