The former ABC News producer who accused Chris Cuomo of grabbing her rear during a party in 2005 slammed the NewsNation cable network for hiring him, branding the ex-CNN star an “arrogant, misogynistic proud member of the old boy’s club.”
Shelley Ross posted a message on Facebook hitting out at NewsNation and its primetime host, Dan Abrams, who said that criticism of his cable channel over Cuomo’s hiring was due to the fact that it posed a “danger to the status quo.”
“Dan, I’m a decades-long fan of yours,” Ross wrote in response to Abrams, who is also ABC News’ chief legal analyst.
“But you’ve got this one wrong. The (modest) mixed reaction to Cuomo’s new job does not prove the status quo of the media is under threat.”
Ross added: “Cuomo IS the status quo, same old same old arrogant, misogynistic proud member of the old boy’s club.”
She wrote: “No one cares what News Nation [sic] ratings are. I am rooting for something new, fresh and honest.”
“Just maybe some of us don’t see Cuomo as that answer… those who have been disappointed in his lack of genuine contrition,” Ross wrote.
“As he continues to parse his words, hide behind the love of a brother, deny wrongdoing, he remains tone-deaf and phony to many of us.”
“I’m all for second chances. But I won’t believe he is a disrupter until he disrupts something and finds a greater cause than himself.”
Ross told Fox News that she hadn’t planned on publicly commenting on Cuomo’s joining NewsNation until Abrams posted his statement.
Last year, Ross wrote a column in The New York Times in which she alleged that Cuomo grabbed her butt in front of her husband and co-workers at a Manhattan party in 2005.
Ross later revealed that Cuomo sent her an email expressing regret over the “hearty greeting.”
“As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature,” Chris Cuomo said in response to the Times op-ed.
“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.”
The Post has reached out to Chris Cuomo seeking comment.
The Times piece was written at the time Cuomo’s brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was the subject of nearly a dozen allegations of sexual misconduct by several women.
Chris Cuomo went on the air of his CNN show and said that he would not be covering the scandal or commenting on it.
Weeks later, it was learned that Chris Cuomo had an active role in advising his brother on how to respond to the scandal.
Andrew Cuomo eventually resigned the governorship and CNN fired Chris Cuomo, prompting him to file a $125 million claim against the cable channel.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
