Three women file suit against Rose, CBS
Three women filed a lawsuit in New York State Court on Friday against Charlie Rose and CBS News, alleging the television host had sexually harassed them and the network had been “fully aware” of his behaviour toward women.
The litigation marks the first known legal filing against Rose concerning sexual harassment. His alleged inappropriate behaviour toward more than a total of 35 women has been the subject of two Washington Post in - vestigations in the past five months.
“This case is about blatant and repeated sexual harassment committed by Charlie Rose, a 70- plus- year- old powerful American television journalist and talk show host, against three junior female employees in their 20s, and subsequent unlawful retaliation,” according to the complaint, which describes Rose’s conduct as “deplorable.”
CBS News and Rose did not immediately respond for comment on the litigation. Rose apologized in November for his behaviour. In the latest Post report, he called the new allegations “unfair and inaccurate.” CBS News president David Rhodes has said publicly there “was not knowledge” of Rose’s sexual harassment.
In November, The Washington Post reported on allegations of eight women who said Rose sexually harassed them at his namesake PBS program.
The Post published a follow-up report this week that revealed an additional 27 accusers who said Rose had acted inappropriately toward them, including groping their bodies and making lewd sexual remarks, among other acts. Fourteen of the women worked at CBS News, where, The Post reported, three managers had been warned about him, as far back as 1986 and as recently as 2017.
Two of t he plaintiffs, Brooks Harris and Chelsea Wei, worked with Rose at CBS This Morning, where he was a co-anchor until his Nov. 21 firing. Harris left CBS last April to work for Rose at PBS, where the third plaintiff, Sydney McNeal, also worked as one of his assistants. Both Harris and McNeal lost their jobs after Rose’s PBS show was cancelled in the wake of the Post’s reporting.
According to the complaint, CBS “unlawfully failed and refused to take any remedial actoin and allowed Mr. Rose to continue to sexually harass” both the plaintiffs and other employees.
Among the allegations: Rexose repeatedly s ually touched the women, including “caressing and touching their amrs, shoulders, wais t and back, pulling them close to his body and kissing them on the cheek.”