CBS, PBS and Bloomberg have announced that they are suspending the broadcast of Charlie Rose, one of the most famous TV presenters in the USA, known for his exclusive interviews, following an article in The Washington Post in which eight women they accuse him of sexually harassing them in the past.
Rose issued a statement apologizing for his "inappropriate behavior." The networks left no doubt as to why they were interrupting Rose's broadcasts. "These allegations are extremely disturbing and we take them very seriously," CBS News said in a press release. Rose, 75, is the co-host of This Morning and a collaborator on 60 Minutes. Although Rose "sincerely apologized for his indecent behavior" and stressed that he "feels terribly uncomfortable" because "he sometimes behaved without the necessary sensitivity and takes responsibility for it", he questioned the accuracy of the facts reported against him, adding " I do not think that all these accusations are accurate ", because" I always felt that the feelings were mutual, although now I realize that I was wrong ".
The new scandal is added to a series of similar revelations that have swept the cinema, media and politics. Rose, a keen listener, is known for the serious but interesting tone with which he interviews, often by the biggest names in American politics, in a very simple setting. On the CBS morning show, his tone was noticeably lighter.
The eight complainants, all of Rose's co-workers or would-be co-workers on the show, said that from the late 1990s until 2011 he had sexually harassed them, walked around naked in front of them and repeatedly assaulted them. The eight women were between 21 and 37 years old when the events unfolded and their complaints have, as the Post noted, "surprising similarities".
The three spoke anonymously but five anonymously, fearing the consequences for their careers. One of them, assistant producer on Rose's show on PBS since the end of 2007, stressed that Rose was a "sexual predator" and that she was one of his victims in many cases.
A second, personal assistant in the mid-2000s reported that Rose had appeared naked in front of her at least ten times as she worked in one of his New York homes.
