During a report detailing the sexual harassment allegations against international star Placido Domingo, CBS Evening News anchor Norah O&#8217;Donnell was caught on a hot mic inadvertently saying, “Sounds like somebody else here.”
The report segued to a reporter reading Domingo’s statement in the face of the accusations: “Still, it is painful to hear that I may have upset anyone or made them feel uncomfortable — no matter how long ago and despite my best intentions. I believed that all of my interactions and relationships were always welcomed and consensual.” As the reporter finished reading the second sentence, O’Donnell muttered off-screen, “Sounds like somebody else here.” Then the segment cut back to her.
<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7361189/Norah-ODonnell-makes-remarks-sexual-harassment-story-Placido-Domingo.html">The Daily Mail</a> noted that the audio was deleted later before it was on-air.
Last December, Brooks Harris, Sydney McNeal and Chelsea Wei <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-ent-charlie-rose-cbs-news-lawsuit-20181212-story.html">settled with CBS</a> after they filed suit accusing Charlie Rose of sexually harassing them and accused CBS of being “fully aware” of Rose’s actions. After the women accused Rose of sexual misconduct in November 2017, Rose was fired; O’Donnell <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/charlie-rose-fired-from-cbs-after-sexual-misconduct-allegations/">commented</a>, “This is a moment that demands a frank and honest assessment about where we stand and more generally the safety of women. Let me very clear. There is no excuse for this alleged behavior. It is systematic and pervasive. And I’ve been doing a lot of listening and I’m going to continue to do that. This I know is true: women cannot achieve equality in the workplace or in society until there is a reckoning and a taking of responsibility. I am really proud to work at CBS News, there are so many incredible people here, especially on this show. All of you here. This will be investigated; this has to end. This behavior is wrong.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">“This is a moment that demands a frank and honest assessment about where we stand and more generally the safety of women. Let me be very clear. There is no excuse for this alleged behavior. It is systematic and pervasive and I&#8217;ve been doing a lot of listening.&#8221; &#8212; <a href="https://twitter.com/NorahODonnell?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NorahODonnell</a> <a href="https://t.co/9P69QN7spu">pic.twitter.com/9P69QN7spu</a>
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSThisMorning/status/932944777317900288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2017</a></blockquote>
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David Rhodes, CBS president, added, “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. I’ve often heard that things used to be different. And no one may be able to correct the past. But what may once have been accepted should not ever have been acceptable.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">&#8220;I’ve often heard that things used to be different. And no one may be able to correct the past. But what may once have been accepted should not ever have been acceptable,&#8221; CBS News president David Rhodes says after company terminates Charlie Rose <a href="https://t.co/FT5YejPvKv">https://t.co/FT5YejPvKv</a> <a href="https://t.co/QoDmHOMMjL">pic.twitter.com/QoDmHOMMjL</a>
— CBS News (@CBSNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/933031638250000384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2017</a></blockquote>
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After former CBS chief Les Moonves left CBS in September 2018 following sexual harassment allegations against him, O’Donnell <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/09/norah-odonnell-les-moonves-exit-cbs-this-morning-1202461274/">stated</a> that Moonves had always treated her “fairly and with respect.” She added, “Still, for me it was another sleepless night thinking of the pain these women feel. The courage that it takes for women to come forward and talk about this. And I really didn’t know what I was going to say this morning &#8230;” She then referred to Rose’s firing ten months before:
<blockquote>10 months later, we’re still talking about this. But here’s what I said back then and I think it still holds and I want to say it again. There is no excuse for this alleged behavior. It’s systematic and it is pervasive in our culture. And this I know is true, to the core of my being: Women cannot achieve equality in the workplace or in society until there is a reckoning and a taking of responsibility … As a journalist, I am confident that the truth is going to come out. There are two prominent investigations going on with really good lawyers. This has to end. The story will continue.</blockquote>
Video of O&#8217;Donnell on hot mic below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe width="698" height="573" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>

CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell

WATCH: CBS Anchor Mutters On Hot Mic ‘Sounds Like Somebody Else Here’ During Sexual Harassment Story

