NBC Receives at Least 2 New Complaints About Matt Lauer
“On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior
in the workplace by Matt Lauer,” Andrew Lack, the NBC News chairman, said in a memo to the staff.
The fast-moving national reckoning over sexual harassment in the workplace toppled another television news star on Wednesday when NBC fired
Matt Lauer, the co-host of its most profitable franchise, “Today,” after an allegation of inappropriate sexual behavior with a subordinate.
“While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he’s been at NBC News,
we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”
In a division-wide meeting with his staff later in the morning, Mr.
On Wednesday morning, Ari Wilkenfeld, a civil rights lawyer with the firm Wilkenfeld, Herendeen & Atkinson in Washington,
said he represented the woman who had made the initial complaint to NBC, but declined to publicly identify her.
“While I am encouraged by NBC’s response to date, I am in awe of the courage my client showed to be the first to raise a complaint
and to do so without making any demands other than the company do the right thing.”
The woman met with reporters from The Times earlier Monday, but said she was not ready to discuss it publicly.
NBC News told its staff that it was firing Mr. Lauer some 34 hours after the woman
and her lawyer visited the network headquarters in Midtown Manhattan to share details of her interactions with Mr. Lauer with company executives.