Chris Cuomo Alleged to Have Touched Former ABC News Producer Inappropriately

[AZLD4Candidate]

Source: Vareity via AOL News

Chris Cuomo Alleged to Have Touched Former ABC News Producer Inappropriately

A former top TV news producer alleged in a New York Times opinion piece that Chris Cuomo touched her inappropriately years ago when both of them worked for ABC News, a disclosure that threatens to add to public perception issues around the anchor, who leads CNN’s most-watched primetime program.

Shelley Ross, a former executive producer of ABC News’ “Good Morning America” and CBS News “Early Show,” alleged in the New York Times article that Cuomo squeezed “the cheek of my buttock” at a “going away party for an ABC News colleague” in 2005 in full view of her husband. Cuomo, said Ross, apologized for the incident in an email, a picture of which is included in her article.

“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,” Cuomo said in a statement provided to the Times Thursday night and included in Ross’ article. CNN declined to comment.

Cuomo has been under scrutiny in recent months while his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, was being forced out from his role due to a number of allegations of sexual harassment. Chris Cuomo took part in sessions with his brother’s staffers as they considered responses to the harassment claims. CNN never disciplined the anchor, but acknowledged in May that “it was inappropriate to engage in conversations that included members of the Governor’s staff, which Chris acknowledges. He will not participate in such conversations going forward.”

Read more: https://www.aol.com/entertainment/chris-cuomo-alleged-touched-former-125504269.html

---

I don't know what to say about this only to say it seems a bit suspicious to me for two reasons:

1: It was 16 years ago (I know, I know). If it was that traumatizing, why wait so long?
2: There seems to be a huge push to cast anyone Trump didn't like or wanted out of office as a sex hound.

Shelley Ross, a former executive producer of ABC News’ “Good Morning America” and CBS News “Early Show,” alleged in the New York Times article that Cuomo squeezed “the cheek of my buttock” at a “going away party for an ABC News colleague” in 2005 in full view of her husband. Cuomo, said Ross, apologized for the incident in an email, a picture of which is included in her article.

“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,” Cuomo said in a statement provided to the Times Thursday night and included in Ross’ article. CNN declined to comment.

This seems like incident contact at a party that did not bother here until now?. At parties, because I am almost 6'2", I've elbowed people in the gut and chest while turning around. Should I be charged with assault 16 years after it happened?

[Loki Liesmith]

1. It looks like he did it and apologized 16 years ago

I don’t know what else he can do at this point and reissue his apology.

[Beakybird]

2. Unless more stories like this appear...

(which is very possible), he should publicly apologize, and CNN should let him go on doing his job.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. I get yelled at for putting it into the "shit happens" bin. Yeah, he shouldn't

have done it, and in other settings she could be cheered for belting him.

But, it happened, he apologized, and can't we call it over.

[Indykatie]

4. I'm Calling Bull Sh*t on This Accusation.

[onetexan]

37. +1 -K&R

[BeyondGeography]

5. Oh well

In other news, our democracy is coming apart at the seams.

[George II]

6. I hope Ms. Ross doesn't have to take the subway to work in the morning.

[Mike Nelson]

12. I think...

...most people at that level are offered transportation. The studio will provide a driver will come pick up her up, and drop her off at the end of the work day. If she picks her own hours, as an executive, she'll have a button in her apartment; she can push the button to signal a driver.

[George II]

15. Okay then, I hope she doesn't have to walk down Fifth Avenue at noon on a weekday.

[jcgoldie]

24. because grabbing peoples ass uninvited is ok?

[bluewater]

32. Some people here seem to think so.

Honestly, sometimes I have to check that I am actually reading a Democratic political site.

[Budi]

7. More like, "Who wants Cuomo's job?"

"Money & Media" baby!!!

Who'll tow the line for the anti-Dem messaging shift at CNN?
Waiting & watching who'll appear in his evening spot..

