The Student News Site of Quinnipiac University

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

The Student News Site of Quinnipiac University

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

The Student News Site of Quinnipiac University

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

Undecorating Charlie Rose

[media-credit name=”Photo courtesy of Quinnipiac University” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Veteran news anchor and journalist Charlie Rose was fired by CBS after being accused of sexually harassing eight women, according to The Washington Post.

The accusations came from women that reportedly worked for the “Charlie Rose Show.”

“Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer’s sudden firings shows that journalists are not above the law. The news industry has been indispensable in bringing to light allegations against powerful men in Hollywood and politics,” Assistant Professor of Journalism Ben Bogardus said, “It shows that the networks are not protecting anyone–not even their most visible and important anchors.”

The sexual advances that Rose made towards these women included “lewd phone calls, walking around naked in their presence, or groping their breasts, buttocks or genital areas,”according to Carmon and Brittain.

Rose hosted “Charlie Rose” since 1991, had a long career in journalism and been presented with journalism awards by universities across the country.

Rose is the 23rd recipient of Quinnipiac’s Fred Friendly First Amendment Award.

The Fred Friendly Awards are named after the late Fred Friendly and have been presented by the School of Communications since 1994

Friendly was the former president of CBS News, as well as a pioneer on the documentary program, See It Now.

In light of Rose’s recent allegations, Arizona State University, University of Kansas and Duke University, Rose’s alma mater, have revoked the awards they had previously presented to Rose.

“The Fred Friendly First Amendment Award is extremely important to our School of Communications,” Vice President for Public Affairs Lynn Bushnell said, “In addition to raising the profile of the university, the award provides a myriad of opportunities for our faculty and career development administrators to meet industry leaders and make connections that have led to tremendous internship opportunities for our students.”

The award is granted to courageous journalists that strive to preserve the rights given by the First Amendment.

The award was conceived through Fred Friendly’s close friendship with university President John Lahey.

“They decided that the award would be an excellent way to honor the former CBS News president’s legacy and recognize journalists who followed in his footsteps by upholding and advancing the principles of the First Amendment, which Fred championed throughout his journalism career,” Bushnell said.

Arizona’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication presented Rose with its Award for Excellence in 2015, according Chris Ariens of TVNewser.

Dean Christopher Callahan of Arizona State University released a statement saying that the young women in the Cronkite School “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.”

Rose’s allegations were too “egregious” to ignore, according to Callahan.

The University of Kansas’ William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications presented Rose with the National Citation Award in April of 2017. The William Allen White Foundation’s board of trustees rescinded Rose’s award before issuing a statement saying that Rose “does not exemplify the ideals of this award.”

In 2000, Rose was presented with the Futrell Award by the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University. Bill Adair, director of the DeWitt Wallace Center, released a statement about revoking Rose’s award.

“The recent revelations about Rose and other media figures are disturbing signs about sexual harassment in the industry. Rescinding Rose’s Futrell Award is one way we can make clear that this conduct is not acceptable in any way. We do this as much in sadness as anger given his long relationship with the university,” Adair said.

North Carolina State University, Oswego State and Montclair State are also considering if the awards they presented to Rose should be revoked, according to an article by the Associated Press on WITN.com.

Associate Vice President of Public Relations John Morgan said the president’s cabinet will discuss Charlie Rose’s status as a Fred Friendly First Amendment recipient with School of Communications Dean Mark Contreras on Monday, Dec. 11. The university will have a response following that meeting.

The Fred Friendly First Amendment Award is presented annually by Friendly’s wife, Ruth, at the Metropolitan Club in New York City.

Previous recipients of the Fred Friendly Award include: Dan Rather, Bill Moyers, Lesley Stahl, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw, Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, Don Hewitt, Peter Jennings, Mike Wallace, Christiane Amanpour, Tom Bettag, Tim Russert, Bob Schieffer, Steve Kroft, Charles Gibson, Morley Safer, Gwen Ifill, David Fanning, Martha Raddatz, Scott Pelley, Richard Engel. The most recent recipient of the award is NBC News Anchor, Lester Holt, according to Quinnipiac University.

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