CBS fires Charlie Rose after misconduct claims

CBS News has fired Charlie Rose after several women accused the veteran newsman of sexual misconduct.

Rose has been one of three hosts of "CBS This Morning" since 2012 and is also a contributor to "60 Minutes." PBS and Bloomberg also suspended airings of Rose's nightly interview show after the Washington Post published an article Monday about women who said he groped them and walked around naked in front of them.

CBS News President David Rhodes said there is nothing more important than assuring a safe, professional workplace. CBS had already suspended him.

Rose's co-hosts on the morning show, Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell, were sharply critical of their colleague on Tuesday. King said the allegations did not fit the Rose she knew, but that "I'm clearly on the side of the women who have been very hurt and damaged by this."

Rose is originally from Henderson, N.C., and he has said in the past that he first honed his interviewing skills working in his father's country store in Warren Plains. After graduating from Henderson High School, Rose earned bachelor's and law degrees from Duke University.

Rose quickly got into television broadcasting, working with Bill Moyers on PBS and later anchoring "CBS News Nightwatch." In 1991, he started his own interview show on PBS.

His morning show co-hosts on CBS said they were shaken by the sexual misconduct allegations against him, but say they support the women who have come forward to tell their stories.

"CBS This Morning" was put in the unusual position of reporting on one of their own hosts as their lead story Tuesday after the Washington Post disclosed that several women accused him of groping them and walking naked in front of them.

Co-host Norah O'Donnell says it's a time of reckoning for women. She said, "This has to end."

Her co-host, Gayle King, said it's not the man she knows, but said she's on the side of the women who are hurt and damaged.