Tom Brokaw got a major boost last Friday when 115 women signed a letter vouching for his character after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against the news veteran. But not all of those signatures may have been sincere.
Page Six reported on Monday that “[f]emale staffers at NBC News are complaining they felt under huge pressure” to sign the letter advocating on Brokaw’s behalf.
“We felt forced to sign the letter supporting Brokaw,” one such staffer told Page Six. “We had no choice, particularly the lower level staffers. The letter was being handed around the office and the unspoken threat was that if your name was not on it, there would be some repercussion down the road. Execs are watching to see who signed and who didn’t.”
After two women accused Brokaw last week of making unwanted sexual advances on them in the 1990s, some of the network’s biggest names like Mika Brzezinski, Maria Shriver, Andrea Mitchell, and Rachel Maddow lent their voices to Brokaw’s defense by signing the letter. For his part, Brokaw has slammed his accusers and maintained his innocence.
But other women in media have since questioned the wisdom of the letter, especially before the allegations have been thoroughly vetted.
On her own NBC show, Megyn Kelly reflected on her experiences with Roger Ailes. “[T]he truth is, you don’t know what you don’t know. And that’s not in any way to impugn Tom, who I love and who’s been so good to me. Just saying, you don’t know what you don’t know,” she said.”
“What happens behind closed doors … we saw it at Fox News,” Kelly continued. “We saw these women come out [in support] and I remember thinking, ‘You’re wrong. It happened to me, your statements are wrong and you’re gonna be proven wrong.’”
HLN host S.E. Cupp spoke out against the effort as well. “As much as you think you may know someone, you never really know them fully, and unless you were there, you actually don’t know anything,” Cupp argued. “Banding together to sign a letter defending a top veteran newsman is exactly the kind of thing that creates a culture of intimidation. Who would feel comfortable coming forward about sexual harassment allegations now?”
Another woman on Monday accused Brokaw of giving her an unwanted kiss on the lips in the 1960s.
Kelly’s and Cupp’s cases against the letter are underscored by the source’s claims to Page Six. When an employee’s superiors are signing onto something, of course there’s pressure to go along with the effort — a reality that ultimately cheapens its impact and puts lower-level staffers in unnecessarily difficult positions. (Yes, they’re likely all able to resist the pressure, but that doesn’t mean they did or should have had to anyway.)
As frustrating as the circumstances may be for Brokaw’s allies, the impact of the letter could ultimately prove to be more negative than positive, although it could also prove to be an important lesson for the rest of us as well.
