Chris Cuomo accused of sexual harassment by his former ABC boss
Shelley Ross details the alleged 2005 interaction in an essay for the New York Times
Aux News Chris Cuomo
Television journalist and former executive producer Shelley Ross alleges in a guest essay for the New York Times that Chris Cuomo sexually harassed her during their tenure at ABC. The alleged incident occurred at a going-away party held for a coworker in 2005.
In the column, Ross writes that current CNN anchor Cuomo wrapped her in a hug and then lowered “one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock” before joking that he was allowed to do it now since she was “no longer [his] boss.” After pushing him away, Ross and her husband—who witnessed the alleged misconduct—left the party.
Ross says that Cuomo apologized for his behavior about an hour later. He sent her an email with the subject line “Now that I think of it… I am ashamed.” According to a photo of the email provided by Ross, Cuomo also apologized to her husband. “Pass along my apology to your very good and noble husband… and I apologize to you as well, for even putting you in such a position,” the email read.
Upon receiving the email, Ross says she had one glaring question. “Soon after, I received the email from Mr. Cuomo about being ‘ashamed.’ He should have been. But my question today is the same as it was then: Was he ashamed of what he did, or was he embarrassed because my husband saw it?”
Near the end of the column, Ross writes that she decided to share her story not because she wants Cuomo to get booted from his CNN gig, but because she wishes for him to take some accountability. “I have no grudge against Mr. Cuomo; I’m not looking for him to lose his job. Rather, this is an opportunity for him and his employer to show what accountability can look like in the MeToo era.”
“I’m not asking for Mr. Cuomo to become the next casualty in this continuing terrible story,” she adds. “I hope he stays at CNN forever if he chooses. I would, however, like to see him journalistically repent: agree on air to study the impact of sexism, harassment and gender bias in the workplace, including his own, and then report on it.”
In a statement provided to NYT, Cuomo said, “As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature. It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologized to her then, and I meant it.”
116 Comments
Oh no. First it’s Andrew, now Chris… who’s next, Rivers? Please don’t let it be Rivers.
If it’s Rivers, it’s probably going to be some creepy thing with a too-young fan.
A half Japanese girl?
Aren’t they the ones who do it to him every time, goddamn them?
I mean, I’m guessing that kinda thing stays in his head for the most part, when he’s not singing it on a record, that is. Which he ended up being so embarassed with he never did it again.In any case, despite the fact that unlike saints like us he is inclined to THINK creepy shit (and sometimes sing his thoughts), I don’t think he would act on it.So that’s how I would assess him. Let’s hope I’m right.
Rivers? Say it ain’t so!
I think it’ll be zombie Mario.
Too busy trying to watch Grunge leg drop New Jack through a press table.
He’s tired of having sex. So tired…
How many sweaters must you destroy?!?!
Let’s be honest… Aren’t we all a LITTLE surprised it was Chris before Rivers?
‘It happened 16 years ago…’, ah yes, the olden times when it was perfectly fine to grab your boss’s ass! Fuck, these guys just don’t get it.
“Fuck, these guys just don’t get it.”
Clearly not, since in the SIXTEEN YEARS SINCE he has never bothered to apologize. Not once.
For real. Also, his claim that it “was not sexual in nature”… the fuck else do you think grabbing someone’s ass implies?
“It was not sexual in nature. It was about power and putting a woman in her place. I didn’t want to fuck her, I just wanted to destroy her soul a little bit.”
Now you got it!
Wait, you mean when me and the boys were playing grab ass in the locker room in high school we were actually…flirting? Geeze, now I have to sit and reassess my whole life.
maybe you weren’t
You know what they say, you can’t spell reassess without ass.
He’s merely agreeing w9th Ross’ claim “I never thought that Mr. Cuomo’s behavior was sexual in nature, while not acknowledging the next part: “His form of sexual harassment was a hostile act meant to diminish and belittle his female former boss in front of the staff.”
He likes them firm and fruity! Okay, that wasn’t an ass, but you get the idea…
It happened SO LONG AGO that his apology was in the form of an email.
