. >> reporter: a team of "new york times" reporters, including cara buckley and melana risik, broke the bombshell story. >> there had been rumors for years and years. >> reporter: emboldened by the seismic shift of people speaking out after the harvey weinstein scandal, two female comedians telling these reporters what happened with louis ck all those years ago. >> they had this big break in 2002, got to perform at the u.s. comedy arts festival in aspen, which is a high bar for comedy. after their show louis ck invited them back to his hotel to hang out. they thought, cool, he's a comedian we admire. >> and they're together. >> they're together. they didn't think his intentions were anything but collegial. before they sat down, before they had a chance to take off their coats and hats, he said, can i take out my penis? they laughed it off. then he proceeded to live totally naked and began masturbating. >> they laughed because they thought it was a joke? >> they thought it was a joke. >> did they consent to doing this? >> they said they did not consent. they couldn't believe it was happe

>> reporter: "times" reporter cara buckley says she is confronted him after the screening. >> and i saidit seems very audacious for you to put an extended scene of someone masturbating considering the rumors. and he said, i never thought of that. and i just thought -- huh. okay. >> reporter: while the current accusations do not involve physical contact, donahue says this kind of harassment must still be taken seriously. >> people often believe and louis ck actually talked about this in his statement, that if i'm not physically touching someone, that i'm not necessarily assaulting them or harming them. but it does. it can create an emotional psychological trauma. >> reporter: donahue hopes that ck's response today will be a wakeup call to other men. >> what we're doing in the media and in culture is talking about how many women have been sexually assaulted or raped this year. that's not how we should look at it. the question should be, how many men have raped or section wahl assaulted this year? talk about it in an active way, hold men accountable, center them around the dialogue. >> repo

in responding to the article, louis ck said: the bbc has been speaking with cara buckley, a culture reporterith the new york times and part of the team that broke the story. after harvey weinstein, a lot of women came forward claiming sexual assault by harvey weinstein, we heard that women who have negative experiences with louis ck wanted to talk, and we have this through intermediaries, we had a lot of tips following the weinstein story. and louis ck had rumours swirling around him of sexual misconduct for years and years. it was said that different people, different names were put to those rumours, none were ever substantiated, but now these women decided that they, it was the time to come forward with it because the landscape feels different now, it feels safer now that other women are stepping forward and being believed. there is a sense of inevitability, as more examples of misconduct and more women step forward. i cannot imagine it is the end of it — this is sexism, misogyny, it is a long tradition in the world, and certainly no industry seems immune to it. i would be shocked if this

. >> cara buckley, appreciate it, and melena ryzik, thanks very much.ment in america" starts now. >>> tonight, it's a watershed moment. what started in hollywood -- >> they said he was in his room. i was like, are you kidding me? >> as dozens of stars accuse mega producer harvey weinstein of lewd, even criminal acts. >> it was disgusting and kind of pathetic, really, to stand b there and look at this man. >> has unleashed a tidal wave of anger. >> i've been hara

. >> cara buckley, appreciate it, and melena ryzik, thanks very much. thanks for watching 360. time now for don lemon and cnn tonight. i'm don lemon, and we begin with breaking news. the republican candidate for the u.s. senate in alabama fighting back against explosive allegations that he had a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl when he was in his 30s and engaged in questionable conduct with other teenagers. roy moore slamming that report in the "washington post," calling it a desperate political attack by his opponents. top gop senators on capitol hill up in arms tonight, saying if the allegations are true, moore must drop out of the senate race. and more breaking news tonight on two fronts. in the russia investigation, a cnn exclusive. top white house adviser steven miller interviewed as part of the probe by special counsel robert mueller. he is the highest level aide still working at the white house known to have talked to investigators. and keith schiller, president trump's former security chief and personal aide testifying that he rejected an offer by russians to se

. >> cara buckley, appreciate it, and melena ryzik, thanks very much. thanks for watching 360.n and cnn tonight. i'm don lemon, and we begin with breaking news. the republican candidate for the u.s. senate in alabama fighting back against explosive allegations that he had a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl when he was in his 30s and engaged in questionable conduct with other teenagers. roy moore slamming that report in the "washington post," calling it a desperate political attack by his opponents. top gop senators on capitol hill up in arms tonight, saying if the allegations are true, moore must drop out of the senate race. and more breaking news tonight on two fronts. in the russia investigation, a cnn exclusive. top white house adviser steven

. >> cara buckley, appreciate it, and melena ryzik, thanks very much. "tipping point -- sexual harassment in america" starts now. >>> tonight, it's a watershed moment. what started in hollywood -- >> they said he was in his room. i was like, are you kidding me? >> as dozens of stars accuse mega producer harvey weinstein of lewd, even criminal acts. >> it was disgusting and kind of pathetic, really, to stand b there and look at this man. >> has unleashed a tidal wave of anger. >> i've been harassed so many times i can't count. >> it has to stop. >> women are speaking up. >> we need to keep talking about it. >> and powerful men are losing their jobs a jobs, from tv stap executives. >> it's time to clean house. >> good evening, everyone. and welcome to a live cnn town hall "tipping point -- sexual harassment in america." we've all seen the headlines. powerful men falling like dominos after stories of sexual misconduct. and just hours ago, new revelations. louis c.k. accused of lewd acts, accusations he has yet to respond to. and roy moore, u.s. senate cand

. >>> joining us now is one of the women who broke the story, cara buckley and there were rumors aboutfor years and years so how did you uncover this story? >> well, after harvey weinstein a lot of women have been coming forward to speak about abuse or harassment they suffered and we -- several of the women approached us and said, you know, we would like to -- there's been rumors, there's been rumors about us. we would like to set the record straight and put our names to it. you know, he has dismissed them we have proof something happened to us. >> in many cases you spoke to corroborating witnesses not just the women who say it happened to them. talk about the standard you used to determine the credibility of these women's stories. >> right, i mean several thing, you know, we can't just take people's word on face value. these incidents happened in the late '90s and early ots so looked for paper trails that they sent afterwards and people they reached out. many right after it happened called a friend saying you would not believe what just happened to me and spoke to those people and ask