Charlie Rose scandal: PBS, CBS suspend journalist after sexual-misconduct allegations

Maria Puente | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Charlie Rose accused of groping, walking around naked Longtime journalist Charlie Rose joins the growing list of high-profile men accused of sexual harassment or assault.

Charlie Rose, the longtime TV journalist who co-hosts CBS This Morning, contributes to 60 Minutes and is best known for his PBS interview show, Charlie Rose, has just been added to the growing roster of men who have been accused of sexually harassing or assaulting people they work with.

He's copping to most of it, and both CBS and PBS announced that he or his show are being suspended.

The Washington Post reported late Monday that eight women told the paper that Rose, 75, made unwanted sexual advances toward them, including lewd phone calls, walking around naked in their presence, or groping their breasts, buttocks or genital areas, while they worked for him or aspired to work for him.

Following that report, Business Insider published accounts from three unnamed women (they could not say if they were the same women cited by The Post), who said that in 2005, 2008 and 2010, while they interned for Rose or sought to work for him, Rose behaved inappropriately.

The Post's accusations cover the period between the late 1990s to as recently as 2011; the accusers ranged in age from 21 to 37 at the time of the alleged encounters.

"There are striking commonalities in the accounts of the women, each of whom described their interactions with Rose in multiple interviews with The Post. For all of the women, reporters interviewed friends, colleagues or family members who said the women had confided in them about aspects of the incidents."

The Post said three of the eight spoke on the record. Five spoke on the condition of anonymity "out of fear of Rose’s stature in the industry, his power over their careers or what they described as his volatile temper."

In the piece published by Business Insider, one women said that Rose touched her legs inappropriately as he was dropping her off at a dormitory in New York City, and then on a separate occasion when she sought career advice, invited her to his hotel room late in the evening.

Another says he invited her to dinner to discuss career opportunities, had her meet him at his townhouse, and greeted her at the door in a bathrobe and invited her into his home. A third woman also says Rose greeted her at the door in a bathrobe while she was delivering research to his apartment as an intern, and invited her in. She declined.

Rose, who has been prominent on American TV screens for 45 years, quibbled about the accuracy of some of the allegations but he acknowledged his misdeeds and apologized, in a statement to The Post.

“It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed. I have 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. All of us, including me, are coming to a newer and deeper recognition of the pain caused by conduct in the past, and have come to a profound new respect for women and their lives.”

Shortly after the Post's story went online, PBS issued a statement.

"PBS was shocked to learn today of these deeply disturbing allegations. We are immediately suspending distribution of Charlie Rose.

"Charlie Rose is produced by Charlie Rose, Inc., an independent television production company. PBS does not fund this nightly program or supervise its production, but we expect our producers to provide a workplace where people feel safe and are treated with dignity and respect."

CBS issued its statement to USA TODAY shortly after it was reported on CBS Evening News. "Charlie Rose is suspended immediately while we look into this matter. These allegations are extremely disturbing and we take them very seriously."

Rose joins a list few want to be on, a growing tally of boldface names — in entertainment, media, business or politics — who have been accused in just the last two months of workplace sexual harassment, coercion, assault or even rape dating back decades.

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Reah Bravo, an intern and then associate producer for Rose’s PBS show beginning in 2007, described unwanted sexual advances while working for Rose at his private waterfront estate in Bellport, N.Y., and while traveling with him in cars, in a hotel suite and on a private plane.

“It has taken 10 years and a fierce moment of cultural reckoning for me to understand these moments for what they were,” she told The Post. “He was a sexual predator, and I was his victim.”

The Post also interviewed employees of Rose who were told about his behavior and did nothing — and now are regretful.

Kyle Godfrey-Ryan, then 21 and one of Rose’s assistants in the mid-2000s, recalled at least a dozen instances where Rose paraded nude in front of her while she worked in one of his New York City homes. He would call her at night or early in the morning to describe his fantasies of her swimming naked in the Bellport pool as he watched from his bedroom, she said.

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“It feels branded into me, the details of it,” Godfrey-Ryan said. She said she told Yvette Vega, Rose’s executive producer since his interview show was created in 1991, about the calls.

“She would just shrug and just say, ‘That’s just Charlie being Charlie.’ ”

In a statement to The Post, Vega said she should have done more to protect the young women on the show. “I should have stood up for them,” said Vega, 52. “I failed. It is crushing. I deeply regret not helping them.”

Godfrey-Ryan said that when Rose learned she told a mutual friend about his conduct, he fired her.

The fact the show had such a small staff — about 15 people — and that Rose had total authority over the show that he owned, made it more difficult to decide whom to complain to about his behavior.

The Post, which recently upended the Alabama race for U.S. Senate with its investigation of the GOP candidate, Roy Moore, accused of molesting or trying to date teen girls decades ago, also interviewed two dozen former Rose employees who said they saw what they considered to be harassment, or were uncomfortable with Rose’s treatment of female employees, and or said they did not see or hear anything concerning about his behavior.

“He was always professional with me,” said Eleonore Marchand Mueller, a former assistant of Rose’s who worked for him from 2003 to 2005. “I never witnessed any unprofessional incidents.”

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The Post said rumors about Rose’s behavior have circulated for years but got new attention in recent weeks in the wake of the accusations against fallen Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, which set off a cascade of more allegations against more men across multiple industries.

One of the Post's two reporters on the Rose story, Irin Carmon, attempted to report on the allegations against Rose while she working at Jezebel in 2010 but was unable to confirm them. Once the Weinstein scandal blew up, she and Post investigative reporter Amy Brittain began contacting dozens of men and women who had worked on the Charlie Rose show or interviewed for jobs there.

Rose also has endured medical problems in recent years. In February he took about a month off to undergo voluntary heart surgery to replace an aortic valve he had installed nearly 15 years ago. He was traveling in Syria in 2006 when he developed heart trouble that required surgery in Paris and a monthlong hospital stay.

Contributing: Andrea Mandell

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