Posted on 11/29/2017 11:34:12 AM PST by Red Badger
The face of ‘Today’ is accused by at least one staffer of sexual misconduct, and several bombshell stories are expected to reveal more.
In perhaps the most shocking media firing in years, NBC News Chairman Andy Lack on Wednesday fired the Today show’s Matt Lauer, the longtime star and mainstay of the news division’s most profitable franchise.
In a statement read on the air at the top of the program by Lauer’s shaken co-host, Savannah Guthrie, Lack said the abrupt termination was prompted by a “detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer.”
The bombshell announcement—a week after CBS This Morning co-host Charlie Rose was removed from his anchor chair, and had his eponymous PBS and Bloomberg Media show canceled, because of sexual-harassment complaints published by The Washington Post—came amid weeks-long rumors that unnamed outlets were preparing to run an investigation about allegations of Lauer’s workplace misconduct.
CNN reported The New York Times had been working on a story for weeks about Lauer’s alleged misconduct.
“I’m so sorry to say, Norah… that we know how they [Lauer’s NBC News colleagues] feel,” CBS This Morning co-anchor Gayle King said on the air, after her colleague Norah O’Donnell reported that Rose has been the subject of “at least three” new sexual-harassment complaints from female employees at CBS News. “We know that feeling of reeling and shock,” King continued, “and how you just get through it one day at a time. It’s a very, very sad story.”
Predictably, President Donald Trump was far less empathetic in a series of gloating tweets attacking NBC Chairman Lack, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, and even MSNBC President Phil Griffin.
“Wow, Matt Lauer was just fired from NBC for ‘inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace,’” Trump tweeted. “But when will the top executives at NBC & Comcast be fired for putting out so much Fake News. Check out Andy Lack’s past!”
NBC News and MSNBC declined to comment on Trump’s attacks.
But Scarborough tweeted: “Looks like I picked a good day to stop responding to Trump’s bizarre tweets. He is not well.”
NBC News also did not comment on the New York Post’s report that Lauer allegedly sexually assaulted a female employee during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The report quoted an anonymous NBC insider as saying the woman complained to the network’s human-resources officials Monday.
“This happened so quickly,” the insider told the Post. “She didn’t go to the media, she made a complaint to NBC’s human resources, and her evidence was so compelling that Matt was fired on Tuesday night. The victim says she has evidence that this has also happened to other women, but so far we don’t have evidence of that.”
Lack said the complaint was received Monday night. “It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company’s standards,” Lack said. “As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment. While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”
Lack’s statement continued: “Our highest priority is to create a workplace environment where everyone feels safe and protected, and to ensure that any actions that run counter to our core values are met with consequences, no matter who the offender. We are deeply saddened by this turn of events, but we will face it together as a news organization—and do it in as transparent a manner as we can.”
Guthrie, who joined Lauer as Today’s permanent cohost in 2012, kept her obviously strained composure as she discussed the terrible news with Hoda Kotb, sitting in for the banished Lauer.
“We just learned this moments ago, just this morning,” Guthrie said. “As I’m sure you can imagine, we are devastated. We are still processing all of this. And I will tell you, we do not know more than what I just shared with you. But we will be covering this story, as reporters, as journalists. I’m sure we will be learning more details in hours and days to come. And we promise we will share that with you.”
Turning to Kotb, Guthrie, near tears, added: “And Hoda, I mean, you know, all we can say for the moment is that we are heartbroken. I am heartbroken for Matt. He is my dear, dear friend and my partner, and he is beloved by many, many people here. And I am heartbroken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story, and any other women who have their own stories to tell. We are grappling with a dilemma that so many people have faced these past few weeks: How do you reconcile your love for someone with the revelation that they have behaved badly. And I don’t know the answer to that. But I do know that this reckoning that so many organizations have been going through is important, it’s long overdue and must result in workplaces where all women, all people, feel safe and respected.”
Guthrie continued: “As painful as it is this moment in our culture, and this change, had to happen.”
“Yeah, it did,” Kotb responded, her face as mask of sadness. “This is a very tough morning for both of us. I’ve known Matt for 15 years, and I’ve loved him as a friend and as a colleague. And again, just like you were saying, Savannah, it’s hard to reconcile what we are hearing with the man who we know.”
Kotb continued: “We both woke up with this news, pre-dawn. We are trying to process it and trying make sense of it and it will take some time for that.”
Guthrie added, addressing viewers directly: “We are processing it with all of you at home. We promise to be transparent and straightforward and continue this important conversation… There’s no real way to do this.”
Guthrie concluded: ‘This show has been on air for more than 65 years. … We’re supposed to bring you the news…and so we move along…”
And she transitioned to the show’s second lead, and arguably less upsetting story: the ballistic-missile launch in North Korea.
NBC newbie Megyn Kelly added her voice to the controversy on her eponymous program on Today’s 9 a.m. hour.
“This one does hit close to home,” said the former Fox News star, grim-faced and straight to camera after showing clips of Guthrie and Kotb commiserating over Lauer’s professional demise. “I, too, have known Matt for a long time, and he has been a friend and kind and supportive to me in my transition to NBC News.
