The former NBC reporter who accused anchor Tom Brokaw of sexual misconduct said Tuesday that the internal investigation into the matter was a flawed product, and that the network needs to hire an outside counsel to learn about problems at NBC.
“I think the internal report was deeply flawed. That’s a problem,” Linda Vesper said on CNN Tuesday.
“Women have contacted me in recent days to say that they did not feel that they could fully speak candidly to the NBC lawyers,” she said. “And others have contacted me to say that they didn’t feel that they were properly interviewed.”
Former NBC News anchor and Tom Brokaw accuser Linda Vester calls NBC’s internal report on sexual harassment “deeply flawed”: “Women have contacted me in recent days to say that they did not feel that they could fully speak candidly to the NBC lawyers” https://t.co/TxR7fJwhBy pic.twitter.com/PZUyP2e84D
— New Day (@NewDay) May 15, 2018
Vesper said women at NBC “can’t speak freely” to lawyers who work directly for the company that signs their paychecks, and said only outside investigators can get to the bottom of the network’s problems.
“What NBC really needs to do is hire outside counsel to properly investigate this,” she said, noting that CBS, NPR, and Fox News hired outside people to deal with similar problems.
“That shows a transparency and willingness to address problems with sexual misconduct,” she said. “I don’t understand why NBC isn’t doing it, but I think it can and it should.”
NBC last week released its internal investigation, which said among other things that supervisors at NBC News were never aware that former host Matt Lauer was a serial sexual harasser.
