OLIVER DARCY: So the accusations range from Mark, while he was at ABC News, in a powerful position as politics director propositioning employees for sex, and they ranged from that to him forcibly kissing, and pressing himself against women in very graphic manner, and groping their body parts. Things frankly it's uncomfortable talking about on TV. And, so they have accused him of this. And while he was in a powerful position at ABC News -- Our investigation found from the 1990s to the 2000s this behavior was occurring there.
BROOKE BALDWIN (HOST): What is he saying?
DARCY: So, he denies the serious allegations of pressing himself up against women in a graphic way. But he did release a statement that says, “During this period, I did pursue relationships with women that I worked with, including some junior to me. I now understand from these accounts that my behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain. For that, I am deeply sorry and I apologize. Under the circumstances, I'm going take a step back from my day-to-day work while I properly deal with this situation.” He's an analyst at NBC news, he's leaving that role network announced today. And from MSNBC, and HBO just released a statement. They had plans to develop his forthcoming book on the 2016 election into a mini-series of sorts, or they had some sort of project plans and they are no longer proceeding with those plans. Showtime -- he had a show, The Circus -- they are going to be evaluating whether they continue with that. And so, there is a lot of fallout, and I think a lot more still to come.
[...]
LIZ PLANK: I'm receiving texts today from women in media who are older, younger, new to media, and a very junior reporter told me that one of the first things that she was told when she started working on the campaign trail was she was warned about Mark Halperin. And so, in a way, he the Harvey Weinstein of media. Although I think that there are actually a lot of other men in media who also -- hopefully, there will be more women who have the couraged to come forward about their stories. Unfortunately, I don't think that he is an exception. And that's very worrying. Because you look at someone like Mark Halperin, someone like Harvey Weinstein, these are men who are at the top of their industries. And who are in control of the stories that we tell and the narratives that we choose to talk about. And, I, seeing this news, just remembered the first New York Times profile or exposé that came out about Donald Trump's sexual harassment claims and groping claims. He, on live television, said that there was nothing illegal in that article, which is not true. And he said, “to me this is just not politically correct,” but his interpretation really of that account was that sexual harassment was OK. And that's really, really dangerous.
