Ex-NBC and CNN executive Michael Bass has been accused of sexually assaulting a former intern in the summer of 1996 when he was at NBC.
Aarthi Rajaraman, the accuser, filed the lawsuit against NBCUniversal Media and Bass in New York on Friday.
At 20 years old at the time, Rajaraman asserts the assault “triggered a downward spiral of excessive drinking, eating disorders, self-contempt, undermining romantic relationships, and even suicidal ideation,” according to the lawsuit. She also accuses Bass of blackballing her from job opportunities.
Rajaraman landed an internship with NBC Sports, and she worked covering the Atlanta Olympic games. The lawsuit states she was shocked by “the unchecked culture in which married, older and more senior NBC employees regularly targeted far younger women.”
She recounts how she walked into the bathroom to see one of her fellow interns crying on the phone with a married, older NBC executive, whom she was “dating”
The lawsuit asserts that NBC “knew that many of its male employees, from Matt Lauer down, regularly used their authority and power to sexually harass and assault young female interns and allowed them to do so with no recourse.”
At the time, Bass and his wife just welcomed a new baby, and he would even bring them to the office. Rajaraman said Bass “appeared to be a really good guy, and a family man.”
However, Bass’s squeaky clean, family-man image changed after he allegedly lured Rajaraman into his hotel room.
The alleged assault happened on July 28, 1996, a day after domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph bombed Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia. Rajaraman and an NBC team had been working long hours covering the attack, and Bass invited the team out for dinner and drinks in recognition of their hard work.
The evening had ended around 5:00 a.m., and Rajaraman needed to catch the public transit to make it back to the college dorms in Decatur, Georgia. Bass reportedly walked out with her and offered for her to use the restroom in his suite.
Rajaraman assumed his family was sleeping in the room and agreed. However, his family was not there, and Rajaraman alleges that Bass cornered her, stuck his tongue in her mouth, and groped her.
She ran out of the room and said the next day he called her.
“Defendant Bass started off the conversation by telling Plaintiff, ‘That shouldn’t have happened,’ as if she had had anything to do with his decision to sexually assault her. He then threatened her, ‘Don’t tell anyone,’” the lawsuit stated.
In his current role at CNN, Bass “oversees all New York- and Atlanta-based live programs, including mornings, dayside, prime time, and weekend.”
A representative from NBCUniversal said, “they have made aware of the complaint and are reviewing it.