[NH Ethylene]

8. Unless he was (and is) a serial butt grabber, I don't want to hear it.

I am tired of old, minor incidents being dragged out to enact a political agenda. We all grow and change, and getting drunk at a party and grabbing somebody's butt should not be a career killer 16 years later. If he committed a felony-level assault it would be different.

And I would say this if it was a Republican too. (On edit - I don't even know his political leanings).

[Tommy Carcetti]

9. On the surface, this one seems a little in the Al Franken/Garrison Keillor territory for me.

I understand everything about his brother is still fresh and I do find the claims about his brother credible, but as a stand alone accusation this is rather weak sauce.

Unless there's more we don't know about, but until that time, I'm not going to run him out of town on a rail.

[Mike Nelson]

10. Well...

... sounds like he did it 16 years ago, knows it was wrong, and has apologized. Done. By the way, I'm surprised his show is the top rated at CNN. I watch a few MSNBC shows regularly, and sample several others - just to keep up with what they are about... I have no fondness for any CNN show. Larry King was good.

[hamsterjill]

11. Some of this shit is just so obvious it's pitiful.

Someone doesn’t like Chris Cuomo.

The woman handled it. He apologized. What’s left?

Very suspicious to me that this wasn’t reported at the time of all of the stories about Andrew, many of which stories had mention of Chris helping his brother.

This is a smear job. There are more important things going on in the world right now.

[ZonkerHarris]

13. this happened 16 years ago. #metoo exploded in 2017. Why wait until now? Why not then?

Everyone in the world was outing all these powerful famous men who touched, grabbed or assaulted them.
But she stayed silent.
It is her right to do so but it does not help her story.

[AngryOldDem]

16. Sounds like the husband withessed it.

If so, I think a bigger issue would have been made about it then. Who wouid just look on as their spouse was getting ass-squeezed?

This is what I hate about accusations like this. If it turns out to be malicious, it just gives some people more ammunition to doubt every allegation they hear, and it may keep those with real complaints from coming forward.

Sounds just a bit coincidental to me, given Andrew and how Chris got criticized for advising him.

[DFW]

17. The timing of this is pure coincidence, of course

Shelley Ross forgot all about this, and only remembered the day before yesterday.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

18. .

1: It was 16 years ago (I know, I know). If it was that traumatizing, why wait so long?

What, in your opinion, is the ideal amount of time between incident and reporting and becoming public for optimal believability?

2: There seems to be a huge push to cast anyone Trump didn't like or wanted out of office as a sex hound.

There is definitely an overlap between "men Trump doesn't like" and "men accused of sexual harassment/impropriety" and that overlap is "men."

[AZLD4Candidate]

19. Considering it happened in front of her husband at a party, Cuomo apologized for it, she seemed to

accept it for 16 years, then brought it out now. . .this strikes as highly suspect and suspicious based on the totality of available evidence at the moment.

But I know in this day and age, a mere accusation is all someone needs. Evidence, investigations. . .and any denial is a self-serving statement because "you know you did it. you've been accused."

But the red herring is accepted.

[appleannie1]

20. Who is paying all these people to suddenly go public with crap?

It sounds like something that was more accidental or a joke than anything else. And if it was not sexual why all the bruhaha?

It isn't like he bragged that he grabbed her by the you know what because when you are famous women let you do that. Or reach up her skirt and played finger tag.

[AllaN01Bear]

21. what ever happened to the right to face your accuser ? did that go down the toilet?

[Jarqui]

22. I have mixed feeling about this

What happened could not have been good or he wouldn't have needed to apologize.

She seems to have accepted his apology then. So there is a part of me wondering why is this happening now. If Cuomo did not have the stature he does at CNN, would we have heard about it? I doubt it. So that's a little fuzzy for me.

Then I think of Al Franken. I had some mixed feelings there and wasn't too happy with how that played out.

But on the other wide of the coin, which doesn't exonerate the above, the pussy grabber has about 24 women accusing him of much worse. And he's the leading candidate to represent the GOP in 2024. A lot of the media seems just fine with that. Maybe I'm jaded with some partisan thinking but that bothers me much, much more.