Don’t you remember 2005. We were just walking around sexual harassing everyone, as was the style at the time
The onions on belts were just a ploy to get women to glance in that direction. (Who doesn’t look at an onion? It’s irresistible!)
It was a different time 16 years ago. We all thought M. Night was the next Spielberg
Well, clearly the lesson to learn from this is “never apologize,” especially in a text format.
If he actually did learn a lesson from that, and refrained from that sort of behavior in the intervening years…it kinda would be a lesson to take.He could have just said ‘nuh uh’, no one else would have come forward to say ‘yuh huh’, and that would be that.Wait, her husband saw it. Nevermind. He could have said ‘yuh huh, totally saw you do it bro, remember?’
Even so…this is pretty minor and he apologized for it pretty darn quickly. I just cannot be really mad about this.
Oh, yeah sexual assault is never a ‘big deal’. Nudge nudge, wink wink, knowwhatImean, knowwhatI mean?
Obviously sexual assault can be a big deal, and frequently is. ‘Sexual assault’, though, is a pretty broad term.
Having your butt squeezed by someone who doesn’t have power over you just isn’t that big a deal. I’ve had my butt grabbed by people whom I was not in favor of grabbing my butt. I didn’t love it, but…oh well? I’m not going to say that people should be free to just go around grabbing butts, especially not the butts of employees or subordinates or strangers that might immediately jump to the conclusion that they’re in a position for that to be the prelude to something much worse.
But in this situation? Oh well. He did a jerky thing, he said he was sorry without being prompted. In terms of a violation, this is not that far off of eating someone’s lunch out of the work fridge for a week straight.
Gosh, you didn’t have a problem with being assaulted so that means everyone else should feel about it exactly the same way you do, right? Get the fuck out of here you harassment apologist
are you a waitress from a 1940s diner? random ass grabbing is never ok.
Boys will be boys.
Women should feel flattered when guys grab a piece of their anatomy.
If she didn’t want to be assaulted, she shouldn’t have chosen to be a woman.
Legal, schmegal. Everyone breaks the law now and then, amirite?
Anyway, she should be flattered. Oh, wait, I already said that, didn’t I?
/s in case you couldn’t tell.
Once again, sexual assault is a crime. Seriously, dude, don’t ‘it’s no big deal’ it. It certainly is a big deal.
And even now, KateH, we’re still having these arguments. It feels like “Didn’t we settle this decades ago…?”
And it’s a factor now because he was part of the “Brain Trust” his brother, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, used to see if he could talk his own way out of charges of being a sexual predator.Sounds to me like Chris Cuomo didn’t learn shit, and only apologized because he didn’t want her husband beating him up like he deserved….
I hadn’t heard that, but…what’s your expectation with regards to The Brothers Cuomo? That Chris isn’t going to try and help Andrew? People treat friends and family differently than they treat strangers. If your brother(or sister, or parent) were charged with theft, would you help them pay for a lawyer, or tell them to fuck their criminal ass off to jail?It’s not to say that Chris has undoubtedly taken the lesson of 15 years ago to heart – it’s early yet, and maybe we’ll get more women coming forward to say that he touched them inappropriately as well. That’s the test – aiding family is not.
Inspector Hammer — that’s right, play the “Family Values” card!The point is what Chris’s advice to Andrew clearly wasn’t — to publicly apologize for his behavior, and to take steps to show his contrition was genuine.
Sometimes you “Boyz Will Be Boyz” dudes make me ashamed to be a Straight White Male….
You know, for all the people joking about how 2005 wasn’t a long time ago, the post you’re replying to kind of makes the counter-argument – the idea that “people inappropriately touch each other sometimes, it’s not cool, but you don’t make a big deal about it” was so prevalent that for men of a certain age seems like common sense.It’s doubly ironic because that was the same year that some dickhead at a party grabbed my wife’s ass, then grabbed her by the wrists when she smacked him. Our friends who were hosting the party didn’t ask him to leave because he was their friend and was just being silly. The guy got cancer a few years later, and tragically he survived.