Charlie Rose

During an appearance on CNN Sunday, former &#8220;CBS Evening News&#8221; anchor Scott Pelley, who is now a correspondent for CBS&#8217; &#8220;60 Minutes,&#8221; dropped some bombs on his own network, particularly the former president of the news division, whom Pelley largely blamed for his ouster.
In an interview promoting his new book, &#8220;<a data-amzn-asin="B07JD93HJ9" href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-Worth-Telling-Reporters-Meaning-ebook/dp/B07JD93HJ9">Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter&#8217;s Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times</a>,&#8221; Pelley accused management of removing him from &#8220;CBS Evening News&#8221; because he complained to management about the &#8220;hostile work environment&#8221; toward both men and women.
&#8220;I lost my job at the &#8216;Evening News&#8217; because I wouldn&#8217;t stop complaining to management about the hostile work environment,&#8221; Pelley told &#8220;Reliable Sources&#8221; host Brian Stelter, as reported by <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/ny-scott-pelley-cbs-evening-news-20190526-os22t5el3jhfde7qj64bgzi6ze-story.html">The New York Daily News</a>.
About two or three years before he was axed by the show, Pelley said, he told then-news division president David Rhodes that something must be done about how people were treated at the network. &#8220;Several years ago &#8212; four or five years ago &#8212; I went to the president of the news division and explained to him that this hostile work environment couldn&#8217;t go on for women and men,&#8221; said Pelley. &#8220;He told me that if I kept agitating about that internally, then I&#8217;d lose my job.&#8221;
After being told by the next man up the ladder at the news division (who <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/cbss-scott-pelley-blasts-former-boss-david-rhodes-for-hostile-work-environment">The Daily Beast</a> notes is presumably former CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager) that his complaints weren&#8217;t valid, Pelley said he approached then-CBS CEO and Chairman Les Moonves. Moonves, who resigned last year amid a series of #MeToo sexual harassment allegations, &#8220;listened to me very concerned for an hour, asked me some penetrating questions about what was going on,&#8221; said Pelley. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t hear back from him but in the next opportunity in my contact, I was let go from the &#8216;Evening News.'&#8221;
CBS announced on May 31, 2017 that Anthony Mason would replace Pelley, and the host officially signed off two weeks later, NY Daily News notes. Pelley was then moved over to the position of full-time correspondent with &#8220;60 Minutes,&#8221; a situation he described as &#8220;all blue sky.&#8221;
&#8220;As you say now, everything has changed,&#8221; Pelley told Stelter. &#8220;We have a new chairman of CBS Corporation, Joe Ianniello, a visionary leader. We have the first woman president of the news division, Susan Zirinsky, and I&#8217;ve known her for 30 years. &#8230; And now we have a new executive producer, Bill Owens, at 60 Minutes. It&#8217;s all blue sky from here. I&#8217;m very excited. I know these people and I know that we&#8217;re on the right track.&#8221;
Citing a &#8220;longtime CBS News insider,&#8221; The Daily Beast reports that Pelley&#8217;s &#8220;hostile work environment&#8221; complaint is likely a reference to his &#8220;ongoing &#8216;war&#8217; with Rhodes, who was known within the news division for a tough, at times intimidating, management style that demonstrated little patience for the concerns of underlings.&#8221;
In a press statement, CBS News said it &#8220;disagree[s]&#8221; with their employee&#8217;s characterization of what led to his replacement. &#8220;Scott was expressing his own opinion. We disagree. CBS News has been working hard to advocate for an inclusive, safe and dignified workplace for everyone at CBS News and Scott has been a supporter of these efforts.&#8221;
The embattled network has faced a string of ugly accusations and departures, including allegations of sexual harassment against Moonves, Flager, and former &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; host Charlie Rose.

Pelley Drops Bomb On His Own Network: Here’s The Real Reason I Was Pulled From ‘CBS Evening News’; CBS Responds

MeToo

He ain’t smelling like a rose at all.
On Thursday, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/charlie-roses-misconduct-was-widespread-at-cbs-and-three-managers-were-warned-investigation-finds/2018/05/02/80613d24-3228-11e8-94fa-32d48460b955_story.html?utm_term=.3cf3127369b2">reported</a> that longtime television host Charlie Rose has been accused of sexual misconduct by 27 more women, and managers at CBS and PBS who were informed about his alleged inappropriate behavior through the years ignored the information.
Last November, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/eight-women-say-charlie-rose-sexually-harassed-them--with-nudity-groping-and-lewd-calls/2017/11/20/9b168de8-caec-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html?utm_term=.f85e29536ef0">Post reported</a> that eight women said Rose made unwanted sexual advances toward them. But the report on Thursday went further, alleging that there were “three occasions over a period of 30 years in which CBS managers were warned of his conduct toward women at the network.”
According to the Post, a former research assistant, Joana Matthias, now 63, said that in 1976, he exposed his penis and touched her breasts when they worked in the NBC News Washington bureau. She stated, “This other personality would come through, and the groping would happen.”
The Post reported that the reports of sexual harassment to managers at CBS , where Rose was co-anchor of “CBS This Morning,” were made as far back as 1986 and as recently as April 2017. The Post wrote of an alleged incident in 1986, when Annmarie Parr, a 22-year-old news clerk, delivered a script to Rose. Parr claims that Rose had made “lewd, little comments” about her appearance before, but in this incident Rose asked her, “Annmarie, do you like sex? Do you enjoy it? How often do you like to have sex?’” Parr said she laughed nervously and exited, later reporting Rose’s comments to her boss while saying she didn’t want to be alone with Rose. Parr claims that the producer laughed and said, &#8220;Fine, you don’t have to be alone with him anymore.&#8221;
A former intern for Rose&#8217;s PBS show, Corrina Collins, said that in 2003, when she was 20, she accompanied him to California for a “60 Minutes II” assignment. She said that while on the plane, Collins said, Rose insisted she drink wine and began to “paw” her. She said she got drunk and threw up in the plane’s bathroom. Then, on the ride from the airport, Collins said, Rose squeezed her breast and insisted that they work in his hotel room, where he told her, “I want you to ride me.” She immediately left. She recalled, “It felt predatory. I had already said no, but he was going to persist.” When she returned to New York, Collins said she told Yvette Vega, the executive producer of Rose’s PBS show, who allegedly replied that Rose was harmless. Vega did not respond to a request for comment.
Rose responded to the new accusations with the simple statement, “Your story is unfair and inaccurate.”
Women who claim they were harassed by Rose at CBS News said they were afraid to inform executives because they felt the executives prioritized the careers of male stars. Sophie Gayter, 27, who worked at “60 Minutes” in 2013, told the Post that Rose groped her buttocks as they walked down an office hallway. She added, “I had been there long enough to know that it was just the way things went. People said what they wanted to you, people did what they wanted to you.”
CBS News issued a statement which said in part:
<blockquote>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. That said, we cannot corroborate or confirm many of the situations described.</blockquote>
In March, CBS News president David Rhodes said, “I was not aware of harassment by Charlie Rose at CBS.” In April, Rhodes reiterated to a forum at George Washington University, “Just to be really clear, there was not knowledge.”

