Brokaw denies accusations against him

NBC News journalist Tom Brokaw is pushing back at allegations by Linda Vester, a former network correspondent who said he sexually harassed her in the mid-1990s.

Brokaw, 78, wrote to colleagues Friday disputing the accounts of Vester, 54, who told Variety and The Washington Post that the former anchor made unwanted advances toward her.

Brokaw said Vester had a grudge against NBC News because her career stalled at the division.

Vester alleges Brokaw forcefully tried to kiss her in 1994 when she was staying at the Essex House Hotel in New York, after showing up uninvited. A similar incident occurred in May 1995, she alleges, when Brokaw appeared unannounced at her flat in London.

Vester alleges Brokaw pressured her to have a sexual relationship and that she feared reporting the incidents would hurt her career.

Brokaw’s letter slammed her account.

“Linda Vester was given the run of the Washington Post and Variety to vent her grievances, to complain that I tickled her without permission (you read that right) that I invaded her hotel room, accepted an invitation to her apartment under false pretenses and in general was given a free hand to try to destroy all that I have achieved with my family, my NBC career, my writing and my citizenship,” Brokaw wrote. “My NBC colleagues are bewildered that Vester, who had limited success at NBC News, a modest career at Fox and a reputation as a colleague who had trouble with the truth was suddenly the keeper of the flame of journalistic integrity.”

After Vester’s contract was not renewed by NBC in 1999, she worked at Fox News until 2005, when she left to raise her family.

Vester’s attorney, Ari Wilkenfeld, said, “My client stands by the allegations, which speak for themselves.”