Sadly, MiFroChi, that they’re still saying this shows that 2005 is still with us…
He was a dickhead, and should have been publicly shamed and punished, your friends we dickheads too, because they let it go despite being your “friends”, but should the guy have died of cancer because of it?
No, of course not, you fucking monster.
“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”
Wink, Wink, Nudge! Nudge!Say no more! Say no more!
You guys just can’t help showing how mad you are at women who dare to speak up, can you?
No, the lesson is apologize in fucking person. Leaves no record, and isn’t cowardly either.Although that’s just the sexual harasser’s lesson. The decent man’s lesson is, do not grab a woman’s ass without permission! I’ve never done anything that would call for this kind of apology, and that isn’t a bragging or heroic statement, it is bare minimum of reasonable behavior. It is long past time that men started demanding that other men live up to that minimum instead of making excuses while looking uncomfortable.
Do law firms provide a family discount, 2 for 1 ?
No way, buddy. The board at Time’s Up ain’t falling for this one again.
The family rate should be a surcharge father than a discount.
Italians are at it again!
At least she didn’t make him cry by calling him Fredo.
“Dammit, my brother already used the ‘I’m just Italian’ excuse!”
Uh oh, Fredo. Looks like it runs in the family.
How bloody invincible do you have to feel to harass your boss? That’s not just wrong, it’s bloody, pants on top of your head, DUMB.
Well Drunk at a Christmas Party is the more logical explination.
Interesting how when women get drunk and are raped, it’s their fault for getting drunk.When men get drunk and pull shit like this, why isn’t it always their fault for getting drunk? (It’s a rhetorical question.)
There’s an image out there somewhere of rape-prevention tips for men, like “Carry a rape whistle – blow it if you’re about to rape somebody” and “When you go out, use the buddy system – have your buddy stop you if you’re about to rape somebody.” Because, in reality, we make women responsible for men’s actions.
I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the… other apple
buuummMMMMM-GRAABBBAAAAAA!!!!!is what everybody should shout every time this character enters a room.
Hm. This one is interesting in that he acknowledged it was wrong almost immediately, and wrote them to personally appologize straight away. So I guess the question becomes, “What is accountability?” Because unless I’m mistaken, that sounds like what he did. Now, of course, all this was done privately because it didn’t need to be anybody else’s business, but apparently maybe it does? I mean, when you air this publicly, seeing what has happened time and again in these situations, to say “I’m not looking for him to lose his job” is pretty laughable as either wildy naive or grossly disingenious.
He’s not accountable because he wasn’t publicly shamed for it!I get what Shelley Ross is going for here- She’s still bothered by it, and she should be, and him suffering in public is better than her suffering in private. His apology was the right thing to do, and he did it almost immediately. But he never should’ve done it and she’s right to ask questions about it.Still… like you say, after the initial terrible act, it sounds like he did the right thing and made up for it the best he could. Maybe this is one of those situations that requires… thoughtful nuance?
HahahahahaHahahaThoughtful nuanceAhhhhhhhhhhahahahahaa
There’s a saying, ‘Sorry don’t feed the bulldog’ – meaning that just saying you’re sorry isn’t enough when you’ve grossly offended someone.
And in this case, Cuomo committed a crime. An apology definitely isn’t enough.
The other issue is that if Chris Cuomo would do this in a public setting to a woman who was his boss, laughing about how he “could” do this now….do we really think this was his first time harassing a woman? Maybe she heard that he is still at it, only being careful to choose women who can’t fight back now.
“I would, however, like to see him journalistically repent: agree on air
to study the impact of sexism, harassment and gender bias in the
workplace, including his own, and then report on it.”Reading the article you replied to is A1, son.
“I would, however, like to see him journalistically repent: agree on air
to study the impact of sexism, harassment and gender bias in the
workplace, including his own, and then report on it.”Seems like one of the better solutions to this issue that I’ve ever seen.