This Rose Doesn’t Smell So Sweet: 27 More Women Accuse Charlie Rose Of Sexual Misconduct

Sexual Misconduct

Disgraced former PBS and CBS anchor Charlie Rose, who lost his job after being accused of several instances of sexual impropriety, may be coming back to the airwaves, according to the New York Post. And what&#8217;s worse, Rose may be capitalizing off his involvement in the #MeToo wave of sexual harassment allegations, using his on-air time to interview other men like him, who have been accused of serious sexual misconduct.
<a href="https://pagesix.com/2018/04/25/tina-brown-wants-no-part-of-charlie-roses-metoo-redemption-series/">The Post&#8217;s Page Six</a> reports that Rose is &#8220;being slated to star in a show where he’ll interview other high-profile men who have also been toppled by #MeToo scandals.&#8221; Producers of the show reportedly approached media maven Tina Brown to sponsor and co-host the show, but Brown says she refused.
Brown told an audience last week that the program would be a &#8220;Netflix&#8221; show, ostensibly aired by the web-based streaming network rather than airing on live television, and that Rose would help others, like Louis C.K. and Matt Lauer, &#8220;atone&#8221; for their past behaviors.
A source told Page Six that Netflix has nothing to do with the project.
The show is still just a rumor, but it didn&#8217;t take long for women involved in the #MeToo wave to strenuously object to the thought of big name journalists and comedians capitalizing off their past indiscretions and subsequent falls from grace.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">How do we keep this from happening? 
How many chances do these guys get? 
How about a series hosted by a woman whose career was derailed by Charlie Rose’s predation? Interviewing other women who lost jobs, money, experience, time? <a href="https://t.co/nKQ8UwKItl">https://t.co/nKQ8UwKItl</a>
— Jennifer Weiner (@jenniferweiner) <a href="https://twitter.com/jenniferweiner/status/989318578607452165?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">I am only up for this Charlie Rose show if it is a reality competition called The Reckoning &amp; it is hosted by the angry ghost of Frances Farmer.
— Emily Nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) <a href="https://twitter.com/emilynussbaum/status/989329172999917569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2018</a></blockquote>
These women are right: most of the men accused of sexual harassment as part of #MeToo also used their considerable weight in the industry to con women into sexual favors, and to keep those who didn&#8217;t play their games from finding opportunities for career advancement.
Rose, for example, is accused of inviting women to his home for &#8220;mentoring,&#8221; only to proposition them.
But a return to the spotlight for Rose and Lauer, at least, is likely inevitable. Lauer, at least, has been plotting his comeback since being booted from the &#8220;Today Show.&#8221; This is just the latest idea floated to potential audiences.

Alleged Sexual Predator Charlie Rose Pitched For ‘Comeback Show’ Where He’d Interview Other #MeToo ‘Victims’

