Andy Lack is out as chairman of both NBC News and MSNBC after a combined 13 years. The only thing more shocking than the scandal-ridden Lack’s ouster is that NBCUniversal, which has consolidated NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC into a single unit under Telemundo’s Cesar Conde, is that the media conglomerate overlooked Lack’s protege Noah Oppenheim to succeed him.
The only question now is whether NBCUniversal is facing its #MeToo reckoning at last.
Lack’s penchant for scandal long predated Ronan Farrow’s blockbuster reporting that likely led to his downfall. As far back as the 1980s, then-CBS producer Lack reportedly preyed on female staff, coercing at least one on-air talent to sign a nondisclosure agreement. When Lack pivoted to NBC News as president, he was responsible both for turning Matt Lauer into the Today show’s flagship star and for withholding Lisa Myers’s explosive interview with Juanita Broaddrick, who accuses Bill Clinton of rape, until after the Senate’s acquittal vote.
As Sony chairman and CEO, Lack reportedly protected serial sexual harasser Charlie Walk. By 2015, he was back at NBC to salvage NBC Nightly News after Brian Williams was exposed as having made up an anecdote about being fired at during the Iraq War.
And that’s where the real story of Lack’s downfall begins.
Lack befriended Lauer on a personal level despite allegations of Lauer’s own workplace sexual misconduct running rampant through NBC’s ranks. Under Lack’s tenure, Oppenheim also became the president of NBC News, and, in a move that would eventually trigger the chain of events spelling Lack’s ouster, Oppenheim gave the green light to Farrow and Rich McHugh to investigate the rumors about since-convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein.
But, as Farrow and McHugh began compiling hard evidence against Weinstein — on-the-record allegations of rape, audio of the disgraced producer admitting he was used to groping women without their consent — Oppenheim and Lack began to put the breaks on the story, secretly bowing down to Weinstein’s veiled threat of exposing Lauer if they let Farrow and McHugh’s reporting go forward. As I summarized of Farrow’s expose Catch and Kill back in October:
In part, Griffin, Lack, and Oppenheim’s decision to cover up for Weinstein was motivated by immediate self-interest: None of them wanted to risk losing Lauer, one of the network’s stars, or be exposed as having ignored his sexual predation. But they also wanted to maintain their proximity to Weinstein. Farrow notes that Oppenheim, though a successful journalist from the start, had made a foray into screenwriting and evidently craved the cozy relationship with celebrities that his connection with Weinstein brought. Lack likewise “dreamed of Hollywood.”
Farrow wound up taking his reporting to the New Yorker, which eventually earned the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service as a result. Within a month of the publication of Farrow’s initial report on Weinstein, NBC News announced Lauer’s termination, with years of allegations against the anchor spilling into the public eye. Another casualty of Lack’s Lauer obsession: Megyn Kelly, the superstar broadcast journalist who refused to back away from her rigorous coverage of the #MeToo movement, including interviews with Lauer’s alleged victims.
So, with Lack out and Oppenheim overlooked for a job the industry considered he’d be coronated to, does this mean NBC has finally faced reality? If so, it’s a remarkably rapid about-face, and one likely resulting from internal turmoil in the network.
Consider: Catch And Kill immediately became a bestseller when it was released on Oct. 15. In an apparent act of defiance against outraged critics, NBC News renewed Oppenheim’s contract just a week later. Given recent on-air evidence, we can only conclude that the calls were coming from within the house.
For months, reports have indicated that NBC staff has grown increasingly unhappy with their management. NBC News digital employees voted to unionize, and NBC’s refusal to initiate an independent investigation into its leadership was met with outrage from employees. But to understand the extent of discontent at the network, you just have to consider what actually made it to air.
Last year, Chris Hayes, the liberal MSNBC host reportedly disliked by Lack, spent ample airtime voicing his support for Farrow’s willingness to walk away from NBC News. Despite Lack’s repeated attempts to push Hayes out of prime time, Hayes still presides over a highly watched 8 p.m. news hour, and Lack is now unemployed. And why? Because Hayes simply voiced the concerns about NBC’s conduct that half the staff reportedly had. NBC might have thought that the fracas over Farrow would die down, but, instead, it was internally bad enough to instigate real change.
So, this may be no moral reckoning from the top. But clearly, NBC’s overhaul has resulted from some sort of revolution from its staff.
