Ann Curry Calls Matt Lauer A Monster
May 10, 2018 08:27 AM
NBC knew it had a problem on its hands. Former "Today" show
host Ann Curry's revelation to the Washington Post that she informed
two managers years ago they should pay attention to Matt Lauer's conduct
with women looked bad for the network this spring.
Consequently, NBCUniversal addressed her claim, as a footnote, in the report summarizing its Lauer investigation released on Wednesday.
NBC said in the report that Curry had spoken to the investigative team, and that “members of NBC News and ‘Today’ show leadership at the time with whom we spoke denied having any such conversation with Curry.” Curry, by the way, has declined to name the managers she says she briefed, along with the woman who approached her with a complaint about Lauer that prompted her to tell management.
But here's what the New York Times is reporting:
NBC is under fire for conducting an internal investigation
into Lauer, rather than hiring an outside counsel. Conflicts like this
are exactly why. Investigators say in the report they interviewed 68
people, current and former staff, on-air talent, management, human
resources personnel, etc. But Curry's public insistence that, for her,
those communications were limited to a brief and informal phone call
about another media interview is enough to make you question the rest of
the report. If Curry is telling the truth, what else was exaggerated in
the report, or not probed adequately by investigators? (I've raised
additional questions here, as has my colleague Becket Adams.)
These questions intensify when you consider again that NBC's investigation was done internally, rather then by an outside counsel. When you rely on internal investigators, and conflicts like this arise, your findings seem less credible. The company did its best to release a report that would minimize further fallout, but skepticism will continue to dog NBC.
Consequently, NBCUniversal addressed her claim, as a footnote, in the report summarizing its Lauer investigation released on Wednesday.
NBC said in the report that Curry had spoken to the investigative team, and that “members of NBC News and ‘Today’ show leadership at the time with whom we spoke denied having any such conversation with Curry.” Curry, by the way, has declined to name the managers she says she briefed, along with the woman who approached her with a complaint about Lauer that prompted her to tell management.
Ms. Curry took issue with that characterization. 'I have
not participated in any formal investigation by NBC on sexual
harassment,' she wrote in a statement.
Instead, according to a person briefed on the conversation,
Ms. Curry received an unexpected phone call from an NBCUniversal
lawyer, shortly before The Post’s article was published.
The call, which did not last long, was focused solely on
what Ms. Curry had told The Post, the person said. There was no
follow-up conversation with Ms. Curry, who said she stood by what she
told the Post.
These questions intensify when you consider again that NBC's investigation was done internally, rather then by an outside counsel. When you rely on internal investigators, and conflicts like this arise, your findings seem less credible. The company did its best to release a report that would minimize further fallout, but skepticism will continue to dog NBC.
Michael Loccisano/Getty
Matt Lauer’s History of Creepy ‘Today’ Show Moments
His firing may have come as a shock Wednesday morning, but looking back, there had always been something weird about the way Matt Lauer talks to and about women.
Was Matt Lauer’s creepy behavior hiding in plain sight?
On the surface, the 20-year veteran of NBC’s Today show was a perfectly wholesome morning anchor, able to smoothly switch back and forth between hard news and silly fluff, especially when paired with the perpetually cheerful Katie Couric. Now, he has been abruptly fired by the network for unspecified claims of sexual harassment.
In the decade since Couric left, Lauer has slowly revealed a darker side, especially when it comes to his interactions with women. The most notable instance was his public falling out with short-lived co-anchor Ann Curry, who tearfully said goodbye to viewers in 2012 as Lauer sat awkwardly and silently beside her.
But that was hardly the only Today show moment that looks very different in light of today’s news. Just a few months after Curry’s departure, Lauer conducted a one-on-one interview with Les Miserables star Anne Hathaway that began with the comment, “Seen a lot of you lately.” He was referring to a so-called “wardrobe malfunction” that had been captured by paparazzi at the premiere of that film.
“Sorry about that,” Hathaway replied tersely. “I’d be happy to stay home, but the film.”
But Lauer pressed on, asking, “What’s the lesson learned from something like that, other than that you keep smiling, which you’ll always do?”
“I
was very sad that we live in an age when someone takes a picture of
another person in a vulnerable moment, and rather than delete it and do
the decent thing, sells it,” Hathaway told Lauer. “And I’m sorry that we
live in a culture that commodifies sexuality of unwilling
participants,” she added, before deftly steering the conversation back
to the project she was promoting (and for which she would go on to win
an Oscar).