Matt Lauer

Poetry is tough. Few of even the very best writers can pull off the demanding discipline. So we&#8217;re guessing Jeff Spicoli from &#8220;Fast Times at Ridgmont High&#8221; can&#8217;t pull it off.
Sean Penn, the weird-and-getting-weirder actor, now fancies himself a writer. He&#8217;s put out a new book titled &#8220;Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff&#8221; about a character who sells septic tanks and kills American pensioners with a mallet in order to offset their large carbon footprint (seriously).
In the epilogue, he writes a poem. Here it is:
Though warrior women 
Bravely walk the walk, 
Derivatives of disproportion 
Draw heinous hypocrites 
To their flock. 
Where did all the laughs go? 
Are you out there, Louis C.K.? 
Once crucial conversations 
Kept us on our toes; 
Was it really in our interest 
To trample Charlie Rose? 
And what&#8217;s with this &#8216;Me Too&#8217;? 
This infantilizing term of the day&#8230; 
Is this a toddler&#8217;s crusade? 
Reducing rape, slut-shaming, and suffrage to reckless child&#8217;s play? 
A platform for accusation impunity? 
Due process has lost its sheen? 
But, f[***] it, what me worry? 
I&#8217;m a hero, 
To Time Magazine!
Defending Rose and C.K., both of whom have been accused of serious sexual misconduct, struck a chord. That &#8212; and calling the Me Too movement &#8220;infantile&#8221; &#8212; has enraged feminists and supporters of the movement to empower women.
Social media is aflame with disgust over the poorly written poem.
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The Mansplain &#8211; A Poem by Sean Penn. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/metoo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#metoo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SeanPenn?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SeanPenn</a> <a href="https://t.co/m5F44modhY">pic.twitter.com/m5F44modhY</a>
&#8212; NotWearingMarchesa (@MayorMaccaNot) <a href="https://twitter.com/MayorMaccaNot/status/978886213976444929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2018</a></blockquote>
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I just read Sean Penn&#8217;s poem about the Me Too movement and I am angry at every single decision that led to this moment in time.
&#8212; Elle (@ElleSacc) <a href="https://twitter.com/ElleSacc/status/978734349746147328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I rewrote Sean Penn&#8217;s sexist <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MeToo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MeToo</a> poem:
Though this whiny man 
Thinks it&#8217;s brave to talk and talk 
Penn&#8217;s derivative literary dreams 
Ensure he&#8217;s a heinous hypocrite 
Who needs to shut the F up.
&#8212; Jason Sanford (@jasonsanford) <a href="https://twitter.com/jasonsanford/status/978977113712807957?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I have always had an intense, irrational hatred for Sean Penn. It&#8217;s so good to finally have a rational reason for that hatred after all these years!
&#8212; MisterHippity (@MisterHippity) <a href="https://twitter.com/MisterHippity/status/978729948193198080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I really expected more from the guy who beat his first wife&#8230; oh wait no I didn&#8217;t. not at all
&#8212; The Velvet Dress (@thevelvetdress_) <a href="https://twitter.com/thevelvetdress_/status/978772427789357056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Penn was charged with felony assault when he was married to pop star Madonna in the late 1980s, but the case ended with Penn pleading guilty to a misdemeanor.
We&#8217;re sorry, too, if you&#8217;ve actually read Penn&#8217;s poem. To clear your poetic palate, here&#8217;s a wonderful poem from 1941 called <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/37695/forgetfulness">&#8220;Forgetfulness&#8221;</a> by Billy Collins.

#MeToo Movement Absolutely Horrified By Sean Penn Poem

Louis CK

Sean Penn

The year 2017 unfolded into a massive surprise to liberals, who fully expected that before Christmas we would (a) all die in a nuclear war over President Donald Trump&#8217;s tweets or (b) be swearing in President Mike Pence after Trump was impeached or petulantly quit because the news media were full of meanies.
More than ever, the media see themselves as valiant tellers of truth. More than ever, thanks to the man to whose destruction they are committed, most Americans peg them as emotionally intense &#8212; putting it nicely &#8212; leftists.
As the year began, Barack Obama exited the national stage. His ultra-liberal reign ended almost exactly as it began: with weeping over his wonderfulness &#8212; literally. Take NBC&#8217;s now-disgraced Matt Lauer, who said on Jan. 13: &#8220;President Obama surprising his vice president, Joe Biden, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. &#8230; So I&#8217;m glad there were no cameras in my apartment yesterday &#8217;cause I was sitting there just weeping. I just burst out crying when I saw that moment. It was incredible.&#8221; Oh-so-sensitive Lauer was exposed as a crude alleged subordinate-pawing sexual harasser and fired in late November.
MSNBC&#8217;s Chris Matthews still has chills and thrills up his leg over Obama. He asked rhetorically on Jan. 18: &#8220;Is there a husband, a father, that we would wish more as a model for our sons, for our sons-in-law to have and raise our grandchildren? Is there anyone who carries himself better in word, in sentiment, in temperament, in optimism?&#8221;
In equal measure, they cannot stomach the fact that Donald Trump is president. Matthews came seriously unglued on Inauguration Day. He thought Trump&#8217;s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was already on his way out. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard &#8230; to fire your son-in-law,&#8221; he declared, &#8220;but Mussolini had a great solution to that. He had him executed.&#8221; Rachel Maddow replied, &#8220;Jesus, Chris!&#8221; Matthews added, &#8220;So if I were Jared, I&#8217;d be a little careful.&#8221;
CNN anchorman Don Lemon couldn&#8217;t hide his feelings after Trump&#8217;s Aug. 22 speech in Phoenix. &#8220;He&#8217;s unhinged,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s embarrassing &#8212; and I don&#8217;t mean for us, the media, because he went after us, but for the country. This is who we elected president of the United States? &#8230; There was no gravitas. There was no sanity there.&#8221;
Lemon&#8217;s colleague Reza Aslan hosted a CNN program on religion until he tweeted this message about the president on June 3 after a London terrorist attack: &#8220;This piece of s&#8212; is not just an embarrassment to America and a stain on the presidency. He&#8217;s an embarrassment to humankind.&#8221;
On MSNBC on Nov. 30, Joe Scarborough claimed Trump was literally suffering from dementia. &#8220;You have somebody inside the White House that the New York Daily News says is mentally unfit, that people close to him say is mentally unfit, that people close to him during the campaign told me had early stages of dementia,&#8221; he said.
The folks at PBS (When will Republicans ever defund this mockery of journalism?) thought Trump&#8217;s crazy religious backers had distinguished ancestors. NPR host Kurt Andersen declared that America&#8217;s Founding Fathers were &#8220;a theocratic cult of religious nuts&#8221; in an interview with then-PBS host Charlie Rose. Rose could only respond: &#8220;Right. Right.&#8221; That is why no one will miss Rose, who always had a soft touch for liberal guests and a tight squeeze (or, some say, an open robe) for his female employees.
Let&#8217;s close with the late-night comedians, who double down on the media&#8217;s arrogance. On CBS, Stephen Colbert told the president: &#8220;You&#8217;re the glutton with the button. You are a regular Gorge Washington. You are the presi-dunce, but you&#8217;re turning into a real prick-tator.&#8221; He added, &#8220;the only thing your mouth is good for&#8221; is acting as a holster for Russian President Vladimir Putin&#8217;s penis.
That&#8217;s how classy 2017 was, because there&#8217;s one thing at which liberals feel they excel: unifying the country with civil discourse.
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM

