An additional 27 women have come forward to accuse Charlie Rose of sexual misconduct, the Washington Post reported in a long-awaited piece Thursday morning. Fourteen women who worked with Rose at CBS accused him of misconduct, while an additional 13 said they were harassed at other companies.
The lengthy report includes several new graphic on-the-record accounts from women, including Joana Matthias, who said Rose exposed his penis and groped her in 1976 when they worked together in the NBC News Washington bureau.
In another account from 2003, Corrina Collins, a then 20-year-old intern says that Rose invited her on a “60 Minutes II” reporting trip and pressured her to drink so much wine on the flight out that she became intoxicated and threw up. Collins told the paper that Rose proceeded to “paw” at her on the flight and then groped her breasts on their ride to their hotel.
“I want you to ride me,” she remembered him saying.
Reps for Rose did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap. In a statement, CBS said the company said they had been working to fix the culture that led to Rose going unnoticed for so long.
“Since we terminated Charlie Rose, we’ve worked to strengthen existing systems to ensure a safe environment where everyone can do their best work. Some of the actions we have taken have been reported publicly, some have not. We offer employees discretion and fairness, and we take swift action when we learn of unacceptable behavior,” said the company.
“That said, we cannot corroborate or confirm many of the situations described. We continue to look for ways to improve our workplace and this period of reflection and action has been important to all of us. We are not done with this process.”
Most damaging for CBS, the story also revealed multiples instances when company executives were alerted to Rose’s behavior and did nothing.
When Annmarie Parr, then 22, told her boss at CBS that Rose made a series of sexually suggestive comments to her in 1986, she remembers him laughing out loud at the accusation and saying “Fine, you don’t have to be alone with him anymore.” Parr declined to reveal the name of her boss to the Post.
Once one of the most iconic names in broadcast history, Rose saw his career and reputation swiftly collapse after multiple accusations of sexual harassment were revealed by the Washington Post in November 2017. Coming at the height of the #MeToo movement, Rose was promptly dropped from his anchoring perch and CBS and his “Charlie Rose Show” was pulled from PBS.