Facing mounting allegations of sexual assault and harassment, journalist Mark Halperin on Friday apologized for what he called “aggressive and crude” behavior during his time at ABC News.
In a lengthy statement posted on Twitter Friday night, Halperin applauded women for coming forward with their accounts of experiencing sexual assault and harassment, saying that while at ABC News he was “part of the problem.”
“I am profoundly sorry for the pain and anguish I have caused by my past actions,” he said. “I apologize sincerely to the women I mistreated.”
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“In recent days I have closely read the accounts of women with whom I worked at ABC News. I have not read these accounts looking for discrepancies or inconsistencies,” he said.
“Instead, in almost every case, I have recognized conduct for which I feel profound guilt and responsibility, some involving junior ABC News personnel and women just starting out in the news business,” he continued.
So far, at least a dozen women have accused Halperin of inappropriate and unwanted sexual advances, as well as sexually aggressive behavior, during his tenure at ABC News in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Some of the allegations, Halperin said on Friday, are not true.
“But I realize that is a small point in the scheme of things,” he added. “Again, I bear responsibility for my outrageous conduct at ABC News.”
He said that in his more recent jobs at other news outlets, including Bloomberg, NBC News and Time, he has not behaved inappropriately, and that he had previously been “a selfish, immature person.”
NBC News suspended Halperin amid the mounting allegations. Penguin Press announced on Thursday that it had cancelled a book deal with Halperin, and HBO said it would scrap a planned miniseries based on the book.