BOZELL & GRAHAM: The Year Of Media Freakouts

Barack Obama

Democratic Party

Don Lemon

Donald Trump

Media Bias

Republican Party

Stephen Colbert

At the close of 2017, no less than seven prominent male hosts and editors of influential government-sponsored radio and television shows are out of work amid claims of sexual harassment.
According to their accusers, the alleged Malevolent Seven are powerful pervs and creeps who&#8217;ve been running wild at NPR and PBS for decades, sponsored and subsidized by taxpayers and corporate donors.
In August, award-winning broadcast and radio host John Hockenberry departed from his public radio program &#8220;The Takeaway&#8221; on New York City&#8217;s NPR affiliate, which garnered a peak audience of nearly 3 million weekly listeners on more than 270 stations. Female producers and interns accused him of harassment and bullying before and after he deployed his golden parachute. Hockenberry says he&#8217;s &#8220;horrified&#8221; by the allegations.
In October, NPR&#8217;s former editorial director and senior vice president of news, Michael Oreskes, was ousted from his perch after several women claimed he forcibly kissed them in the 1990s while seeking jobs at his previous employer, The New York Times.
That same month, NPR launched an investigation of veteran Minnesota Public Radio host Garrison Keillor, creator of &#8220;A Prairie Home Companion.&#8221; The liberal icon penned a column defending fellow sexual harassment suspect Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., in late November; the next day, NPR fired him for inappropriate behavior involving at least one female co-worker. Keillor says the only incident he recalls involves inadvertently slipping his hand up the bare back of a &#8220;friend.&#8221;
Also on the Thanksgiving holiday chopping block: PBS fixture and CBS morning news star Charlie Rose, who reportedly groped, grabbed, phone-harassed and exposed himself to upwards of eight female employees, interns and job applicants dating back to the 1990s.
At the end of November, NPR canned Chief News Editor David Sweeney following an internal review after four of the public radio network&#8217;s female employees lodged formal complaints involving unwanted kisses, attention and gifts.
In mid-December, Boston-based Tom Ashbrook, host of NPR&#8217;s &#8220;On Point&#8221; live morning show broadcast on 290 NPR affiliates stations for the past 16 years, was suspended after young women alleged he gave &#8220;creepy&#8221; sex talks, hugs and back rubs in the studio. Ashbrook says he was &#8220;stunned&#8221; to learn of the charges.
And last week, PBS suspended weeknight host Tavis Smiley, whose interview show airs in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Southern California and nationwide &#8212; with major corporate underwriting from Walmart. He also hosted a podcast on NPR. Smiley has waged an aggressive campaign defending himself against his employer&#8217;s witch hunt &#8220;gone too far.&#8221;
I can&#8217;t tell you who&#8217;s lying and who&#8217;s telling the truth, but I know with absolute certitude that all seven of these men are left-leaning journalists and pundits encrusted in the public broadcasting establishment.
This is a golden opportunity for President Donald Trump to drain the elitist media swamps and inject true intellectual diversity in the newsrooms of NPR and PBS. Liberal bias at these Beltway institutions is notorious &#8212; from NPR legal analyst Nina Totenberg wishing AIDS upon Sen. Jesse Helms and his grandchildren as &#8220;retributive justice,&#8221; to &#8220;Sesame Street&#8217;s&#8221; Oscar the Grouch mocking Fox News on PBS, to top NPR executives slamming the tea party movement as &#8220;scary&#8221; and &#8220;racist&#8221; to the undercover journalists of Project Veritas.
If pushover Republicans can&#8217;t bring themselves to fully defund NPR and PBS, can&#8217;t they at least step up and advocate for hosts and editors who keep their hands to themselves and refrain from insulting the people in flyover country who keep their rackets afloat?
What better time, in the wake of liberal hypocrisy and sexual harassment self-implosions, to bring real balance to government-sponsored programming?
So far, the moment is being squandered. The replacements announced for Charlie Rose on PBS are BBC correspondent Katty Kay and former CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour.
That&#8217;s right. Two liberal British female journalists.
Come on, Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Do better, D.C.
All things considered, we could use a little more &#8220;America First&#8221; and a little less globaloney and groupthink from NPR and PBS. I can think of a conservative female journalist or 12 up to the task.
Michelle Malkin is host of &#8220;Michelle Malkin Investigates&#8221; on CRTV.com. Her email address is writemalkin@gmail.com. To find out more about Michelle Malkin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM

MALKIN: Time For Trump Makeover Of Lib NPR And PBS

National Public Radio (NPR)

