This Nov. 16, 2017 photo released by NBC shows Matt Lauer during a broadcast of the “Today,” show in New York. NBC News fired the longtime host for “inappropriate sexual behavior.” Lauer’s co-host Savannah Guthrie made the announcement at the top of Wednesday’s “Today” show. ( Zach Pagano/NBC via AP).
If there is one item that precipitated the #MeToo movement, it was the revelation that the king of Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein, had committed sexual abuse and harassment for decades.
The journalist at the center of the investigation, Ronan Farrow, went on to receive a Pulitzer Prize for his work on Weinstein as published at The New Yorker. Reportedly, executives at NBC News, where he had been employed, worked to halt Farrow’s research and reporting into the entertainment mogul’s predatory ways. Now, it’s being reported that there is more on the horizon for NBC in the form of an exposé about additional misdeeds at the network.
Mediaite reports.
The Daily Beast’s bombshell on NBC News’ alleged internal efforts to kill Ronan Farrow’s expose on Harvey Weinstein is “only the beginning” of their reporting on the network’s misconduct problems, a source told Mediaite.
Mediaite reported earlier this month that the Daily Beast was working on a major investigation into sexual harassment and misconduct at NBC News, that had execs at the network panicked.
While The Daily Beast’s upcoming story is hanging ominously over NBC News, Ronan Farrow’s upcoming book Catch and Kill could join with the expose to create a brutal 1-2 punch.
Just last November, long-time television journalist Matt Lauer was fired by NBC for “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace” that had taken place more than once over his career. Just what would be contained in a broader report on the company’s environment is anyone’s guess.
Allegations of harassment and abuse in the arenas of movies, television, news, and religion have spurred a focus on consent, boundaries, and decency that apparently have been far too lax in recent years. If individuals behind the NBC wall are relieved that the wide-ranging report is still private, as one source said, then you can only imagine what the truth actually contains.
Americans are well aware that those we see before us, whether on stage, screen, in a studio, or in positions of power nationwide are deeply flawed individuals. But too often, it’s easy to focus on the power brokers we would like to see fail rather than applying a standard to all. (This goes for Left, Right, and those in-between.) NBC has been a network eager to look toward D.C. and elsewhere and point fingers, warranted or not.
In attempting to stifle reporting about Weinstein, it was made clear that friends in Hollywood would be given a pass. After all, NBC didn’t want to upset its allies. With golden boy and network personality, Matt Lauer, upper management had been aware of previous allegations, but nothing of substance had been done to address it.
Shortly, it appears we’ll know much more about the potentially nauseating, behind-the-scenes culture of a network that has dropped the ball too many times.
Stay tuned.
Kimberly Ross is a senior contributor at RedState and a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
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