Variety exclusive: The enabled domination of Matt Lauer
Photo: Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb embrace on air after announcing Matt Lauer's firing from NBC.
Headline by Back to Facts. Variety went with a direct approach for their actual headline: Matt Lauer accused of sexual harassment by multiple women. Although they relied almost exclusively on anonymous sources, Variety reporters Ramin Setoodeh and Elizabeth Wagmeister detail a pattern of abuse of power by Matt Lauer to get women in bed (or anywhere else) in sexual trysts that span decades.
One notable charge, which is sourced anonymously, is that Lauer was able to have sexual rendezvous in his office because he had an automatic door lock under his desk.
What is most notable about the article is that it portrays a situation where any complaints to NBC management were ignored. This directly contradicts what NBC Chairman Andrew Lack wrote in a memo read this morning on the air by Lauer's co-host Savannah Guthrie.
"While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he's been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident," Guthrie read on air.
Amazing how the winds change. So now, the network fires their star morning anchor after one complaint, and a vague notion that there might be more. It sounds more like Lauer's domination over the women he worked with was enabled by the network.
