Matt Lauer is an American TV journalist who was the host of The Today Show from 1997 to 2017 and a contributor for Dateline NBC. He was also previously a news anchor for The Today Show from 1994 to 1997 and anchor for WNBC in New York City and a local talk-show host in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and Richmond. He also hosted the PM Magazine (or “Evening Magazine” 1980–86), and in the early 1990s, segments of HBO Entertainment News.
On Nov. 29, NBC Chairman Andrew Lack fired Lauer after an unidentified employee, one of Lauer’s subordinates, complained that he had engaged in inappropriate sexual behaviour with her beginning in 2014. Shortly after Lauer was fired, Variety and The New York Times came forward with the results of several investigations. The inquiries revealed that Lauer had engaged in additional ongoing incidents of sexual harassment against multiple women.
His former colleagues, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, announced the news on the program, shocking viewers. Since then, more accusers have made complaints against Lauer, including one who claims he sexually assaulted her.
NBC News Chairman< Andy Lack sent the following memo to NBC News staffers the day Lauer's termination was announced. "On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behaviour in the workplace by Matt Lauer. It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company's standards. As a result, we've decided to terminate his employment. While it is the first complaint about his behaviour 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. "Our highest priority is to create a workplace environment where everyone feels safe and protected, and to ensure that any actions that run counter to our core values are met with consequences, no matter who the offender. "We are deeply saddened by this turn of events. But we will face it together as a news organization and do it in as transparent a manner as we can.” NBC News later reported that Lauer was fired "after a detailed complaint about inappropriate sexual behaviour that took place during the 2014 Sochi Olympics," which was made on the evening of Nov. 27. In a statement, Lauer admitted that some of the allegations were true, and he apologized to those he had hurt. PR student Rohan Mehta, who is in his third year at SFU, was asked for his opinion on this. “From a PR perspective, this is really bad for Matt Lauer, because right now his career is basically on the line and mostly destroyed at all, let’s not say the least. Plus all the upcoming projects that he had with NBC are all now gone down the drain for him," Mehta said. “Most likely even if he tries to go to another network, they probably 80 per cent won’t hire him because that going to ruin their image in front of the audience really badly. “We, as an audience, still need to understand that more women are still going to come out against Matt Lauer and it will not be a surprise if some of these allegations will be worser than others.” While the Lauer controversy still has a long way to go, we can expect so much more in the upcoming days and weeks, because this has affected the whole news organization community.
