What Did They Know and When Did they Know It?
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When Matt Lauer was fired from NBC for inappropriate conduct and NBC internal investigation concluded that the bosses at NBC knew nothing about what was happening.
Many in and around the industry laughed at that conclusion, since the rumors about Lauer had been out there for years.
Esquire Magazine took a closer look at the Lauer scandal and they basically call "bullshit" on NBC claims that management did not know about Lauer's actions.
Esquire writes:
So it seems they weren’t quite blindsided. But what about all the years prior? “People know,” says journalist and media critic Ken Auletta, who has covered the network for more than twenty-five years. “People [inside the network] know a lot more than people outside do and gossip a lot more and resent a lot more (a) because they think it’s wrong or (b) because they’re jealous or (c) because how the fuck is this guy getting away with it?” Zinone is also sure people at the network knew. Years ago, when she was still in Iraq, a colleague at Today proposed doing a segment on her. A producer, she says, not only nixed the idea but also bad-mouthed Zinone for no apparent reason. They “had to have known something,” she says. “Why not just say, ‘Nah, that’s not a story I’m interested in’?”
Many of the same NBC executives who’d professed shock at Lauer’s behavior were at a private Friars Club roast for the anchor at a Manhattan hotel in 2008. Also in attendance was Trump, then the host of Celebrity Apprentice. The proceedings were recorded by a reporter from The Village Voice. One after another, speakers delivered a fusillade of sexually charged innuendos. Couric rehearsed a David Letterman–style Top Ten list; number two referenced a sex act between Lauer and Curry. Jeff Zucker, then chief of NBCUniversal, spoke of Lauer’s nights on an office couch because of marital troubles at home. Joe Scarborough, cohost of Morning Joe on MSNBC, commented on the night’s events on-air not long after Lauer’s firing. “The whole theme was that he does the show and then he has sex with people, with employees,” Scarborough said. “So was this whispered behind closed doors? No. It was shouted from the mountaintops and everybody laughed about it.”
What’s more, in a 2012 appearance on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live, Couric was asked about Lauer’s most annoying habit in the years she worked alongside him. “He pinches me on the ass a lot,” she replied. Days after his termination, a video snippet surfaced that apparently showed a moment during a Today commercial break in October 2006 when Lauer seemingly made a crude comment about Vieira. “Keep bending over like that. It’s a nice view,” he was heard to say.
You can read the full story here.
