Norah O’Donnell, Gayle King talk Charlie Rose allegations on CBS This Morning

There was no more difficult job on morning television than the job that Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King had to do on CBS This Morning. These two had to go out there in front of millions this morning and talk about the set of unspeakable allegations that have been made against their colleague Charlie Rose. Since the bombshell report first dropped in the Washington Post he has been suspended from CBS, PBS, and Bloomberg pending a further investigation.

Both O’Donnell and King shared some of their thoughts on the subject, and you could see that they were both shaken in the wake of the allegations — King in particular admitted she was struggling to process it all:

“I got an hour and 42 minutes of sleep last night … I’m not okay. After reading that article … it was deeply disturbing, troubling and painful for me to read. That said, we have to make this matter to the women who have spoken up, the women who have not spoken up because they’re afraid. I’m hoping they will take the step to speak out [and] that this becomes a moment of truth.”

King also discussed the allegations in the context of her longstanding friendship with Rose, and it had echoes of some of Sarah Silverman’s comments in the wake of the allegations against Louis CK. Both were instances of someone doing something unspeakably bad and trying to reconcile that while having a relationship with that person:

“What do you say when someone that you deeply care about has done something that is so horrible? How do you wrap your brain around that? … Charlie does not get a pass here. He does not get a pass from anyone in this room. We are all deeply affected [and] we are all rocked by this.”

You can watch one of the videos from the show below — more are posted on the CBS This Morning Twitter page (see the link). It’s hard to imagine that Rose will ever appear on CBS This Morning again after all of this. It’s a public-relationships nightmare for CBS News and as we said when the report originally came out, it’s even more devastating when it’s someone you have grown accustomed to trusting thanks to so many years on the air.

We will continue to monitor this story for additional updates. For now, like CarterMatt on Facebook if you are interested in more news regarding this and other shows we cover. (Photo: CBS.)