Matt Lauer, the (former) beloved journalist and reporter from NBC and “The Today Show,” has undergone a tremendous fall from grace over the last few weeks. After one victim came forward to NBC about inappropriate behavior by Lauer while covering the 2014 Sochi Olympics, NBC immediately investigated and then fired the anchor. The company claimed they had “no idea” Lauer was behaving in such inappropriate and disgusting ways, but, there have been signs all over the walls of NBC and the Internet, proving Matt Lauer has always been quite the pig. Let’s roll the tape(s), shall we?
Throwback to 2012 when Matt Lauer was the “real victim” of sexual harassment on the Today show 🤔 pic.twitter.com/mYdnhEV2wv
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) November 29, 2017
https://twitter.com/alex_abads/status/935848385302679552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Ftwentytwowords.com%2Fit-turns-out-conan-obrien-tried-to-warn-us-about-matt-lauer-years-ago%2F
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I’m not saying MATT LAUER left plenty of clues, but…. pic.twitter.com/u30HfIIfc3— Andrew C 1776 ™️ (@Sheckyi) December 1, 2017
The NBC network supported a predator and did nothing about it..until now.. Matt Lauer tells Sandra Bullock his screensaver is a nude picture of her! pic.twitter.com/PcwApdLYYF
— GITMO KAG2020 🇺🇸 (@President1Trump) December 1, 2017
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/936074107887718400
Yeah, not a pretty picture to paint of someone in the public eye, right? While the evidence was all there, NBC and others overlooked his behavior for years. But, some co-hosts Lauer had worked with in the past had spoken out about his inappropriate tendencies even before his firing, like Katie Couric, who worked with Lauer for over a decade. In a 2012 interview, Couric even admitted Lauer liked to “pinch her on the ass a lot.” While everyone laughed about it at the time, it was definitely not something that should have been made into a joke, as it clearly perpetuated the mentality in Lauer that behaving like that in the workplace is completely acceptable.
However, when Lauer actually got fired, Couric hadn’t said much about the situation at all, until she responded to someone on her social media account via comments.