NBC has fired it’s lead man on the Today Lauer after a woman come forward last night with a ‘detailed complaint’ of sexual harassment by Lauer. Even though it was only one complaint, NBC said they have reason to believe it’s not an isolated incident.
Here’s NBC’s statement and Savannah Guthrie making the announcement:
Matt Lauer has been terminated from NBC News. On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment. pic.twitter.com/1A3UAZpvPb
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 29, 2017
There are apparently more women, according to Huffpo reporter Yashar Ali:
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
Matt Lauer put the fear of god into these women. He had relationships with reporters outside NBC that he cultivated just for this purpose. They knew that. https://t.co/47UKT8DuJA
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 29, 2017
. @RaminSetoodeh of Variety., The New York Times, myself , and others have been working on stories. Some top executives at NBC were aware of these stories https://t.co/47UKT8DuJA
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 29, 2017
We’ll be sure to post more on this when we get it.
UPDATE
It was sexual assault:
PAGE SIX – Matt Lauer allegedly sexually assaulted a female NBC staffer during the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, sources told Page Six.
An NBC insider said Lauer’s alleged victim complained to HR on Monday, “This happened so quickly. She didn’t go to the media, she made a complaint to NBC’s human resources, and her evidence was so compelling that Matt was fired on Tuesday night. The victim says she has evidence that this has also happened to other women, but so far we don’t have evidence of that.”