Of all the accusations of sexual harassment and abuse of women by Celebrities, the most unlikely seeming ones are against Charlie Rose, the venerable on-air personality for PBS and CBS. Yet, Rose has admitted to touching some of the female help in an inappropriate manner and parading around naked in front of them. Eight different women report of such behavior as well as lewd phone calls. The women worked directly for Rose and not for either of the networks where Rose lent his grace with his presence. Rose has been suspended from both CBS and PBS.

At the age of 75, the suspension may well be the equivalent of firing.

A long career in media

Rose has been doing on-air work since the early 1970s. However, he is most famous for his interview show on PBS, “Charlie Rose,” which consists of one on one interviews with newsmakers and other luminaries, including not only politicians, but businesspeople, scientists, and writers.

Politically, like most people in the mainstream media, Rose leans left, however, he has attempted to mute this tendency in his interviewing style, treating his guests equally regardless of political persuasion. Ironically, Rose has also proclaimed himself a champion of women in the workplace, even after what he has been accused of and has admitted to.

What is going on here?

Rose was not the only high profile celebrity accused of behaving boorishly on the day the news came out. Congressman John Conyers, D-Michigan and film director Oliver Stone have also been called out. Another woman has pointed the finger at Sen. Al Franken, D-Michigan. Previously accused men such as Harvey Weinstein and Roy Moore continue to reap the whirlwind of past misbehavior.

Even Bill Clinton is in the news again, largely because he got away with abusing women during the 1990s.

The single thread that runs through all of these cases is that a man of power decides to behave boorishly toward women (and sometimes, especially in the case of Weinstein, worse than that) because he wants to and thinks he can get away with it.

The motive does not seem to be so much sexual gratification than it is the desire to debase and humiliate. That tendency suggests a deep-seated and widespread psychological disorder. The ordinary restraints of law and custom do not seem to have applied.

The one man who looks good in all of this

One man of power has come out of this scandal looking pretty good. When the news that Vice President Mike Pence would not allow himself to be alone with a woman not his wife first broke, he was widely mocked as being a prude. Now, the mocking seems to be silly considering how many men of power are falling from grace,
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