Eight Women Claim Charlie Rose Made Lewd Calls, Groped Their Breasts, Butts

Eight Women Claim Charlie Rose Made Lewd Calls, Groped Their Breasts, Butts

Earlier today, Vox published a piece filled with sexual allegations against New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush.

Now The Washington Post has a report about eight women, who ranged in age from 21 to 37, who claim longtime television host Charlie Rose sexually harassed them between the late 1990s to 2011.

Three of the eight women spoke on the record to The Washington Post. Five remained anonymous out of fear of retribution. These women worked on the Charlie Rose show, which airs on PBS. He’s also a co-host on CBS This Morning and contributes to 60 Minutes.

CBS has suspended Rose and PBS has stopped production of his show

CBS has suspended Charlie Rose. PBS has also halted production of the Charlie Rose show. https://t.co/h76ytp3FIj

— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) November 20, 2017

These women worked for Charlie Rose, Inc, not Bloomberg LP or PBS. The company stated “they did not provide human resources support for the show.”

On The Record

From WaPo:

Reah Bravo was an intern and then associate producer for Rose’s PBS show beginning in 2007. In interviews, she described unwanted sexual advances while working for Rose at his private waterfront estate in Bellport, N.Y., and while traveling with him in cars, in a hotel suite and on a private plane.

“It has taken 10 years and a fierce moment of cultural reckoning for me to understand these moments for what they were,” she told The Post. “He was a sexual predator, and I was his victim.”

Kyle Godfrey-Ryan, one of Rose’s assistants in the mid-2000s, recalled at least a dozen instances where Rose walked nude in front of her while she worked in one of his New York City homes. He also repeatedly called the then-21-year-old late at night or early in the morning to describe his fantasies of her swimming naked in the Bellport pool as he watched from his bedroom, she said.

“It feels branded into me, the details of it,” Godfrey-Ryan said.

Yvette Vega, Rose’s longtime executive producer, told Godfrey-Ryan that the behavior is “just Charlie being Charlie.”

WOW. No wonder females don’t come forward.

Now Vega admits she should have done more to protect the young women:

“I should have stood up for them,” said Vega, 52, who has worked with Rose since the show was created in 1991. “I failed. It is crushing. I deeply regret not helping them.”

Yes. Yes, you should have. Especially since Godfrey-Ryan said that Rose fired her when he “learned she had confided to a mutual friend about his conduct, he fired her.”

Megan Creydt, who worked as a coordinator from 2005-2006, said early in her tenure she drove with Rose in his Mini Cooper when he put his hand on her mid-thigh:

“I don’t think I said anything,” she said. “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.”

Her then-boyfriend confirmed to The Post that she told him the story at the time.

Off The Record

From WaPo:

In addition to the eight women who say they were harassed, The Post spoke to about two dozen former employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Six said they saw what they considered to be harassment, eight said they were uncomfortable with Rose’s treatment of female employees, and 10 said they did not see or hear anything concerning.

Unfortunately, the job market is scarce for these jobs. One of the women who said he groped her told WaPo that if “[Y]ou know if you don’t behave a certain way, there’s someone else behind you.”

Others said that Rose often “gave unsolicited shoulder rubs” to them and they started calling this action “the crusty paw.” But some received much more:

A woman then in her 30s who was at the Bellport home in 2010 to discuss a job opportunity said Rose appeared before her in an untethered bathrobe, naked underneath. She said he subsequently attempted to put his hands down her pants. She said she pushed his hands away and wept throughout the encounter.

A woman who began as an intern in the late 1990s and was later hired full time described a “ritual” of young women at the show being summoned by Rose to his Manhattan apartment to work at a desk there. The woman described a day when Rose went into the bathroom, left the door open and turned on the shower.

She said he began to call her name, insistently. She ignored him, she said, and continued working. Suddenly, he came out of the bathroom and stood over her. She turned her head, briefly saw skin and Rose with a towel and jerked back around to avoid the sight. She said he said, “Didn’t you hear me calling you?”

She said she told someone in the office, and word got around. A few days later, she said, a male colleague approached her, laughing, “Oh, you got the shower trick.” The woman’s sister confirmed that her sibling had told her about the shower incident soon after it occurred.

Another woman said that during her internship in the early 2000s, Rose groped her breasts and stomach as she drove him from Bellport back to Manhattan. Her then-boyfriend, now husband, confirmed that she described the incident to him immediately after it occurred. When Rose invited her to work regularly and stay overnight at Bellport, her boyfriend told her to refuse the offer, and she did, both told The Post.

Rose Responds

Now that he’s been called out, Rose has apologized, but doesn’t take full responsibility. Emphasis mine:

“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.”

Let me give you a hint, guys, and I cannot believe I have to say this. UNLESS YOU ARE IN A COMMITTED RELATIONSHIP, IT IS NOT OKAY TO DO THE SHOWER TRICK.

Also, grabbing a woman’s breast or butt or putting your hand on her thigh, whether high or low, is NOT a good idea unless you’re in a relationship.

I also find his explanation complete crap. This wasn’t just one or two women. This is a handful of young females that he allegedly sexually harassed or assaulted. In other words, Rose has shown himself to be a narcissist.

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