Also in 2012—for some reason—Lauer decided to play the “real victim” of sexual harassment in a misguided comedy sketch on the Today
show. “I didn’t do anything differently, I wasn’t wearing a different
cologne. This was uninitiated,” Lauer said in response to a jokey
suggestion that he “provoked” a tap on the butt from co-host Willie
Geist.
After the sketch aired, Geist managed to make things even worse by joking that he had retained legal counsel so there was “only so much he could say” about the incident. Then, Al Roker suggests that ask their upcoming guest to weigh in on the matter: None other than Dustin Hoffman.
Two years later, Lauer came under fire once again, this time
for asking GM CEO Mary Barra if she could handle the double duty of
running a giant company and being a parent, a question that he almost
certainly would never have asked a male chief-executive.
“You said in an interview not long ago that your kids said they’re going to hold you accountable for one job, and that is being a mom. Given the pressure at General Motors, can you do both well?” he asked.
Lauer later defended the question, insisting, “If a man had publicly said something similar after accepting a high-level job, I would have asked him exactly the same thing.”
On the surface, the 20-year veteran of NBC’s Today show was a perfectly wholesome morning anchor, able to smoothly switch back and forth between hard news and silly fluff, especially when paired with the perpetually cheerful Katie Couric. Now, he has been abruptly fired by the network for unspecified claims of sexual harassment.
In the decade since Couric left, Lauer has slowly revealed a darker side, especially when it comes to his interactions with women. The most notable instance was his public falling out with short-lived co-anchor Ann Curry, who tearfully said goodbye to viewers in 2012 as Lauer sat awkwardly and silently beside her.
But that was hardly the only Today show moment that looks very different in light of today’s news. Just a few months after Curry’s departure, Lauer conducted a one-on-one interview with Les Miserables star Anne Hathaway that began with the comment, “Seen a lot of you lately.” He was referring to a so-called “wardrobe malfunction” that had been captured by paparazzi at the premiere of that film.
“Sorry about that,” Hathaway replied tersely. “I’d be happy to stay home, but the film.”
But Lauer pressed on, asking, “What’s the lesson learned from something like that, other than that you keep smiling, which you’ll always do?”
NBC Clears Execs of Responsibility for Lauer’s Misconduct
Did Opim Make Coleridge Forget the Rest of ‘Kubla Khan’?
After the sketch aired, Geist managed to make things even worse by joking that he had retained legal counsel so there was “only so much he could say” about the incident. Then, Al Roker suggests that ask their upcoming guest to weigh in on the matter: None other than Dustin Hoffman.
“You said in an interview not long ago that your kids said they’re going to hold you accountable for one job, and that is being a mom. Given the pressure at General Motors, can you do both well?” he asked.
Lauer later defended the question, insisting, “If a man had publicly said something similar after accepting a high-level job, I would have asked him exactly the same thing.”
“I have a hot new look?” Clarkson, who was no more than 23 at the time, asked Lauer.
“Well, I'm back from vacation and you got my attention, I'll tell you that,” he replied, looking her up and down.
It is also worth noting that while Lauer did bring up Trump’s 2013 tweet about sexual assault in the military, he barely pushed back when the candidate insisted that it was “correct” to say that rape should be “expected” when women and men serve together.
“Clearly, this is a New Yorker article,” Farrow said.
Matt Lauer Is ‘Genuinely Surprised’ Ann Curry Spoke Out About 2012 Sexual Harassment Allegations
Color him surprised. Matt Lauer did not expect Ann Curry to speak out about the sexual harassment allegations made against him, a source tells Us Weekly exclusively.
“Matt was genuinely surprised Ann spoke to The Washington Post on the record stating she had gone to management at NBC while [they] both were anchors of Today and made a complaint on behalf of someone that he had been sexually harassing the staff member,” the insider tells Us. “No one ever spoke to Matt about it at the time, and the executive producer at the time, Jim Bell, was also unaware of the very serious allegation Ann was making against Matt.”
“Matt was genuinely surprised Ann spoke to The Washington Post on the record stating she had gone to management at NBC while [they] both were anchors of Today and made a complaint on behalf of someone that he had been sexually harassing the staff member,” the insider tells Us. “No one ever spoke to Matt about it at the time, and the executive producer at the time, Jim Bell, was also unaware of the very serious allegation Ann was making against Matt.”