I see the anguish on my colleagues’ faces. When this happens, what we don’t see is the pain on the faces of those who found the courage to come forward. It is a terrifying thing to do.”
Kelly, whose complaint about her harassment by the late Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes was a major factor in Ailes’s firing in July 2016, continued: “We don’t see the career opportunities women lose because of sexual harassment, or the intense stress it causes a woman dealing with it when she comes to work each day. I am thinking of those women this morning, hoping they are OK.
“The days to come will not be easy. We are in the middle of a sea change in this country, an empowerment revolution, in which women who for years felt they had no choice but to simply deal with being harassed at work are now starting to picture another reality, to feel that change is within their grasp.
“As painful as this moment is for so many here at NBC today, at CBS earlier this month, at Fox News over the last year, in Hollywood this fall, it is a sign of progress, of women finding their voices, their courage, and of the erosion of a shameful power imbalance that has been in place for far too long…
“My experience is that a news organization is bigger than any one person. They all face challenges. They all stumble. But the good ones stay standing and forge forward, fulfilling their core mission: journalism.”
And done dirt cheap...
her evidence was so compelling that Matt was fired on Tuesday night.”
gotta be photos, audio and/or video ...
No, it IS a “good thing.”
Got some skeletons in your closet?
Maybe the folks over at The Daily Beast know something is coming but won’t tell us....................
Or witnesses...................
Once by a former employee who, before working for us, was a GLOW wrestler. Since she looked like a guy, was stronger and bigger than me, and could crack me like a walnut, it was a ridiculous accusation. In her legal complaint she accused every male in management of sexual harassment and racial bigotry. It was a transparent extortion and our lawyers saw to it she walked away empty handed.
The second time was for a misunderstanding. The employee came in Monday morning complaining of a neck injury. I simply asked “What were you doing that caused that?” She got a look on her face like I had said something horrible and filed a complaint with the owner of the company. In the investigation she could not identify what I had said that was offensive, only that my “tone” was offensive. I was clueless about what she was talking about. My wife finally had to clue me in that she thought I was referring to vigorous oral sex. That had never crossed my mind. I actually had thought she may have gone to the new trampoline park in town. Needless to say, my boss (a female) agreed with me that there was nothing to it and the matter was dropped.
In today's atmosphere, I doubt that I would have had as easy a time of it, although at the time in each instance I was scared crapless. I just hope that lives aren't being needlessly ruined by avarice or misunderstandings.
James Bond droppd a plaque down a dress.
I kinda’ liked Ann Curry, she seemed a gentle soul, and I always disliked her getting bounced off the air, supposedly by Matt Lauer. I don’t think Ann Curry will revel in his firing, so I’m doing it for her.
This is Lack’s second tour at NBC News. He was there back in the 90s; hired just after the infamous “exploding pick-up” segment on dateline. During his first stint, Lack was instrumental in elevating Matt Lauer from morning anchor at WNBC-TV to news reader on the Today Show.
Worked in the broadcasting salt mines decades ago, before I had the good sense to make the military a career. Still have friends in the business. Lauer’s philandering was one of the worst-kept secrets in the business and it predates his time at NBC; his first wife divorced him long before he hit the big time simply because Lauer chased almost anyone in a skirt.
When Lauer took “Today” to number one, he became virtually untouchable. Today was a cash cow, spinning off $300-500 million a year in profits—by far the most profitable show at NBC. The network paid him well (up to $25 million a year) and let him do whatever he wanted. And a lot of executives—male and female—covered for him, because they owed Lauer for their positions and power.
Got a text today from a college classmate who stayed in the biz. Works for another network, but spent some time at NBC and knows many of the key figures. He was surprised it took “this long” for the cross-hairs to be trained on Lauer, since his proclivities were so well know. Also predicted this will be the “second biggest” media/entertainment sex scandal behind Weinstein, and the number of women who allege harassment (or worse) by Lauer will be “in the dozens.”
He also observed there will be “lots and lots” of executive jobs open at Comcast/NBC when this is over. The Lauer cover-up is that broad and deep.
Good point.
A lot of people at the other networks are praying for that to happen. Megyn is bombing at 9 am; anchoring the “flagship” hours of Today (7-9) she would be an absolute disaster, and kill the program altogether.
Nice try wuss. I laugh at that technique i see here sometimes. If you think we shouldn’t launch a hot war with Russia, you’re a paid Russian spy. If you think this new revolt of the pussy hats might be an anti-male movement seeking power... you must have skeletons in your closet.
Put on a dress and swish around for us why doncha?
“Got some skeletons in your closet?”
No Cotton Mather. This isn’t Salem and that technique fails.
It is now being repored (WOR710/NBC)that Lauer had a button at his desk that activated the office door lock so as to guard against interruption. If true THAT’S A PERVERT. Plain and simple. That’s NUTS!
so as to guard against THE WOMEN FLEEING SCREAMING DOWN THE HALL is more like it....................
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