Not long after Charlie Rose‘s PBS show was canceled, and he was fired from CBS News last November, The Washington Post began to dig deeper into a history of sexual harassment complaints against the TV host.
This morning, that five-month investigation, in which more than 100 people were interviewed, has been published.
The incidents date to 1976 when Rose worked in NBC’s Washington Bureau. A research assistant said Rose exposed himself to her. The complaints continued as recently as last April when Rose was co-host of CBS This Morning.
Rose’s response to the Post: “Your story is unfair and inaccurate.”
The Post talked to, or attempted to talk to, current and former executives who worked with Rose about specific complaints, including 60 Minutes ep Jeff Fager, where Rose had been a contributor since 1998, Chris Licht, Rose’s first ep of CBS This Morning, Ryan Kadro, the current executive producer of the show, and Yvette Vega, the longtime producer of Rose’s PBS show.
The Post also revealed a 1986 series of events, during Rose’s first stint at CBS, when he filled in on the CBS Morning News:
There, Annmarie Parr, a 22-year-old news clerk, delivered a script to Rose. He had made “lewd, little comments” about her appearance before, Parr said, but that day Rose took it further. “Annmarie, do you like sex?” she said he asked her. “Do you enjoy it? How often do you like to have sex?’” She said she laughed nervously and left.
Parr said she reported Rose’s comments to her boss — a senior producer whom she declined to name — and said she didn’t want to be alone with Rose. The producer laughed, Parr said, and told her, ‘Fine, you don’t have to be alone with him anymore.’
That same year, seven women sued CBS claiming that the workplace on the network’s overnight broadcast “Nightwatch” was “offensive and hostile” to female employees.
The women accused CBS of knowingly tolerating an environment of sexual harassment by the show’s executive producer John Huddy and unidentified other employees. Huddy, who could not be reached for comment, resigned before the suit was filed.
Huddy was also a longtime friend of Roger Ailes from their days working on the NBC program Tomorrow. Huddy’s children, Juliet and John Huddy, would go on to work as on-air talent at Fox News, when Ailes was president of the network. Juliet Huddy left the network in September 2016. Her brother, John, was let go from the network a year later.
Last October, weeks before Rose was fired by CBS, Juliet Huddy revealed she had settled a sexual harassment claim against Bill O’Reilly.