NBC News is facing another round of scrutiny over whether the network’s management protected ousted anchor Matt Lauer.
When news of the allegations against the longtime “Today” host first surfaced late last year, NBC News chairman Andy Lack circulated a memorandum claiming the charges that lead to his firing represented “the first complaint about his behavior in the over twenty years he’s been at NBC News.”
But by later that same day, an NBC spokesperson shifted the story a bit to insist current management had not been “made aware of any complaints.”
“We can say unequivocally, that, prior to Monday night, current NBC News management was never made aware of any complaints about Matt Lauer’s conduct,” the spokesperson told CNN.
A detailed Variety story also reported that “[s]everal women” claimed to have “complained to executives at the network about Lauer’s behavior,” but that those complaints “fell on deaf ears given the lucrative advertising surrounding ‘Today.’”
All that was more than enough to inspire skepticism at the time.
But now former “Today” anchor Ann Curry has added another wrinkle to the conversation, saying she personally alerted management about Lauer’s alleged conduct in 2012. The Washington Post reported on Friday that Curry claims “she approached two members of NBC’s management team after an NBC female staffer told her she was ‘sexually harassed physically’ by Lauer.”
“I told management they had a problem, and they needed to keep an eye on him and how he deals with women,” Curry, who obeyed the woman’s request that she not reveal her name to management, recalled. The woman anonymously confirmed Curry’s account to the Post.
“Curry declined to name the management officials she says she approached,” the report noted. “An NBC spokesman said the company has no record of her warning and added that there was no mention of it in Lauer’s personnel file. NBC noted that Lack was not at the network at the time.”
Lauer continues to deny any accusations of “coercive, aggressive or abusive actions.”
Twelve current or former female staffers interviewed by the Post “said they were sexually harassed but did not report it.”
In a memo sent to staff days after Lauer’s firing, Lack wrote, “This week we saw that when an employee comes forward to report misconduct, the system works.”
Given NBC’s immediate story shift, and reports indicating several women, including one top anchor, claim to have brought complaints about Lauer to management long before last fall, the network should be seriously questioning whether Lack’s contention reflects reality. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest network management (current or former) was indeed made aware of allegations against Lauer and then claimed ignorance when reports of his behavior spilled out into the public.
