“Hi, NYT here, requesting comment on this story we’re about to run...” “Uh, hold the line...”. “you’re fired!” “... uh yeah, no comment...”
I'm assuming there has to be some background like this because the initial reporting makes it seem like one person filed a complaint and they just immediately fired him, which is kind of insane. Even assuming there was a lot of gossip/knowledge about it I'm kind of surprised they didn't suspend him 'pending investigation' for at least a couple of days before pulling the trigger so they could convey at least some semblance of professionalism. Generally speaking, even when a company is 100% sure they are going to fire someone in a case like this there's a short suspension period first so they can jump through the hoops.
Maybe they didnt need to investigate? It doesnt take much effort to pull security tape or email logs or something along those lines.
No one knows what goes on behind closed corporate doors. It is conceivable that NBC had warned Lauer when he signed his contract that any variance from being a great family man would void his contract. My point is we can all speculate, but we will never know the background, until someone in the know, writes the book. My thoughts are that this was known by NBC for a long time, many coverups, many warnings and the threat of everything being exposed led to his firing. The Allegation was only "The straw that broke the camel's back". It was always going to happen sometime.
Right, I'm assuming there's more to it. Even still, I'm surprised there wasn't the usual corporate, "we need to pretend we're going to look into this for a few days" line.
Didn't his current wife very publicly file for divorce about 10 years ago, or something? The complaint of something like him being a cruel dickhead? But, then they stayed together. ETA: http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/matt-lauer-accused-sexual-harassment-multiple-women-1202625959/ Man.
Damn, now I want a button under my desk to lock the door. I will give him this, he had balls and arrogance to think he would get away with his crap forever.
Bad day for the news media all around. CNN fired a senior producer and NPR let two guys go...all over sexual harassment.
Get away with being a real life Glen Quagmire? What, no knockout gas? It sounds like something out of a badly-lit porn shoot.
No, this isn't the least bit creepy. (Video) “Keep bending over like that, it’s a nice view” ~ Matt Lauer to Meredeth Viera
The button story sounds nuts. Anyone think it might have just been a panic/security button and the media/accusor are making it into a Dr Evil looney toons sexual assault contraption? Sort of like the media frenzy during the Micheal Vick dog fighting scandal when they reported him having a "rape stand" for unwilling dogs to breed, a wildly overzealous description of a fairly common mating apparatus used in animal husbandry?
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/...l-harassment-detailed-in-stunning-new-report/ Apparently there had been a lot of complaints. It's kind of funny how all these news outlets got on their high horse when this happened at fox news and it turns out they were doing the exact same thing. Is this really surprising though? Especially the Hollywood stuff. Have they even tried to hide the fact that a lot of men in the industry expected sexual favors for career advancement? They've been joking about this being a fact of Hollywood in countless movies for as long as I can remember. Then it comes out that, no shit, it actually does work like that and apparently we're supposed to be stunned that it could have gone on while being an 'open secret'. I don't think it was even an open secret, just wide open.
Surprising, that an industry's whole fucking point is finding the youngest hottest talent on earth would also have guys in it trying to fuck said talent any way they could? Shocked I tell you, shocked. So Lauer did have skeletons. Fuck. Not that I thought he was some saintly figure but crazy someone with so much face time with the public got away with it is nuts.
Really, the only part that surprises me about all the recent allegations is how many just wanted to masturbate in front of someone. That seems like the most common form of harassment. Just weird.
I think the reality of people acting surprised over this mess basically means that they are a lot of stupid people out there. That, or completely full of shit. Because there’s no reason this should come as a surprise. We should get a pool going on which current washed-up star will accuse which current up-and-coming star. I predict that Elliot Gould will accuse Bella Thorne of raping him.
It kind of annoys me too that because this happened in Hollywood people are acting like it is the norm in every industry. It's not. That's not to say it doesn't happen, or even that it's super rare, but Hollywood has always been like this and not particularly shameful about it. Meryl Streep: "Samara Weaving invited me into her office. Then... she put her entire fist up my butt. She proceeded to cram her other fist in my vagina. That's when I knew something bad was happening. I felt very uncomfortable."
There seems to be more and more coming out about "the button" and I can promise you, there are executives and talent all over the place (not just Hollywood), right now finding out if they can get a under-the-desk door closer / lock button installed.