NBC: Staffers can speak out freely

Journalist calls nondisclosure clauses ‘payouts’

In his new bestseller “Catch and Kill,” journalist Ronan Farrow wrote that NBC News had nondisclosure agreements with at least seven women who claimed they were sexually harassed at the company, including some who alleged mistreatment by former “Today” host Matt Lauer.

Now, NBCUniversal says former staffers are free to speak out. In a statement first reported on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the company said it will release past employees from agreements that may be preventing them from sharing their stories.

“Any former NBC News employee who believes that they cannot disclose their experience with sexual harassment as a result of a confidentiality or nondisparagement provision in their separation agreement should contact NBCUniversal and we will release them from that perceived obligation,” the statement said.

NBC has insisted the agreements were not meant to prevent women from discussing sexual harassment, while Farrow reported they were understood as “payouts” or “settlements” to keep accusers quiet.

Minna Kotkin, a professor of law at Brooklyn Law School and director of its Employment Law Clinic, called it a “first step,” but questioned why employees would have to contact NBC to be released from the agreements.

“Either you’re released or you’re not released. I assume they want to try to do some damage control,” she said.

Maddow broke news of the NBC statement moments before an on-air interview with Farrow, who won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for his New Yorker stories on sexual misconduct allegations against former film producer Harvey Weinstein. He began working on the story while employed by NBC, but the network passed on it.

Network executives have said that decision was made because the reporting didn’t meet journalistic standards. In “Catch and Kill,” Farrow suggests the company feared sexual misconduct allegations against Lauer might be exposed. The “Today” host was fired after a former NBC News producer claimed he raped her. Lauer denied the charge.