Two journalism schools have taken back the awards they'd given veteran news broadcaster Charlie Rose because of the accusations of sexual misconduct against him.
Arizona State University's journalism school announced on Friday it was rescinding the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, which Rose received in 2015, and the University of Kansas has decided to take back the William Allen White National Citation, reports The New York Times.
The Cronkite award, named for the legendary CBS anchorman, has gone to many of the leaders in journalism, including Washington Post Company chairwoman Katharine Graham, Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, and news anchors Christiane Amanpour, Gwen Ifill and Diane Sawyer.
Rose's alleged transgressions, though, were "so egregious that they demand nothing less than a reversal of history, Christopher Callahan, dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State, said in a statement.
"This unprecedented action is taken with the utmost seriousness and deliberation," he said, noting it was the first time the award has been taken back since 1984.
"We are not in the business of trying to rewrite history," he said. "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."
However, Callahan said Rose's actions caused damages beyond the news organizations for which he worked. Rose "victimized young women much like those who make up the overwhelming majority of Cronkite students," he said, adding that such students should be able to enter a workplace "where they do not have to fear for their safety or dignity."
The news broke about Rose on Monday, when The Washington Post revealed accounts from three women who said Rose had misbehaved sexually with them, including exposing himself and making inappropriate calls. Tuesday, CBS fired him, and PBS announced it was ceasing the distribution of his interview program.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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