Trump Administration

The swift revolution against sexual harassment is ending the careers of a series of media &#8220;icons,&#8221; left and right. But perhaps nowhere is this hypocrisy more notable (and deeper) than at PBS and NPR. These were the entities that made sexual harassment the boiling feminist issue when Anita Hill testified during Clarence Thomas&#8217; confirmation hearing in 1991.
Here&#8217;s an easy question: Why didn&#8217;t this sudden spirit of self-discovery and investigation happen back then? Or in any year since? It could have happened when then-President Bill Clinton settled with Paula Jones in 1998, or even last year as these networks enjoyed reporting on sexual harassment scandals inside Fox News. All along the way, it appears that very same sexual harassment was alive at both PBS and NPR.
And mum was the word.
In case you missed the trend &#8212; and with all the other scandals breaking, who could blame you? &#8212; on Nov. 1, NPR first forced out its vice president of news, Michael Oreskes, following accusations of sexual harassment during his tenure at NPR and The New York Times. Soon after he stepped down, five complaints were filed by women of NPR. On Nov. 3, The Washington Post said that &#8220;NPR&#8217;s employees unleashed their fury&#8221; at CEO Jarl Mohn &#8220;over his handling of a sexual harassment scandal that appears to have spread.&#8221; A few days later, Mohn took a medical leave.
The TV folks at PBS followed on Nov. 21, when they abruptly ended its broadcasts of longtime talk-show host Charlie Rose.
On Nov. 29, NPR followed that by firing Chief News Editor David Sweeney, who&#8217;d been at the taxpayer-subsidized radio network since 1993, for allegedly harassing subordinates.
That same day, Minnesota Public Radio cut all business ties with star Garrison Keillor of &#8220;A Prairie Home Companion&#8221; for alleged sexual misconduct. Keillor was especially dismissive of the charges, which came right after he wrote a Washington Post commentary in which he ridiculed the demands for Sen. Al Franken to resign over allegedly groping women as &#8220;absurd.&#8221; Confident of his sex appeal at age 75, Keillor boasted, &#8220;If I had a dollar for every woman who asked to take a selfie with me and who slipped an arm around me and let it drift down below the beltline, I&#8217;d have at least a hundred dollars.&#8221;
Indeed, there seems to have been something smarmy about Keillor all along. Meet Garrison Keillor: sexual harassment victim. Howard Mortman of C-SPAN tweeted out an old National Press Club address by Keillor from April 7, 1994, in which Keillor proclaimed, &#8220;A world in which there is no sexual harassment at all is a world in which there will not be any flirtation.&#8221;
This line did not make the press accounts at the time. Instead, the Associated Press reported the part of the speech where Keillor &#8220;chided the press&#8221; for trying to keep from the American people the &#8220;terrible truth&#8221; that &#8220;America gets along pretty well,&#8221; and the fact that Clinton &#8220;is a soulful man&#8221; who &#8220;enjoys his work.&#8221;
Bill Clinton, soulful harasser &#8230; meet Garrison Keillor, soulful harasser.
The bifurcated public funding/private business nature of public broadcasting made men like Rose and Keillor less accountable, as there was not always a human resources department to handle complaints. They are profit-making multimillionaire contractors who acted as their own bosses. Their female employees were sitting ducks.
In what way, then, is &#8220;public&#8221; broadcasting morally superior to corporate broadcasting? And how deep is the hypocrisy on the left considering it waited decades to hold sexual harassers in its own taxpayer-funded ideological sandboxes accountable? They don&#8217;t deserve one more red cent from taxpaying Americans.
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM

