Matt Lauer fired from NBC for sexual harassment accusations
Nov 29, 2017 19:45:47 GMT -4
Souriquois likes this
Post by soul49 on Nov 29, 2017 19:45:47 GMT -4
www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/business/media/nbc-matt-lauer.html
They're dropping like flies, I even read that Lauer had a secret button under his desk which allowed him to lock his door.
The fast-moving national reckoning over sexual harassment in the workplace toppled another television news star on Wednesday when NBC fired Matt Lauer, the co-host of its most profitable franchise, “Today,” after an allegation of inappropriate sexual behavior with a subordinate.
NBC News told its staff that it was firing Mr. Lauer some 34 hours after the woman and her lawyer visited the network headquarters in Midtown Manhattan to share details of her interactions with Mr. Lauer with company executives.
On Wednesday, NBC received at least two more complaints related to Mr. Lauer, according to a person briefed on the network’s handling of the matter. One complaint came from a former employee who said Mr. Lauer had summoned her to his office in 2001 and then had sex with her. She provided her account to The New York Times but declined to let her name be used.
She told the Times that she felt helpless because she didn’t want to lose her job, and that she didn’t report the encounter at the time because she felt ashamed.
The woman told her husband about the encounter at the time, which The Times confirmed with him in a phone call. The couple was separated at the time, and later divorced. She also told a friend about it five years ago, which the friend also confirmed.
It was the complaint on Monday that prompted NBC to take action. “On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer,” Andrew Lack, the NBC News chairman, said in a memo to the staff. “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.”
Mr. Lauer’s ouster followed a head-spinning string of prominent firings over sexual harassment and abuse allegations, including the studio mogul Harvey Weinstein, the comedian Louis C.K., the CBS host Charlie Rose and the political journalist Mark Halperin. Still, the news of Mr. Lauer’s sudden downfall shook his industry and shared national headlines with North Korea’s ballistic missile test.
Mr. Lauer was a fixture of morning television, a presence in American living rooms for 20 years as the “Today” co-anchor but also as a face of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and the Winter and Summer Olympics, for which NBC is the exclusive broadcaster. The “Today” show caters to — and relies on — an overwhelmingly female audience, and Mr. Lauer is part of a cast that presents itself as a tight-knit family, with Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Megyn Kelly, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb.
The “Today” staff learned of Mr. Lauer’s termination just a couple of hours before going on the air. Ms. Guthrie was visibly shaken when she delivered the news at the top of the “Today” show on Wednesday morning. Describing Mr. Lauer as “a dear, dear friend,” she said she was “heartbroken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story.”
Giving the weather report, a visibly shaken Al Roker said, “I’m still trying to process the news.” Soon after announcing the dismissal, Ms. Guthrie gripped the hand of Ms. Kotb, who was rushed in as an emergency substitute host.
The network did not name a replacement for Mr. Lauer.
His dismissal was seized on by President Trump, who went on to ask in a tweet when executives at NBC and Comcast, the network’s parent company, would “be fired for putting out so much fake news.”
Mr. Lauer is the second of NBC News’s top-rated stars to lose his job in recent years. In 2015, NBC News suspended its 6:30 p.m. “Nightly News’’ anchor, Brian Williams, for several months after he fabricated accounts of his own heroics, including a false story that he had been in a helicopter in Iraq that was struck by enemy fire. Mr. Lack has since given Mr. Williams a show on MSNBC at 11 p.m.
Mr. Lauer has had some notable stumbles in recent years. His interview of Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump during the presidential campaign was widely panned for giving Mrs. Clinton far rougher treatment than he gave Mr. Trump.
An article by Brian Stelter in The New York Times Magazine in 2013 reported that Ann Curry, a former “Today” co-host, blamed Mr. Lauer, along with a “boys’ club’’ atmosphere behind the scenes at the show, for undermining her on the set, finally forcing her out that year.
NBC News told its staff that it was firing Mr. Lauer some 34 hours after the woman and her lawyer visited the network headquarters in Midtown Manhattan to share details of her interactions with Mr. Lauer with company executives.
On Wednesday, NBC received at least two more complaints related to Mr. Lauer, according to a person briefed on the network’s handling of the matter. One complaint came from a former employee who said Mr. Lauer had summoned her to his office in 2001 and then had sex with her. She provided her account to The New York Times but declined to let her name be used.
She told the Times that she felt helpless because she didn’t want to lose her job, and that she didn’t report the encounter at the time because she felt ashamed.
The woman told her husband about the encounter at the time, which The Times confirmed with him in a phone call. The couple was separated at the time, and later divorced. She also told a friend about it five years ago, which the friend also confirmed.
It was the complaint on Monday that prompted NBC to take action. “On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer,” Andrew Lack, the NBC News chairman, said in a memo to the staff. “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.”
Mr. Lauer’s ouster followed a head-spinning string of prominent firings over sexual harassment and abuse allegations, including the studio mogul Harvey Weinstein, the comedian Louis C.K., the CBS host Charlie Rose and the political journalist Mark Halperin. Still, the news of Mr. Lauer’s sudden downfall shook his industry and shared national headlines with North Korea’s ballistic missile test.
Mr. Lauer was a fixture of morning television, a presence in American living rooms for 20 years as the “Today” co-anchor but also as a face of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and the Winter and Summer Olympics, for which NBC is the exclusive broadcaster. The “Today” show caters to — and relies on — an overwhelmingly female audience, and Mr. Lauer is part of a cast that presents itself as a tight-knit family, with Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Megyn Kelly, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb.
The “Today” staff learned of Mr. Lauer’s termination just a couple of hours before going on the air. Ms. Guthrie was visibly shaken when she delivered the news at the top of the “Today” show on Wednesday morning. Describing Mr. Lauer as “a dear, dear friend,” she said she was “heartbroken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story.”
Giving the weather report, a visibly shaken Al Roker said, “I’m still trying to process the news.” Soon after announcing the dismissal, Ms. Guthrie gripped the hand of Ms. Kotb, who was rushed in as an emergency substitute host.
The network did not name a replacement for Mr. Lauer.
His dismissal was seized on by President Trump, who went on to ask in a tweet when executives at NBC and Comcast, the network’s parent company, would “be fired for putting out so much fake news.”
Mr. Lauer is the second of NBC News’s top-rated stars to lose his job in recent years. In 2015, NBC News suspended its 6:30 p.m. “Nightly News’’ anchor, Brian Williams, for several months after he fabricated accounts of his own heroics, including a false story that he had been in a helicopter in Iraq that was struck by enemy fire. Mr. Lack has since given Mr. Williams a show on MSNBC at 11 p.m.
Mr. Lauer has had some notable stumbles in recent years. His interview of Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump during the presidential campaign was widely panned for giving Mrs. Clinton far rougher treatment than he gave Mr. Trump.
An article by Brian Stelter in The New York Times Magazine in 2013 reported that Ann Curry, a former “Today” co-host, blamed Mr. Lauer, along with a “boys’ club’’ atmosphere behind the scenes at the show, for undermining her on the set, finally forcing her out that year.
They're dropping like flies, I even read that Lauer had a secret button under his desk which allowed him to lock his door.