CBS News has cut ties with “CBS This Morning” co-host Charlie Rose over allegations of sexual assault, CBS News president David Rhodes announced Tuesday.
“Despite Charlie’s important journalistic contribution to our news division, there is absolutely nothing more important, in this or any organization, than ensuring a safe, professional workplace-a supportive environment where people feel they can do their best work. We need to be such a place,” Rhodes said in a statement Tuesday.
Rose was suspended from the network after The Washington Post published claims from eight women who all worked or wanted to work for his PBS program. They describe Rose making unwanted sexual advances in the 1990s through 2011.
Washington Post reporter Amy Brittain spent weeks reaching out to Rose’s former employees and job seekers.
“I think that you can’t understate, you know, the level of influence and power that a man like Charlie Rose has,” Brittain said.
Several “described Rose putting his hand on their legs, sometimes their upper thigh.” One said he “groped her breasts” as she drove him in a car. Two women said he “walked naked in front of them” after taking a shower.
“Some critics might say, well why were they in position, you know, to see him naked? But the thing about Charlie Rose is that he would commonly require his employees to come over to his private homes,” Brittain said.