Bob Collins
Broadcast journalist Charlie Rose is now caught in his past. Several women who worked for The Charlie Rose Show between the 1990s to 2011 have told the Washington Post he made unwanted sexual advances to them including ‘lewd phone calls, walking around naked in their presence, or groping their breasts, buttocks or genital areas.’
Three of the women agreed to speak on the record.
“It has taken 10 years and a fierce moment of cultural reckoning for me to understand these moments for what they were,” Reah Bravo, a onetime intern told The Post. “He was a sexual predator, and I was his victim.”
In his statement to the paper, Rose played the “I thought they wanted it” card.
“In my 45 years in journalism, I have prided myself on being an advocate for the careers of the women with whom I have worked,” Rose said in a statement provided to The Post. “Nevertheless, in the past few days, claims have been made about my behavior toward some former female colleagues.
“It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken.
“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.”
A woman who says Rose appeared nude before her says she reported the incidents, but Rose had his enablers, in this case, his assistant, Yvette Vega.
“I explained how he inappropriately spoke to me during those times,” Kyle Godfrey-Ryan said. “She would just shrug and just say, ‘That’s just Charlie being Charlie.’ ”
“I should have stood up for them,” Vega, tells the Post. “I failed. It is crushing. I deeply regret not helping them.”
After the Post’s report, PBS announced it’s suspended broadcasts of the Charlie Rose Show. CBS followed suit, suspending him from the network’s CBS This Morning program.
