On Monday, the Washington Post dropped a bombshell report with graphic allegations from eight women against longtime CBS News host Charlie Rose. Tuesday morning saw the CBS This Morning hosts summarily declare that Rose wasn’t getting a pass, and they’ll cover his story the same way that they are covering other accused men in power. As for Rose, he either believes that he’s done nothing wrong, or he’s denying unspecified acts within the report. The veteran newsman didn’t exactly clarify which sentiment that he meant while greeting paparazzi outside his NYC building with a smile. When asked about the “wrongdoing” of which he’s been accused — in TMZ footage that you can see here — Rose simply responded, “It’s not wrongdoings.”
Rose’s brief and perplexing statement follows a longer response (given to the Post), in which he admitted only that he’d “behaved insensitively” in some circumstances. Rose also said he was “embarrassed” and disputes some of the allegations against him, but he kept things vague, all after the paper reported that Rose summoned interns and prospective employees to his home (where he would shower and walk naked in front of them) almost as a “ritual.”
Most of the women within the report have similarly accused Rose of making lewd phone calls and groping them while displaying flashes of anger if they resisted his advances in hotel rooms, planes, and cars. One accuser, a former Rose assistant named Kyle Godfrey-Ryan, said that his lurid, inappropriate conversations toward her (including his desires for her to swim naked while he watched) left her feeling “branded.” And Godfrey-Ryan added that a dismissive statement from longtime Rose executive producer Yvette Vega — “that’s just Charlie being Charlie” — led her to believe that this behavior was well-known.
Following the investigative report, CBS News suspended Rose, and PBS put his interview show on hold while an investigation commences.
(Via TMZ & Washington Post)