Linda Vester: We all knew Matt Lauer was dangerous, had to be avoided at all costs
Former NBC News anchor Linda Vester calls on Comcast to launch an outside investigation into the cover-up claims highlighted in Ronan Farrow's new book.
Linda Vester, a former Fox News and NBC News anchor, said Wednesday that rumors of sexual misconduct by former top anchor Matt Lauer were widely known around NBC and women told each other to "avoid" him.
Ronan Farrow’s new book, “Catch and Kill,” details claims that NBC refused to expose movie mogul Harvey Weinstein as a sexual predator and wasn’t truthful regarding knowledge of alleged sexual misconduct by Lauer.
“NBC was not honest when it conducted its own internal investigation of sexual misconduct… we don’t have the truth yet. It seems that the coverup continues at NBC News,” Vester told Shannon Bream on "Fox News @ Night," calling on NBC's parent company Comcast to launch a "real investigation."
“Having worked at NBC News for nearly a decade, everybody knew, we all knew Matt [Lauer] was dangerous. He had to be avoided at all costs.”
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Vester accused NBC News legend Tom Brokaw – who denied all wrongdoing and remains at the network – of sexual misconduct in the spring of 2018 and founded Silence Breakers Alliance, a group aimed to help victims speak out.
Lauer's attorney has called new rape allegations in Farrow's book "dangerous and defamatory," arguing "old stories are being recycled" in an effort by Farrow to promote his book.
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Vester said there has long been a problem with "abuse of power" at NBC News, involving powerful broadcasters like Lauer and Brokaw.
"They are enabled day after day by having so much power over women and the careers of women and it distorts them. I saw it in Tom Brokaw myself. After enough power and enough enabling, they start to think they can get away with anything, including coercing women into doing something they don't want to do," she said.
UltraViolet Action, a leading national women’s organization, has called on the Democratic National Committee to pull its upcoming debate from MSNBC unless NBC News “cleans house” and launches an independent investigation into “allegations of a culture of sexual abuse” at the network.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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