If you read the column, she writes it was prompted by Cuomo’s coverage of his brother’s sexual harassment. He was operating in the Governor’s inner circle advising him on how to handle the charges. If nothing else, it helps highlight how this behavior by the governor was enabled by those around him: they also engaged in that behavior. She questions both the sincerity of the apology (wondering if it only happened because her husband was present) and whether he internalized anything regarding sexual harassment, seeing as he was apparently just fine with his brother’s actions (while outwardly condemning them). As for what she wants from Cuomo:I would, however, like to see him journalistically repent: agree on air to study the impact of sexism, harassment and gender bias in the workplace, including his own, and then report on it. He could host a series of live town hall meetings, with documentary footage, produced by women with expert consultants. Call it “The Continuing Education of Chris Cuomo” and make this a watershed moment instead of another stain on the career of one more powerful male news anchor.
This.All of this.
Seems very disingenuous to me. You might be able to claim naivete if it were somebody else (who’s somehow had their head buried in the sand for the past decade) but Ross works in the industry, there’s no way she doesn’t know what’s been happening these days and the potential consequences for Cuomo.
I mean don’t get me wrong, she’s still totally in the right for choosing to reveal this like she did but I don’t buy that “not looking for him to get fired”.
What’s disingenuous is thinking that one of CNN’s biggest stars who didn’t get fired for throwing journalistic ethics to the wind and advising his governor brother on how to handle his sexual harassment scandal is in any danger of losing his job over this
who cares, this creep has obviously done this before and who knows how further he would have pushed things had her husband not been there. I don’t know why people always are so focused on “what her intention” is. there shouldn’t be any intention, you should just be able to call out sexual assault because it’s assault.
Proto Man, sounds to me like you’re looking for an excuse to get mad at a woman for reporting a man’s sexually predatory behavior….
That’s not what I was saying at all though? I was commenting on RobGrizzly’s post about one particular line seeming naive or disingenuous, said it seemed the latter to me, then specifically said it didn’t matter and she’s totally in the right regardless.But sure yeah read it that way if you want
Seems pretty clear to me, if a little elliptical (by design, to avoid a libel suit, I would wager). Cuomo helped his brother defend his own, far worse, harassment. Cuomo has a platform and a staff on his show. Cuomo harassed her, and while he apologized afterward, she’s unsure if that’s because he knew what he did TO HER was wrong, or whether he apologized for the wrong he did to her husband (or for being caught).She can’t come out and say “I have no confidence that the women working on his show are safe” because there’s no public evidence of harassment at the moment, but she can try to pressure Cuomo and the network to make certain of that. If he winked at his brother’s much more severe behavior, might he be turning a blind eye to someone working on his show who is harassing women? It doesn’t have to be him doing it.
He’s lucky her husband didn’t knock him on his ass. I doubt this was the last time he did something like this, and a humiliating public call-out like looking up at the room from your back might have helped avoid that.
If he apologized immediately and presumably didn’t do it to anyone since, why is anything more required? She clearly does want him to lose his job, so we’re meant to assume that she’s been troubled enough over this for 16 years that the only way for her to move past it is his life becoming worse.
You make a lot of unsupported assumptions here. Why do you just presume that Cuomo hasn’t harassed anyone else (only helped his brother try to cover up his harassment)? Why do you presume she wants him fired when she started that she doesn’t? Why are you so quick to believe the admitted harasser and condemn the victim?
This confuses me.He apparently did it once. To someone he was not in a position of power over, and seemingly as a (very bad) joke. He immediately felt bad and apologized, and unprompted too.Yeah, he did a bad thing. Undeniably. But then he did the right thing by taking responsibility and apologizing while feeling remorse.
“I have no grudge against Mr. Cuomo; I’m not looking for him to lose his job. Rather, this is an opportunity for him and his employer to show what accountability can look like in the MeToo era. “I’m not asking for Mr. Cuomo to become the next casualty in this continuing terrible story,” she adds. “I hope he stays at CNN forever if he chooses.Which is nice and all. But that’s not going to taken into consideration by the e-mob.
Even odds this ends with him being let go.So the moral of the story is never apologize, and especially never do it in writing. Then deny, deny, deny. Which is just horrible…
Because, DGibson, one more time – he was part of the group his sexually predatory brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, used to try and wriggle out from under his own accusations.Still think it’s an isolated incident and he learned his lesson 16 years ago…?
