"CNN stands by its reporting and will respond forcefully to any attempt by Mr. Freeman or his representatives to intimidate us from covering this important public issue."

One of the women named in the report, Freeman's Revelations Entertainment co-founder Lori McCreary, has twice gone on record since the article came out to say that CNN misinterpreted her remarks, the letter says.

The other named woman, producer Tyra Martin of WGN, also said her comments were misconstrued.

"Some misreporting got out that I was uncomfortable or that he had made sexual remarks to me every time," Martin said. "That's just not the case. I never said that. It got picked up... And then someone else picks it up. And then it gets somewhere else. And now it's in print. And it looks like the truth. And it's just not."

The letter, from lawyer Robert M. Schwartz to CNN President Jeff Zucker, says Melas "baited and prodded supposed 'witnesses' to say bad things about Mr. Freeman and tried to get them to confirm her bias against him. Thus, no reader of the article can have any confidence that any of the anonymous sources, which make up the balance of CNN's article, can be relied upon at all."

After the article was published last week, Freeman issued a statement, saying he would never "intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy."

"I apologise to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected - that was never my intent," he continued.

Freeman since has had campaigns for Visa, including a bit as the voice of Vancouver Transit, suspended pending investigation.

He later defended himself and his reputation, saying in another statement, "I am devastated that 80 years of my life is at risk of being undermined, in the blink of an eye, by Thursday's media reports."