By: Sarah Sarway
NBC Universal and its parent company Comcast are under renewed pressure to launch an external investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against former Today Show host Matt Lauer, as well as its own executive staff.
Following the debut of Ronan Farrow’s tell-all book, Catch and Kill, the network announced on Thursday that it would not launch additional investigations into the numerous allegations that the author made about the network and its former morning show news anchor. Upon release of the book and network’s statement, a handful of distinguished former NBC staffers are pressuring the network to reverse course and take the time to review the allegations.
In a letter addressed to Comcast board members its chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, prominent women including Megyn Kelly, Greta Van Susteren and Gretchen Carlson, demanded that the network run an independent investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against Lauer and an alleged cover-up that was known to several high-level executives.
Until now, any probing into the allegations against the former Today Show host have been done internally; this time around, the women ask the network to hire an outside law firm to handle the investigation. “This inquiry should determine which executives knew about the misconduct and covered it up,” it read. “Comcast must prove to its shareholders that it will pursue the truth on behalf of NBC staffers,” adding that the network should take immediate action by removing any executives who have been found to have sexually abused or silenced women.
In addition to accusations against Lauer, the letter sites additional high-powered executives whose misconduct came to light as a result of Farrow’s investigations. He “exposed what many at NBC News have known for years: certain network executives have enabled a corporate culture of widespread sexual harassment and abuse, and are still trying to cover it up today,” the letter said.
They wrote of the wide-spread effort to bury Lauer’s sexual misconduct, which NBC was allegedly made aware of as early as 2011, and called out specific high-powered executives whose own behavior went without consequence, too. “According to the book, NBC News Chairman Andy Lack and MSNBC President Phil Griffin also have a record of sexually harassing female subordinates. NBC News President Noah Oppenheim boasted about objectifying women while at Harvard University,” they wrote. “Are these the men you want running a news network reliant on the FCC for license renewal?”
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, spokeswoman Hilary Smith says NBC has no plans to conduct additional investigations, saying, “we are very confident in the report that was conducted.”