BOZELL & GRAHAM: NPR And PBS, The Biggest Harassment Hypocrites

Bill Clinton

It&#8217;s been a bad week for CBS. The network&#8217;s long-time star <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/23815/shock-eight-women-accuse-pbss-charlie-rose-sexual-emily-zanotti">Charlie Rose</a> fell to earth with a mainstream media-shaking thud amid several allegations of sexual harassment. Now the network is getting slapped with a lawsuit for alleged sex discrimination revolving around behavior that left one former long-time employee &#8220;shocked.&#8221;
In a federal lawsuit filed in Manhattan, Erin Gee, who worked with the network for 17 years, claims that her complaints against an executive in the company for sexist and inappropriate behavior went ignored, something she blames on the &#8220;boys&#8217; club&#8221; mentality that permeates the company.
Gee, 44, claims that in 2011 her former boss at &#8220;CBS Evening News,&#8221; Robert Klug, advised her to have sex with the cameraman to resolve a dispute, the <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/11/26/cbs-told-me-to-sleep-with-coworkers-to-get-ahead-suit/">New York Post</a> reports. She says she complained to a senior producer but the network took no action. She also alleges that another employee told her Klug once asked him if he&#8217;d slept with Gee or any of the other women &#8220;under his supervision.&#8221; She filed another complaint about Klug and other instances of sexual discrimination in 2015 and, again, the network did nothing.
The suit claims that while Gee was working with &#8220;CBS Evening News&#8221; in 2011, Klug told her that she should &#8220;have sex&#8221; with the video editor with whom she&#8217;d had some disputes, &#8220;to break the ice.&#8221;
&#8220;I was in a state of shock,&#8221; said Gee. &#8220;I couldn&#8217;t believe that was his advice. I was looking for help, and he looked at me like, &#8216;You don&#8217;t matter, and this is what you should do to make this guy like you.'&#8221;
Gee says she told a senior producer about the incident and he claimed that he informed an executive producer about it, but &#8220;nothing was done.&#8221;
Soon after the alleged incident, Klug was promoted to executive director for CBS News. That&#8217;s when another employee approached Gee about a comment Klug made. The Post reports:
<blockquote>Klug was eventually promoted to executive director for CBS News, and shortly after, another male boss told Gee that Klug “had asked him whether he had had sex with her or the other women under his supervision,” the suit says.
That boss “told me that story because he was very upset,” Gee said.</blockquote>
Gee included that comment as well as other evidence of alleged &#8220;sexist&#8221; behavior at the network in a formal complaint she filed in 2015.
Soon after she filed the complaint, Gee says she was demoted to the weekend newscast for &#8220;behavioral problems,&#8221; though she had never been warned about any issues.
Gee says her goal in the formal complaint was simply to be given &#8220;the same opportunities&#8221; as men in the network, noting that over her 17 years in the company, &#8220;I never saw a female director direct the evening news.&#8221;
Though her discrimination claim was dismissed in March by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, citing lack of enough information to establish a clear violation, she still has the right to pursue the lawsuit, which she is doing.
The Post reports that CBS denies Gee&#8217;s allegations against both the company and Klug, describing them as &#8220;wholly without merit&#8221; and maintaining that she was &#8220;treated in a nondiscriminatory and nonretaliatory manner.&#8221;
​

‘Sexist’ CBS Hit Again: Former Producer Sues After ‘Shocking’ Advice From Boss

Sexism

On Friday, two universities announced that in light of the allegations against Charlie Rose, they would be taking back the journalism awards they had previously given to the longtime PBS host.
In an official statement, Christopher Callahan, the dean of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, which awarded Rose the &#8220;Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism&#8221; in 2015, <a href="https://cronkite.asu.edu/news-and-events/news/statement-cronkite-dean-rescinding-2015-award-charlie-rose">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>This unprecedented action is taken with the utmost seriousness and deliberation. We are not in the business of trying to rewrite history. The Cronkite Award is bestowed each year to celebrate a great journalist, our school, our students, our alumni and our profession. It is a lifetime achievement award. It does not come with term limits. It is given in perpetuity. The idea of “taking back” a Cronkite Award is so foreign that the possibility was never even considered when the award was first created by Walter, the school and the Cronkite Endowment Board of Trustees more than 30 years ago.
We give the award each year based on the knowledge we have of a recipient at that time. When new information about a recipient surfaces, the question we ask is not whether the award would be given again with a new set of facts, but whether the transgressions are so egregious that they demand nothing less than a reversal of history.
I believe Mr. Rose’s actions of sexual misconduct reported by The Washington Post and other media outlets, which are largely unrefuted, rise to that level. The damage caused by Mr. Rose’s actions extends far beyond the news organizations for which he worked. The actions victimized young women much like those who make up the overwhelming majority of Cronkite students – young women who deserve to enter workplaces that reward them for their hard work, intelligence and creativity and where they do not have to fear for their safety or dignity. In rescinding this award, we hope to send an unequivocal message that what Mr. Rose did is unacceptable, and that such behavior – far too common in not just media companies but many organizations – must stop.</blockquote>
While Callahan did acknowledge that the rescinding of Rose’s 2015 award is merely &#8220;symbolic,&#8221; he insisted that it’s an important move nonetheless, and that it was made with &#8220;input from scores of Cronkite School stakeholders,&#8221; including students and faculty.
University of Kansas’ William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, which gave their &#8220;William Allen Foundation National Citation Award&#8221; to Rose in 2017, also released a statement, which <a href="http://journalism.ku.edu/william-allen-white-board-trustees-votes-rescind-national-citation-award-charlie-rose">reads in part</a>:
<blockquote>The William Allen White Foundation Board of Trustees has voted to rescind the National Citation award presented to journalist Charlie Rose.
Since 1950, the William Allen Foundation National Citation Award has honored American journalists who exemplify William Allen White’s ideals in service to their profession and community. In 2017, the foundation presented the award to journalist Charlie Rose. After recent reports detailed sexual harassment and a pattern of unprofessional behavior by Rose during his career, the William Allen White Foundation decided that Rose does not exemplify the ideals of this award.</blockquote>
On Wednesday, Rose was accused of sexual harassment and assault by eight different women in a bombshell report from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/eight-women-say-charlie-rose-sexually-harassed-them--with-nudity-groping-and-lewd-calls/2017/11/20/9b168de8-caec-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html?utm_term=.49bfef98fb9c">The Washington Post</a>.