Guilt by association, then?
Because his brother is a serial predator, he must be as well?
Being a sex offender is somehow genetic?
When he was helping his brother out to fight all the allegations and giving him advice it casts Chris’s previous actions in a different light.
DGibson, what brontosaurian said.Even if Chris Cuomo’s kept his hands to himself for the last sixteen years? Advising his brother suggests he didn’t learn shit from it….
I’ve thought all along that was the bigger issue – he shouldn’t be reporting on CNN a story that he is personally trying to help contain or spin. CNN should have canned him right then.
Ah, so it’s ok as long as I grab the PRESIDENT’S ass, cool, thanks.
[Gets in car, readies map for WASHINGTON D.C.!]
I’d absolutely grab Biden’s ass.
Boy you just love defending horrible things don’t you
JFC that statement from Cuomo is a monument to his continued arrogance. What in the world does it being “not sexual in nature” have to do with it—also, it was sexual in nature because you groped her ass, dickhead. And who cares if it was in a public setting or that she was an ABC exec? All that shows is that you were brazen in your harassment. Who is doing crisis management for these incompetent goons? I suspect Cuomo is just arrogant enough to think he doesn’t need them and can write his own statement. Anyway, this statement should not have been a difficult one to get right, considering Cuomo immediately owned up to his bad behavior and did, in fact, apologize. Just continue to be contrite:“I remain deeply ashamed and embarrassed of my behavior. I apologized to Ms. Ross then and I would like to apologize to her again today. I am sorry. I am open to confronting these issues within the media and within my own organization in any role that the company deems appropriate. Again, my deepest apologies to Shelley for my unconscionable behavior.” But of course, this apology will only really work if there aren’t other women waiting in the wings with similar stories. If he knows he’s done this to other women, you can’t really spin that the apology in 2005 was sincere , or that you’re truly repentant, if you continued harassing women in later years.
“I have no grudge against Mr. Cuomo; I’m not looking for him to lose his job. Rather, this is an opportunity for him and his employer to show what accountability can look like in the MeToo era.”idk I think firing a man who privately advised his brother, a public official, on how to navigate his own sexual misconduct scandal, while refusing to report on said scandal because it would be a conflict of interest (not that that stopped him from bringing said brother on his show when Andrew’s approval ratings were high) AND has his own history of sexual misconduct is the very definition of accountability.But yes, please do make him publicly and comprehensively apologize for all of his bullshit live on air first. Then can his ass.
Honestly, the worst part about this for any non-Shelley Ross parties is how much the Republicans will use this in so many ways to discredit the media, the Democrats, Italians, people named Chris, and whoever else they wanna “both-sides” this with, treating this as a worse action than, you know, the remorseless sexual assault that people like Trump are accused of. This is their new Hunter Biden’s Laptop.
None of those things had much credibility to begin with
the worst part about this for any non-Shelley Ross parties is how much
the Republicans will use this in so many ways to discredit the media,
the Democrats, Italians, people named Chris, and
Well, the Democrats already used a similar situation to discredit Tara Reade, so I’m not sure the DNC doesn’t have it coming….
The democrats do actually do something though. Well sometimes and honestly Tara Reade was not particularly convincing if you read more about her and her affiliations, the Putin stuff was all weird. Also no one else came forward. It’s important to listen to women or whomever making these accusations, but you don’t have to believe them. Republicans on the other hand do nothing and Matt Gaetz is still office.
Try six other women came forward, brontosaurian (I’d heard “eight”, but this Vox story mentions six of them)….But the media refused to report their stories at all, b/c they’d figured out how to gaslight Tara Reade, and everybody except Fox News was crowing “oRaNgE mAn BaD!” So the six other women? Barely got noticed by the MSM.
You got a source on this? I hadn’t read it.