The veteran journalist, 60, is not happy his former Today cohost shared a story alleging she reported Lauer for sexual harassment on behalf of a female colleague in 2012: “Matt has been laying low for a reason, and just when he thought the worst was behind him, this story comes out with Ann on the record. It’s very frustrating for Matt because of the impact it’s taking on his kids. He is working through a very contentious divorce with Annette [Roque].”
Despite the mounting accusations, Lauer still denies wrongdoing, according to the insider. “Matt freely admits that he was a very bad husband and cheated on Annette. However, he maintains that there was absolutely no sexual harassment or unwanted sexual advances on his behalf. These were consensual relationships,” the source reveals.
The We’ll Meet Again host said she mentioned Lauer by name in her complaint: “I told management they had a problem and they needed to keep an eye on him and how he deals with women.”An NBC spokesman told The Washington Post there is no record of Curry’s complaint and it was not noted in Lauer’s personnel file. NBC News and the Today show are both under different management since Curry’s time on the programs.
With reporting by Jennifer Heger
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Former “Today Show” co-host Ann Curry warned NBC executives about Matt Lauer’s sexual misconduct in 2012, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
In her first interview since Lauer’s ouster from the network last fall, Curry told the Post that she was prompted to act after a female staffer came to her in tears. The staffer told Curry that she was “sexually harassed physically” by Lauer.
“She was afraid of losing her job… I believed her,” Curry told the paper. “I told management they had a problem and they needed to keep an eye on him and how he deals with women.”
NBC said there was no record of the warning in Lauer’s file, and it is not clear that any action was taken. The previous executive team at NBC News, not the current regime, was overseeing the department at the time.
Curry, who left the network the same year after 15 years on the show, told the Post there was “pervasive verbal sexual harassment” at NBC. The Post story alleges that her allegations were consistent with a much broader pattern of harassment at the network stretching back to the 1990s. The story alleges that NBC executives often dismissed such claims or were slow to respond.
Variety also reported on Thursday about an allegation against former “Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw. Linda Vester, a former war correspondent for the network, alleges that Brokaw tries to kiss her against her will twice, and showed up to her hotel uninvited, in the 1990s. Vester was also interviewed at length for the Post, and backed up her claims to both publications with contemporaneous journal entries.
Brokaw denied the allegations in a statement, saying he made “no romantic overtures” toward Vester in two brief meetings.
The Post also reported allegations from a second woman against Brokaw, a 24-year-old production assistant who said he put her hands under his jacket against his chest and asked her if she wanted to come to his office to get career advice.
The Post spoke with 35 current and former NBC employees, of whom 12 said they were sexually harassed at the network but did not report it. Of them, three said they were harassed by Lauer. Many of the employees also told the paper that Lauer was known to pursue relationships with younger women, some of which were consensual.
In his statement to the Post, Lauer acknowledged infidelity but denied that any of the relationships were coercive.
“I fully acknowledge that I acted inappropriately as a husband, father and principal at NBC,” he said. “However I want to make it perfectly clear that any allegations or reports of coercive, aggressive or abusive actions on my part, at any time, are absolutely false.”
Lauer was fired in November, a day after NBC received an allegation of serious sexual misconduct.
Some ‘Today Show’ Fans Say Matt Lauer’s Ousting Is a Victory for Former Co-Host Ann Curry
Back in 2012, just one short year into her contract, journalist Ann Curry left the show with a tearful goodbye. At the time, outsiders were not exactly sure what happened. With Lauer’s ousting from his show yesterday, however, fans are going back to the rumors surrounding Curry’s departure, and a story about an incident dubbed “Operation Bambi” that pointed to Lauer’s comeuppance as retribution for treatment of past co-hosts, most notably Curry.
Stetler goes on to say that in his 2012 contract negotiations, Lauer essentially told NBC to choose between them, which led to Curry’s firing. But what did Lauer reportedly dislike about his new co-host? According to the book, Curry would not abide by the hostile environment that Lauer promoted and ran as the lead host of the show — and she had no qualms in fighting back against his “boys club.”
While most of his former colleagues have landed in new roles quite quickly, it took Curry a few years before coming back to regular television hosting, which she’s doing with her new PBS show, We’ll Meet Again, which pairs survivors of disaster with the people who saved them. As for this week’s shakeup at NBC, Curry was stoic when speaking with People about the whole thing, telling the mag, “The women’s movement got us into the workplace, but it didn’t make us safe once we got there.”
She went on: “We need to move this revolution [of women’s and victims rights] forward and make our workplaces safe. Corporate America is quite clearly failing to do so, and unless it does something to change that, we need to keep doing more ourselves.”
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