Two Universities Rescind Journalism Awards Previously Given To Charlie Rose

Sexual Assault

The privileged and prestigious professional life of Charlie Rose came to a shocking end this week. In the latest lurid front-page testimony on powerful men, the Washington Post reported that eight women have accused Rose of brutish and exhibitionist behavior. They said new employees were sometimes rubbed on the shoulders by his &#8220;crusty paw,&#8221; and that he liked walking out naked in front of female staffers. Boom. CBS and PBS abruptly fired him.
&#8203;This was shocking to people who watched Rose glide along with elites. He seemed to be a courtly Southern gentleman on air. But that turned out to be deeply false. His ego was immense, while his humble, facilitating TV persona seemed the polar opposite of an aggressive questioner like his late &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; colleague Mike Wallace.
&#8203;Did Rose see his day of reckoning drawing nearer in the wake of the Donald Trump &#8220;Access Hollywood&#8221; tape and the Harvey Weinstein wave? You couldn&#8217;t tell from his interviews. He asked former magazine editor Tina Brown about Weinstein&#8217;s rapacious ways and sympathized with Amy Schumer&#8217;s tale of sexual assault. He let New York Times columnist David Brooks blame the hostile environment on the bubble of impunity surrounding former President Bill Clinton. He scolded Steve Bannon about President Trump&#8217;s &#8220;locker-room talk&#8221; with Billy Bush.
&#8203;Rose even let &#8220;Full Frontal&#8221; host Samantha Bee use him for a satirical skit for TBS last summer titled &#8220;What Are You Hiding, Charlie Rose?&#8221; The two were in his studio with the typical black backdrop, and when Bee turned on the lights, creepy clones of Rose were revealed to be hiding in the darkness. Her face was horrified as one clone pawed her shoulder.
&#8203;Perhaps like so many others of the ruling elite, Rose believed he was untouchable. (Apparently, lots of people thought that!) Rose must have believed that anyone he had wronged would never come forward. Even when they did, he insisted there was no &#8220;wrongdoing.&#8221; Like many self-absorbed lechers caught up in this, well, &#8220;malestrom,&#8221; he sounded clueless about his behavior. He put out a statement that included this sentence about his aggressive advances: &#8220;I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though now I realize I was mistaken.&#8221;
&#8203;The idea of a 75-year-old man strolling around naked in front of a college-age assistant like he is grade A material is the definition of delusion. He&#8217;s just a dirty old man. It sounds like someone who always believed the old Henry Kissinger axiom &#8220;Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac,&#8221; or in his case, that sitting and listening to the powerful and stroking their egos on public TV made him irresistible.
&#8203;It was a slightly gentler echo of the comedian Louis C.K., who caused unintentional laughter by admitting, &#8220;At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay, because I never showed a woman my d&#8212; without asking first.&#8221; He had to be taught that disrobing and masturbating in front of women he&#8217;d just met was for them a &#8220;predicament.&#8221;
&#8203;Every powerful man who is getting caught up in this wave isn&#8217;t living by the Ten Commandments but by the &#8220;Access Hollywood&#8221; code: When you&#8217;re a star, the women will let you do it. You can do anything.
&#8203;Charlie Rose exploited women for decades as he produced shows at Bloomberg&#8217;s TV studio for PBS and hosted shows on CBS. None of those news agencies ever seemed to find any wrongdoing inside their own offices worth reporting. The embarrassment and shame should also be theirs.
&#8203;L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM

The Abrupt Shaming of Charlie Rose

On Tuesday, Gayle King and Norah O&#8217;Donnell, co-hosts of &#8220;CBS This Morning,&#8221; denounced their colleague Charlie Rose after allegations that he sexually harassed women.
On Monday, The Washington Post published a blistering report alleging that the veteran reporter harassed women in the office with lewd comments, unwanted advances and appearing before others while dressed inappropriately. Rose has since been suspended from his duties by CBS; PBS and Bloomberg, who both distribute his &#8220;Charlie Rose&#8221; program, have also suspended business with him.
Both King and O&#8217;Donnell denied having knowledge of the harassment.
“None of us ever thought we’d be sitting at this table in particular telling this story, but here we are,” said King. “This is not the man I know, but I’m clearly on the side of the women who have been very hurt and very damaged by this.&#8221;
O&#8217;Donnell made no excuses for Rose either and said a &#8220;reckoning&#8221; must take place for such men.
“Let me be clear: There is no excuse for this alleged behavior,&#8221; she said. “This I know is true: Women cannot achieve equality in the workplace or society until there is reckoning. This will be investigated. This has to end. This behavior is wrong, period.”
As noted by <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/cbs-this-morning-charlie-rose-norah-odonnell-gayle-king-sexual-harassment-1202620400/">Variety</a>, the potential departure of Rose puts the &#8220;CBS This Morning&#8221; program at serious risk, considering that Americans largely tune in to ABC’s “Good Morning America” and NBC’s “Today.&#8221; The program&#8217;s ratings recently saw an uptick, largely thanks to Rose; those may quickly wane.
<blockquote>Rose has been integral to the effort. While “CBS This Morning” has its fair share of celebrity interviews, the show places more of a focus on harder news. There are more stories about business and foreign affairs than on its two rivals, and the program eschews cooking segments and other morning-time frivolities. Rose, 75 years old, adds gravitas to the program, thanks to his many years of nabbing longform interviews with heads of state and business on “Charlie Rose,” the program he has done for PBS nationally since 1994.</blockquote>
Rose has since offered up an apology for his &#8220;inappropriate behavior&#8221; and accepts responsibility.
“It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate,” Rose said in a statement. “I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken.”

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