TODAY SHOW HOST MATT LAUER AND FORMER PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION HOST GARRISON KEILLOR THE LATEST MEDIA FIGURES TO BE BROUGHT DOWN BY ACCUSATIONS OF INAPPROPRIATE SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR.
NBC host, radio personality lose jobs
NEW YORK • NBC News fired Today show host Matt Lauer for what it said Wednesday was “inappropriate sexual behaviour” with a colleague, making him perhaps the most familiar figure in America brought down so far by the misconduct accusations that have swept through Hollywood and the media over the past two months.
Also, former Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor was cut loose by Minnesota Public Radio over an allegation of “inappropriate behaviour.” Keillor, 75, said he inadvertently put his hand on a woman’s bare back in an attempt to console her.
NBC news chief Andrew Lack said in a memo to the staff that the network received a complaint about Lauer’s behaviour on Monday and determined it was a clear violation of company standards. NBC said the misconduct started when Lauer and a network employee were at the Sochi Olympics in 2014 and continued beyond that assignment.
Lack said it was the first complaint ever lodged against Lauer, but “we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”
Lauer, one of the mostliked and highest-paid figures in the TV news industry, becomes the second morning host in a week to lose his job over sexual misconduct allegations. CBS fired Charlie Rose after several women who worked for him complained about his behaviour.
Messages to Lauer and his agent were not immediately returned, and the network would not say whether he denied or admitted to any wrongdoing. He is married with three children.
Lauer, 59, has essentially been the king of television morning news since first being paired with Katie Couric on Today in 1997. For many years, Today was the unquestioned ratings leader, until it was eclipsed by ABC’s Good Morning America following the ugly 2012 firing of Lauer’s co-host Ann Curry. The show had stabilized in recent years with Lauer’s pairing with Savannah Guthrie.
Lauer’s “Where in the world is Matt Lauer?” segments were popular for years, and he was used by NBC for other events. He had been scheduled to host the network’s coverage of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony Wednesday evening.
Ari Wilkenfeld, the lawyer for Lauer’s accuser, praised NBC for acting “quickly and responsibly” in response to the morning host’s “egregious acts of sexual harassment and misconduct.” The attorney did not identify his client.
As for Keillor, Minnesota Public Radio said it will end distribution of the radio program The Writer’s Almanac, Keillor’s daily reading of a poem and telling of literary events, and end rebroadcasts of old Prairie Home Companion episodes.
“I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. I sent her an email of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it,” Keillor said in an email to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called.”
At NBC, Lauer’s former Today colleagues, Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, announced the firing on the show Wednesday morning shortly after being told themselves.
Guthrie appeared to fight back tears as she called Lauer her friend who is beloved by many at NBC, and said she was “heartbroken for my colleague who came forward to tell her story and any other women who have their own stories to tell.”
“How do you reconcile your love for someone with the revelation that they have behaved badly? I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “But I do know that this reckoning that so many organizations have been going through is important, it’s long overdue and it must result in workplaces where all women, all people, feel safe and respected.”