The Cuomos and Franken, apologize and in two cases, resign. But look at not only what Trump has done - look at how the media has handled it.

The preponderance of the evidence shows Trump consorted with the Russians to steal the 2016 election. It also shows Trump tried to steal the 2020 election with insurrection, etc and appears to have committed a bunch of other crimes beyond obstructing justice.

We have governors in Texas and Florida killing thousands of their own people with their terrible policies on Covid that are for political gain.

And we're letting some fuzzy infraction of 16 years ago that got an apology back then steal media oxygen from what is really going on? That's out of whack. This is messed up.

[George II]

23. When one bumps or brushes against someone, normally one instinctively apologizes....

I remember many of years ago at Saratoga, a bunch of people were standing around a monitor watching a replay. Right in front of me was probably the top trainer of the '80s and '90s, D. Wayne Lukas.

After the replay he stepped back and bumped into me. He turned around and sincerely apologized. I was impressed (enough that I remember the incident to this day)

[jcgoldie]

25. It doesn't say he bumped against her

He grabbed her ass inappropriately. Granted as others have said he doesn't deserve to be horsewhipped or anything 16 years later and he did apologize but grabbing a woman's ass and saying "I can do this now" is not the same as bumping people in a crowd.

[ashredux]

26. Why now? I think we all know....

[IronLionZion]

27. Sounds more dumb than sexual assault

Immediately admitting and apologizing and never doing it again seems enough. What more punishment is needed?

[JohnSJ]

30. I think she indicated why she is doing it now, because she is upset that he consulted with his

brother about his brother's sexual harassment, and because she doesn't agree with that, I think she is trying to get Cuomo fired from his CNN job

[emmaverybo]

28. Sounds like he "groped," worse than "goosing," though both behaviors when unwelcome are

offensive. She would likely feel more threatened if alone with him when he made his move.
Must have been well lit to have accosted her in the presence of her husband.
Since she accepted his apology 16 years ago, unless he has continued groping and/or escalated, time to note he couldn’t hold his liquor, was obnoxious, disrespectful and no gentleman on this occasion and now put the incident to rest.
However, groping is sexual in nature. What did he think he was doing?

[JohnSJ]

29. I don't think there is any alleged about it, he admitted it in an apology letter. It bothered her,

and she indicated it did, but why she waited 16 years until now to expose the incident, doesn't make much sense, unless her motive is to get Cuomo fired from CNN, counter to what she said.

The victim indicated she is doing this because Cuomo stood behind his brother as a consultant. If that is the case, I am a little baffled why she didn't do this 5 months ago when it was announced that was what he was going to do?

[AZLD4Candidate]

31. How dare a brother talk to and consult a brother! Vile! I would stand by mine if this happened to

him.

Family is Family.

[JohnSJ]

33. Of course. I agree with you. This was a play to hurt Cuomo

[Joinfortmill]

34. With all due respect to her,

This doesn't help victims.

[SouthBayDem]

35. Ross should get out of her glass house

What she did NOT say in her essay is the way she got fired from the CBS Early Show back in 2008:

"I can't stand working here anymore. I can't stand people being humiliated this way," one producer said. And, yes, she did ask a guy to reschedule a colonoscopy because it was sweeps month. But look at it this way: It wasn't like she offered to give him the colonoscopy herself. And, okay, she make a grown man read an apology to his colleagues after he made a crack about Early Show stories not being credible. But a good daytime-show manager knows that news stories are like Tinker Bell: They're only real if everyone believes in them. So it was really for the common good. After all the nasty Page Six items, Shelley decided to clear the air: She called a meeting for the staff, a CBS source tells us,* in to order encourage everyone to "air their complaints" about her to her face while she sobbed. "Not a lot of people spoke up," a source tells "Page Six." "They were nervous. Shelley tends to be…slightly vindictive." Wusses. And would you really call acting like "a screaming, raving lunatic" vindictive? We think that's just the manifestation of hurt feelings.

[LakeArenal]

36. Exactly the same.

Pinched my butt, fist in gut.

Worked peacefully with him after that.