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Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is taking back the award it gave to Charlie Rose in 2015, the school’s dean Christopher Callahan said in a statement Friday.
TV journalist and talk show host Rose has been accused of sexually harassing several women and was fired by CBS. He apologized for ” inappropriate behavior” but said “I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate.”
“The Cronkite School is rescinding the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism given to Charlie Rose in 2015,” the statement read.
“This unprecedented action is taken with the utmost seriousness and deliberation. We are not in the business of trying to rewrite history.
“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,” Callahan wrote.
Though the statement acknowledged that rescinding the 2-year old award would be largely symbolic, the school felt it was especially important since the young women Rose victimized were “much like those who make up the overwhelming majority of Cronkite students.”
“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.”
After the current wave of sexual harassment and assault allegations began to come to light, Harvey Weinstein was expelled from the Motion Picture Academy and the TV Academy. Several other institutions have responded similarly to the scandals causing upheaval among media and entertainment companies.