{"id":22425,"date":"2020-12-31T09:54:54","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T13:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=22425"},"modified":"2021-01-02T12:29:36","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T16:29:36","slug":"matt-lauer-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Matt Lauer Scandal: Did NBC  Cover It Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What was the Matt Lauer scandal? How long have NBC known and have they deliberately covered it up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Matt Lauer scandal broke when Brooke Nevils told investigative reporter Ronan Farrow about Lauer&#8217;s ongoing sexual abuse. As it turned out, dozens of other women had been reporting Lauer\u2019s behavior to higher-ups at NBC for years, but nothing came of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about Matt Lauer scandal and how NBC News covered it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The <strong>Matt Lauer Scandal Comes Full Circle at NBC<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In late November 2017, Matt Lauer was promptly and unceremoniously fired from NBC. As one of the co-hosts of <em>Today<\/em> and a major public face of the network, the move was a shock. Why were they giving one of their biggest stars the axe?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The network admitted that an unnamed employee at NBC had accused Lauer of sexual misconduct. <\/strong>But beyond this admission, the network was furiously spinning its wheels to sanitize the story. According to the party line that NBC began pushing in press releases and public statements, Lauer\u2019s dismissal was about behavior on his part that violated NBC\u2019s terms of employment. Yet they were vague on the specifics of what Lauer had been accused of. The truth about Lauer\u2019s predatory history soon came out, as well as NBC\u2019s complicity in covering it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lauer had, in fact, cultivated a sexually demeaning and predatory environment at <\/strong><strong><em>Today <\/em><\/strong><strong>for years<\/strong>. Former female employees came forward with sexually aggressive emails Lauer had sent them, in which he advised them how to dress and told them how sexy they looked in certain outfits. Outtake videos emerged of him telling production assistants (and even his co-host, Meredith Vieira) to \u201cbend over\u201d so he could get a closer view. But this was hardly the worst of Lauer\u2019s misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A woman named Brooke Nevils came forward to Farrow with her Lauer story. In 2014, Nevils had been working for Meredith Vieira, helping NBC cover the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She, Lauer, and Vieira got drunk on vodka one evening at the Olympic Village. After Vieira retired to her room, Lauer unexpectedly summoned Nevils to his hotel room, on a loose professional pretext. <strong>Once Nevils arrived, Lauer aggressively kissed her, pushed her onto her stomach, and violently anally raped her.<\/strong> Afterwards, he warned Nevils not to say anything to Vieira. Lauer\u2019s abuse of Nevils went on for months afterwards, during which he repeatedly propositioned her for and forced her into sex at NBC\u2019s offices.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the story came out, it was revealed that Nevils and dozens of other women had been reporting Lauer\u2019s behavior to higher-ups at NBC for years. <strong>The network\u2019s response was remarkably similar to that of the Weinstein Company: denials, threats, professional sabotage, and finally, the signing of non-disclosure agreements. <\/strong>Under the leadership of Oppenheim and Lack, NBC had presided over a toxic culture of abuse and cover-up. Women who came forward with accusations about Lauer were told to either keep quiet or face career sabotage.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What was the Matt Lauer scandal? How long have NBC known and have they deliberately covered it up? The Matt Lauer scandal broke when Brooke Nevils told investigative reporter Ronan Farrow about Lauer&#8217;s ongoing sexual abuse. As it turned out, dozens of other women had been reporting Lauer\u2019s behavior to higher-ups at NBC for years, but nothing came of it. Read more about Matt Lauer scandal and how NBC News covered it up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,33,24],"tags":[180],"class_list":["post-22425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-people","category-society","tag-catch-and-kill","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Matt Lauer Scandal: Did NBC Cover It Up? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Matt Lauer scandal broke when Brooke Nevils told Farrow that Lauer had sexually assaulted her. As it turned out, she wasn&#039;t the only one.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Matt Lauer Scandal: Did NBC Cover It Up?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Matt Lauer scandal broke when Brooke Nevils told Farrow that Lauer had sexually assaulted her. As it turned out, she wasn&#039;t the only one.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-31T13:54:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-02T16:29:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/silence-quiet.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"The Matt Lauer Scandal: Did NBC Cover It Up?\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-31T13:54:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-02T16:29:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/\"},\"wordCount\":516,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/silence-quiet.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Catch and Kill\"],\"articleSection\":[\"History\",\"People\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/\",\"name\":\"The Matt Lauer Scandal: Did NBC Cover It Up? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/matt-lauer-scandal\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/silence-quiet.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-31T13:54:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-02T16:29:36+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Matt Lauer scandal broke when Brooke Nevils told Farrow that Lauer had sexually assaulted her. 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