Variety has some details on Lauer allegations- disgusting!

[octoberlib]

As the co-host of NBC’s “Today,” Matt Lauer once gave a colleague a sex toy as a present. It included an explicit note about how he wanted to use it on her, which left her mortified.

On another day, he summoned a different female employee to his office, and then dropped his pants, showing her his penis. After the employee declined to do anything, visibly shaken, he reprimanded her for not engaging in a sexual act.

He would sometimes quiz female producers about who they’d slept with, offering to trade names. And he loved to engage in a crass quiz game with men and women in the office: “fuck, marry or kill,” in which he would identify the female co-hosts that he’d most like to sleep with.

These accounts of Lauer’s behavior at NBC are the result of a two-month investigation by Variety, with dozens of interviews with current and former staffers. Variety has talked to three women who identified themselves as victims of sexual harassment by Lauer, and their stories have been corroborated by friends or colleagues that they told at the time. They have asked for now to remain unnamed, fearing professional repercussions.

http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/matt-lauer-accused-sexual-harassment-multiple-women-1202625959/

[Ken Burch]

1. Makes you wonder how he REALLY treated Ann Curry.

n/t.

[brush]

48. Maybe she wouldn't sleep with him.

[Botany]

2. Lauer, loved to engage in a crass quiz game with men and women in the office: fuck, marry or kill,

My alma mater's, Ohio U, finest.

[kstewart33]

29. And the special button under his desk that locks his door.

A target enters his office, Matt presses the button while still sitting, and gotcha.

[Skittles]

59. I believe that button is a standard security measure for high-profile people

of course, he used it to be secure no one came in after the victim

[leftynyc]

3. I'm bitchy enough to admit

that after what he did to Hillary during the campaign, I'm enjoying his downfall very, very much.

[Little Star]

5. Me too!

[pnwmom]

23. Me, three!

[yonder]

20. I remember him interviewing our President Obama.

His constant interruptions, holier-than-thou attitude and weird affect of always putting his eyeglasses on and off really turned the corner for me.

[LisaM]

31. Yup.

I hope he thinks about that, too.

[yardwork]

33. The people who are threatened by strong women revealed themselves.

[Starry Messenger]

36. *also raises hand*

[GoCubsGo]

46. Same, and not just because of what he did to Hillary.

I don't think I have ever seen him be anything other than a shitbag when it came interviewing Democrats.

[susanna]

60. I'm not crying about it, myself.

Also, I am old enough to say that I flat-out stopped watching Today after Ann Curry left.

He was a shithead then and he's a shithead now.

No apologies here for disliking that man.

[Blue_Tires]

4. He's a deviant little shit, isn't he??

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

6. And how can the people who have been on MSNBC today claim

they had no idea what was going on?

[Siwsan]

21. I am thinking the exact same thing

Reminds me of this:

&feature=youtu.be

[PunkinPi]

7. Who allowed this (from the article)?

His office was in a secluded space, and he had a button under his desk that allowed him to lock his door from the inside without getting up. This afforded him the assurance of privacy. It allowed him to welcome female employees and initiate inappropriate contact while knowing nobody could walk in on him, according to two women who were sexually harassed by Lauer.

This didn't raise any alarms?

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Nobody Noticed A Workman Putting In An Electric Lock?

On an office door? Then nobody noticed the whole assembly with the electromagnet in the door that was the only door like that in the joint? Really?

I agree. Someone else knew what was going on and looked the other way.

[yardwork]

34. Exactly! How was THIS allowed?

[exboyfil]

52. It has to be a safety code violation as well as ultracreepy

I see big lawsuits ahead. You cannot confine employees with no way for them to exit on their own. NBC should be ashamed.

[yardwork]

54. You're right. State and federal laws. OSHA and fire code violations.

[torius]

57. Network said "high-value" employees have those locks

that let them lock themselves in. Not defending the creep, I've never even seen him-- just read about the locks someplace.

[yardwork]

61. It makes me wonder about a culture of harassment..

[Dave Starsky]

63. I never heard of such a fucked-up thing.

It seems like those things would have to be designed to lock people in, rather than out.

Very strange and disturbing. What kind of company is NBC running?

[hlthe2b]

9. He was there more than 20 years! How long did this go on?!!!

[brooklynite]

10. Or, as Geraldo Rivera puts it....."courtship"

[mainstreetonce]

11. There were stories

when Ann Curry was fired
When Natalie Morales was reassigned

Everyone knew

[gratuitous]

12. And yet NBC's official announcement today said . . .

Andy Lack said in his memo to the network folks, and I quote: "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."

It's a curiously worded sentence in an industry where precise language is the sine qua non.

[TexasBushwhacker]

19. And pinching Katie Couric's ass

http://m.eonline.com/amp/news/897086/katie-couric-once-said-matt-lauer-pinches-me-on-the-ass-a-lot

[DesertRat]

28. And Tamron Hall was pushed out

They should bring them all back now.

[Scurrilous]

13. K&R

[iluvtennis]

14. Wow, just wow. :-(

[FakeNoose]

15. Creepy

It makes you wonder why Meredith Vieria left the show, Natalie Morales, and so many others.

