10 Hours After NBC Fired Matt Lauer over Sexual Allegations – More Women Step Forward

A short ten hours after the shocking news announcement of Matt Lauer firing from the NBC’s Today Show, two more women came forward with allegations of sexual misconducts by Lauer and have informed NBC News about the harassment they have encountered in the hands of Lauer.

Matt Lauer on TODAY
Matt Lauer on TODAY

One of those women told The New York Times that in 2001, Lauer asked her to his office and that he had sex with her. She said the paper that she felt that she didn’t have the choice due to Lauer’s high standing at the Network, that she felt “helpless and didn’t report the incident to Human Resources because I felt ashamed and was nervous for my job.”

Variety magazine, following a lead,  interviewed dozens of current and former employees of Lauer and started to investigate months ago the allegations, collecting testimonials from current and former colleagues. It reported Wednesday that they had spoken to three women who divulged that Lauer had sexually harassed them.  Several women claimed that they turned to the network executives and shared their experiences but that their complaints fell on deaf ears.

“Management sucks there,” a former reporter told Variety. “They protected the [expletive] out of Matt Lauer.”

Lauer, a married father of three,  is now among a group of influential men whose careers have taken a downturn over sexual misconduct allegations. Matt Lauer as the host of the Today Show may be the best known. The list of men taken down includes Academy Awards winner movie producer Harvey Weinstein,  actors Kevin Spacey and Jeffrey Tambor, filmmaker James Toback, acclaimed veteran journalist Charlie Rose, and comedian Louis C.K.

Lauer has a $25 millions annual contract with NBC, and it is unknown if the Network will continue to pay Lauer through the end of his contract, meant to expire in 2018. AT the time of publication, nor Lauer or NBC could be reached for comments

In the meantime, allegations among the political elite, including President Trump who has been accused by 13 women of sexual misconducts,  continue to mount to very different consequences. As reported here a few weeks ago, there seems to be a disparity how the public and private sectors react to allegations of sexual misconduct.

Update 11:30 PM – We’ve heard that Hoda Kotb will sit what was Lauer’s chair on Thursday, sitting with Savannah Guthrie at the top of the 7 am.


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