Television icon Charlie Rose has become the latest media star to be accused of sexual misconduct, with eight women telling the Washington Post that the longtime PBS newsman made unwanted sexual advances towards them while they were employees or sought work.
“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.”
Rose also questioned the accuracy of the accusations waged against him.
The host, who also anchors “CBS This Morning,” did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.
The women who have accused him of sexual misconduct, some of whom are anonymous, say that between the 1990s and 2011 Rose groped and engaged in other nonconsensual behavior and would often walk around nude in front of them.
Megan Creydt, who served as a show coordinator in 2005, said Rose made an awelcomed 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.”
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.