Fuck, I HATE Kinja! I was going to say, “Didn’t you see the link I posted to the Vox story?”…….and you didn’t, and neither did anybody else, b/c Kinja ate it and scrambled my sentence structure in the bargain!Here it is:https://www.vox.com/2020/5/7/21248713/tara-reade-joe-biden-sexual-assault-accusation
Democrats didn’t discredit Tara Reade. Everyone who looked into her story found out it was bullshit.
He harassed her (Christmas parties with alcohol should be banned), he apologized immediately to her and her husband, she accepted. She doesn’t want him held accountable now. So where is the news story here? Other than “The Cuomo brothers are assholes,” which, sure.
If you read the column, she contextualizes with his involvement in his brother’s sexual harassment case, acting as both reporter and member of the inner circle. She does want accountabilityI would, however, like to see him journalistically repent: agree on air to study the impact of sexism, harassment and gender bias in the workplace, including his own, and then report on it. He could host a series of live town hall meetings, with documentary footage, produced by women with expert consultants. Call it “The Continuing Education of Chris Cuomo” and make this a watershed moment instead of another stain on the career of one more powerful male news anchor.
Thank you – I’m guilty of not reading the column. This makes more sense.
It would have helped if they had mentioned what she suggested here.
All of that for one ass-grab? Please.
But it’s not just an ass grab. It’s a whole culture that normalizes this kind of behavior. It’s why Gov. Cuomo was surrounded by people who thought it was “no big deal.” Who belittle, deny, normalize. That’s what she’s pointing out. She doesn’t want punishment as anyone who reads the essay can see. She wants engagement and an effort to change the culture so the attitudes of the brothers Cuomo and others like them realize it’s neither OK or normal and we can have workplaces where this doesn’t happen.
2005 is immediately?
“Ross says that Cuomo apologized for his behavior about an hour later.”
I’ve read that Jeff Zucker dodged making a comment. If that is true, Zucker is even worse than I thought. His handling of Chris Cuomo’s dealings with his brother are already a disaster and I think it’s fair to say Zucker’s status as the worst executive in TV history next to Roger Ailes is written in stone.
“I’m not asking for Mr. Cuomo to become the next casualty in this continuing terrible story,” she adds. “I hope he stays at CNN forever if he chooses.”Yeah…no offense lady but this type of accusation means that probably isn’t likely.
He’s Italian, squeezing butts is just how they say hello. Don’t be so cultural insensitive Just kidding, fuck this guy. Not really surprised given the piece of shit his brother is
Well, first ,it wasn’t sexual harassment , because they were former co-workers,and she was his boss. Did he assault her ; HELL YES!! Then apologized right after .I smell alcohol here . How else would you think its cool to assault your former boss? Unless of course he was just being a macho asshole , which is probably about as good an explanation here as being drunk . The bigger question is, 15 years later, why would she bring it up now,if not to get him fired?
That’s not actually the bigger question
She does not want him fired she wants him to do public humiliation tour that she knows is never going to happen. So yeah she wants him fired and dude should have been fired based on the entirety of his insider relationship and than coverage of his brother over the last 2 years.
Are we getting a little too expansive in the definition of “assault?”
I have to say, that Cuomo didn’t fall far from the tree!
Edit
This is going to make the transitional banter between Cuomo and Don Lemon a little awkward. Maybe? At least at first? Wait.. Is Chris Cuomo back on the air at CNN, because I don’t watch.. Never mind..
How many Cuomos must be sacrificed on the altar of wokeosity? Who among us hasn’t played a little grabass at the company Christmas party?
He screwed up and apologized rather quickly.
She says she doesn’t want him fired or whatever yet she goes on a soapbox to tell about it.
16 years ago.
This is getting ridiculous. She wants to be part of story at this point. She said she bared no grudge yet she’s full of sh1t if she doesn’t know this will hurt him.
If that’s her aim, ok, but don’t BS about it. She acts like she’s doing type of service with this
“Rather, this is an opportunity for him and his employer to show what accountability can look like in the MeToo era.”
She wants her 15 minutes….
There are no acceptable apologies.
This is the world we now live in.
Even one ass-grab old enough to get a driver’s license is fair game for someone to disingenously claim they don’t want to end a career.