Disgraced journalist Mark Halperin has been spotted with a string of powerful media industry pals, insiders told Page Six — including CNN and PBS folks — sparking buzz that he’s the latest #MeToo-struck star to plot a comeback.
But sources close to the political pundit insist to us that they were all just social calls.
Multiple sources tell Page Six that Halperin — who was fired by NBC in October after five women accused him of sexual misconduct while working at another network — had meetings with cable news fixture Kellyanne Conway, fellow embattled journalist Charlie Rose, CNN pundit and #TimesUp activist Hilary Rosen and an unnamed PBS executive.
But a friend of Halperin’s insists that all the meetings were simply conversations between friends, telling us, “There was no discussion of TV in the meetings,” adding that Halperin is “not thinking about his career at this point.”
The friend added, “He’s been doing frequent volunteer work at the Fortune Society, and he’s been meeting extensively with friends, experts and others on what he said in October he was going to do — work to make amends for his past actions.” The pal claimed his last meeting with Conway, Rose, Rosen or the PBS bigwig — all old friends — was two months ago.
Halperin has acknowledged pursuing romantic relationships with colleagues but denies groping or touching women inappropriately.
An adviser to Rose, attorney Dick Beattie, acknowledged that Rose and Halperin had met, but denied that they discussed Halperin’s attempts to return to TV.
In October, CNN reported that five women accused him of sexually harassing them in the early- to mid-2000s.
Some other notable men who were taken down in the #MeToo movement have also started to resurface, including Brett Ratner, Louis C.K. and Aziz Ansari. Halperin had been a senior political analyst at MSNBC and had previously been political director of ABC News. He declined to comment.
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