The statement from NBC News Chairman Andy Lack said:
“On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer. It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company’s standards. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment. While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over twenty years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”
If this statement from journalist Yashar Ali is any indication, Lauer certainly had it coming to him.
I, and other reporters , have been aware of several women who have come forward privately in the past few months …even before Weinstein. They weren’t willing to go public though…they were terrified of Matt. https://t.co/jR3VV1AWGt
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 29, 2017
While Guthrie is understandably distraught at having lost a friend and decades-long coworker, she states that she is foremost a journalist and promises to present the facts as they come in. She added she’s also “heartbroken” for the woman who stepped forward to accuse Lauer as well as all the other women who have come forward to name their abusers in the last few months.
She acknowledges that “this reckoning” against sexual abusers in positions of power is “long overdue” and “must result in workplaces where all women, all people, feel safe and respected.” Preach!!! “This change had to happen.”
“How do you reconcile your love for someone with the revelation that they have behaved badly?” she asks. “And I don’t know the answer to that.” We don’t either. But hiring Ann Curry back is a good start.