Of course, we all know what happened to Anne Curry, despite the many protestations of Lauer that he had nothing to do with her getting fired.

[Ilsa]

42. He likely made her uncomfortable so that she would leave.

I doubt he would have made a pass at MV since she isn't young. He wanted a younger, prettier, more dense cohost he could manipulate. But that's my take on MV leaving.

[smirkymonkey]

16. I could never stand him.

Now I know that my instincts were spot on.

[DesertRat]

27. I felt the same way

I always found him to be arrogant, particularly toward women. Good riddance.

[LenaBaby61]

49. "I could never stand him."

Same here Smirkymonkey

After the way he's treated Hillary over the many years , and the cherry on top was the way he absolutely grilled her during the Commander-in-Chief Forum. He had the damn nerve to question Hillary's judgment, along with his much less positive attitude/posture towards her. I knew he was a douche bag way before the CIC Forum. Meanwhile, he allowed fatso to spew--didn't come close to grilling him like he grilled Hillary. He went unscathed during their one-on-one. I guess it was more comfortable with him because you know, their interview was sexual predator to sexual predator.

Well, I'm happy to see KARMA come back to bite him in his sexually-assaulting, nasty ASS

[tenderfoot]

50. Neither could I

We're talking from the moment go!

[B2G]

17. A pig

with apologies to actual pigs.

[magicarpet]

18. White/Brown/Black/Yellow/Red/Chartreuse

Last edited Wed Nov 29, 2017, 08:39 PM - Edit history (1)

Male - (some not all)
Privilege.
Penis.
Does.
What.
Penises.
Do.
Absent.
Any.
Responsibility or self control.

[B2G]

25. Black men don't harrass/assault?

Interesting.

[IronLionZion]

30. I keep waiting patiently for a woman to harass/assault a man

[magicarpet]

53. Edited to reflect your concerns.

THX for mentioning that.

[wolfie001]

22. 'Where in the word is Matt Lauer?'

Well, he should be in a jail. Just sayin'.

[ornotna]

24. Damn

He was a pig.

[KPN]

26. Disgusting is putting it mildly.

[superpatriotman]

32. F, Marry, Kill (for realsies)

Matt Lauer, Bill O'Reilly, or Charlie Rose?

Gotta F one, marry one, and kill one (metaphorically, of course)

[wryter2000]

37. I'd have to kill myself

Rather than fuck or marry one of them.

[marble falls]

40. How about we subject them to justice and get them jailed?....

just saying.

Its to my shame I didn't really get what an ugly little game that was the first I was I was exposed to it. My only mitigation was I got disgusted with it after a couple of times. It demeans women even when women aren't present. I am truly sorry I played it the very few times I did.

And what they did is a criminal assault that needs a real prison for an honest punishment.

[wryter2000]

35. That's harrassment

Does it bear any resemblance at all to anything Franken is supposed to have done?

[rsong71]

39. nope - no resemblance

[left-of-center2012]

38. This isn't meant as an excuse, but ...

Sounds like someone (Lauer, etc) would have some mental disorder to behave in such a manner.

And why didn't his a** get nailed to the wall earlier?

[marble falls]

43. I just can't figure out how that gets to be normal enough to be kept quiet. All I can say is the...

victim blaming and the questioning of their victimization by citing the time it takes to get their stories told constitutes further abuse.

[rsong71]

44. If you look up information on Sex Addiction

This behavior makes more sense. And look at sociopathic and narcissistic behavior too.

[octoberlib]

45. He had the highest rated morning show on all the networks and a lot of power.

Basically, the same reason Bill O'Reilly and Roger Ailes got away with harassing women for years.

[rsong71]

41. I keep thinking about Ellen

On the Ellen show she and Matt Lauer would have these pranks that they would do to each other. Many of them involved S&M. Really odd now thinking back on this with today's news. I don't know really what it was all about because I don't follow either of them that closely.

[mcar]

47. Good riddance!

[BeyondGeography]

51. Andrew Lack is shocked, positively shocked I tell ya

Who knew, besides most everyone?

[.99center]

55. But the ratings!

"Several women told Variety they complained to executives at the network about Lauer’s behavior, which fell on deaf ears given the lucrative advertising surrounding “Today.” NBC declined to comment. For most of Lauer’s tenure at “Today,” the morning news show was No. 1 in the ratings, and executives were eager to keep him happy."


When you're a star, NBC lets you do it. You can do anything!

Too early to speculate on a Lauer/Trump tape?

[BeyondGeography]

56. I remember Katie Couric calling him an oinker on the air in the 90s

when I used to wake up to that show, a habit long since discarded.

[TexasBushwhacker]

58. Andrew Lack is just trying to cover his ass

He's probably a perv himself, like Bill O'Reilly and Roger Ailes.

http://m.tmz.com/#!article/2017/11/29/matt-lauer-katie-couric-keep-bending-over-nice-view/

[AllyCat]

62. What are we doing in this culture to teach men to

Act this way? Is it that we don’t teach them how to be civil? Clearly they know it’s wrong because they hide it.