PBS, CBS and Bloomberg will suspend the “Charlie Rose Show” after eight women accuse its host of sexual misconduct.
“PBS was shocked to learn today of these deeply disturbing allegations. We are immediately suspending distribution of ‘Charlie Rose,’” a PBS spokesperson said in a statement to TheWrap.
“Charlie Rose” is produced by Charlie Rose, Inc., an independent television production company. PBS does not fund this nightly program or supervise its production,” said the spokesperson. “But we expect our producers to provide a workplace where people feel safe and are treated with dignity and respect.”
“We are deeply disturbed to learn of these allegations and are immediately suspending the show from airing on Bloomberg TV and radio,” a spokesperson told TheWrap.
CBS also said they were removing any association with the anchor, according to reports.
Rose became the latest media icon to face the heat after the Washington Post published numerous accounts of unwanted groping and at least one instance where Rose exposed himself to another woman. The cases which span from the 1990s to 2011 generally involved women employed at his eponymous program or aspiring to work there.
In a statement, Rose broadly apologized for his actions.
“It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior,” Rose told the Post. “I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that,” he said, adding: “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.”
Megan Creydt, who served as a show coordinator in 2005, said Rose made an unwelcomed pass at her in a car.
“It was quite early in working there that he put his hand on my mid-thigh,” Creydt told the Post. “I tensed up. I didn’t move his hand off, but I pulled my legs to the other side of the car. I tried not to get in a car with him ever again. I think he was testing me out.”
As the Wrap previously reported, Rose is the latest in what has become a nearly daily torrent of powerful men in media, Hollywood and politics who have seen their reputations (and likely careers) implode in the wake of lurid allegations. Just today, news emerged that The New York Times would suspend their star political reporter Glenn Thrush over misconduct charges.