CBS News President David Rhodes talked March 8 about the need to take "misconduct and harassment" out of the workplace as he accepted the First Amendment Service Award from The Radio Television Digital News Foundation in Washington.
His comments came only hours before CNN and others reported that The Washington Post was preparing a story about Charlie Rose and who inside the network may have known about the allegations of sexual misconduct that ultimately ended Rose's CBS employment.
Rose was an anchor on CBS This Morning and a correspondent on 60 Minutes before being terminated by CBS last November.
Related: John Dickerson Named to ‘CBS This Morning’ Team
Rhodes did not talk about Rose, but did talk about the issue more generally.
"Some of the changes that you are seeing borne out in our workplaces, in standards of behavior, in more modern management, is a natural result of including more voices," Rhodes said. "We are only partway through that process. Taking out the misconduct and harassment. Being more thorough about who gets opportunities and what they do with them. These are all part of hearing from more people inside and outside our news organization, getting the facts out, encouraging speech, drawing out the truth--revealing, not concealing. Our prescriptions as management will not be the same in every case and will sometimes not be popular. This is going to be, at times, a painful process that some would rather not go through, but our work is getting better and better for it..."
