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…
