A Former ABC News Executive Says Chris Cuomo Sexually Harassed Her At A Party In 2005

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Shelley Ross, a veteran TV news executive, said in an opinion piece in the New York Times that Chris Cuomo sexually harassed her by squeezing her buttocks at a party in 2005.

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Ross said in her essay in the Times that Chris Cuomo should have been ashamed for his conduct with her, «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?

She said she sees the apology as «an attempt to provide himself with legal and moral coverage to evade accountability.

Asked for comment about Ross’ essay on Friday, a CNN spokesperson referred to Cuomo’s statement to the Times.

Ross has written previously of being sexually harassed by Roger Ailes, who was ousted from Fox News Channel over harassment complaints and died in 2017.

Recounting the 1981 encounter in her New York Times piece, Ross said Ailes apologized to her for insisting on a «sexual alliance as a condition of a pending job offer at NBC’s «Tomorrow show.

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Ross said she accepted Ailes’ apology, naively thinking she could «help reform the workplace one predator at a time.

Ross said she is not asking for Chris Cuomo to be fired from CNN, but would 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.

She suggested a series of town hall meetings titled «The Continuing Education of Chris Cuomo.