NBC’s TheToday Show host Matt Lauer has been fired by the network over an allegation of inappropriate behavior.
NBC said: “On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate s**ual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer.
“As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment.”
Matt Lauer co-hosts The Today Show. NBC said it had “reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident”.
NBC News chairman Andy Lack said while it was the first complaint about Matt Lauer’s behavior in his time there, more than 20 years, it represented a “clear violation of our company’s standards”.
In 2016, Matt Lauer signed a new contract with the network worth a reported $20 million per year.
As well as fronting the morning show, he was chosen to moderate an election debate between Donald Trump and rival Hillary Clinton.
Matt Lauer has conducted high-profile interviews, such as the one in which Charlie Sheen confirmed he is living with HIV in 2015.
In an emotional interview, Today co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb said they were “heartbroken”.
“As I’m sure you can imagine we are devastated and are still processing all of this,” Savannah Guthrie said.
“I’m heartbroken for Matt – he is my dear, dear friend and my partner and he has been loved by many people here.
“And I’m heartbroken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story and any other women who have their own stories to tell.”
Savannah Guthrie added: “This reckoning that so many organizations have been going through is important, it’s long overdue and it must result in workplaces where all women – all people – feel safe and respected.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump commented on Twitter: “Wow, Matt Lauer was just fired from NBC for “inappropriate s**ual behavior in the workplace.” But when will the top executives at NBC & Comcast be fired for putting out so much Fake News. Check out Andy Lack’s past!”
Matt Lauer’s departure comes two weeks after NBC executive Matt Zimmerman, who was reported to have worked closely with Lauer, was fired after allegations of inappropriate behavior.
Last week, CBS fired Charlie Rose, one of its leading anchors, amid allegations of assault. In April, Fox News fired its best-known presenter, Bill O’Reilly.
NBC has suspended Brian Williams after he admitted giving a misleading account of coming under fire in Iraq.
The broadcaster said Brian Williams would be suspended for six months without pay for his “inexcusable” actions.
Brian Williams, the most-watched network anchor in the US, often spoke of being shot down in a helicopter in Iraq.
However, after veterans disputed Brian Williams’ account, he admitted getting the story wrong and blamed the “fog of memory”.
Last week, Brian Williams apologized on air for the lapse: “I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago.
“I want to apologize. I said I was travelling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] fire. I was instead in a following aircraft.”
NBC News President Deborah Turness said that Brian Williams had “misrepresented” events from the Iraq war.
“It then became clear that on other occasions Brian had done the same while telling that story in other venues,” Deborah Turness said.
“This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian’s position.”
Brian Williams’ apology came after veterans who were on the helicopter that was hit challenged his version of events.
One of them, Flight Engineer Lance Reynolds, wrote: “Sorry dude, I don’t remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened.”
Last week, Brian Williams said he was taking himself off air “for several days”, as it had become “painfully apparent” that he was too much a part of the news.
On February 10, a statement from Steve Burke, NBC Universal Chief Executive Officer, said Brian Williams had “jeopardized the trust millions of Americans place in NBC News”.
“His actions are inexcusable and this suspension is severe and appropriate.”
NBC is conducting a review into what happened.
There is already speculation about whether Brian Williams will ever return to his job, now that his credibility is so badly damaged.
Questions have also been raised about Brian Williams coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with one health official challenging a claim he contracted dysentery while reporting on the aftermath.
Ann Curry debuted a new, shorter hairstyle on NBC News on Friday – without informing the networks executives – in what has been called an act of defiance.
Amidst criticism over Ann Curry’s physical appearance by her former Today bosses, the 56-year-old “just decided to cut it”, according to RadarOnline.com.
“Ann was always told by her bosses that her hair had to be long, and she just didn’t like to wear it at that length,” a source revealed.
“She is a no-fuss gal, and doesn’t want to spend a ton of time styling her hair. About a week ago, she just decided to cut it.”
They continued: “It’s a much shorter style, and doesn’t take as long to do. Ann didn’t tell her bosses she was going to do it beforehand.”
Ann Curry debuted a new, shorter hairstyle on NBC News on Friday without informing the networks executives
Like many other networks, any NBC on air talent is required to notify management before changes are made to their physical appearance.
But Ann Curry was often the victim of jokes at the hands of Today show executive producer Jim Bell, according to New York Times reporter Brian Selter‘s new book, Top Of The Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV.
Brian Stelter reported that Jim Bell was an instigator to “a general meanness on set” toward the former Today co-host.
In the months leading up to her teary-eyed departure from the morning show last summer, Ann Curry is said to have been “tortured”.
In one instance, a yellow dress Ann Curry wore on air was pictured next to Big Bird, and was captioned: “Who Wore It Best?”
Ann Curry’s live report on NBC News was her first appearance on air in nine months, where she was covering the capture of Boston marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, on Friday evening.
Microsoft is abandoning the joint venture that owned MSNBC.com after 16 years, freeing the world’s largest software maker to build its own online news service.
One of the factors behind the split was apparently Microsoft’s fears that the website was being seen as too left-wing, and the software giant’s desire to present “multiple perspectives” in its news coverage.
The breakup announced late on Sunday dissolves the final shreds of a 16-year marriage between Microsoft Corp. and NBC News, which is now owned by Comcast Corp. The relationship began to unwind in 2005 when Microsoft sold its stake in MSNBC’s cable TV channel to NBC.
NBC is buying Microsoft’s 50% interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late on Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com.
The website will move its headquarters from Microsoft’s corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, to NBC News’ longtime home in New York.
Microsoft is abandoning the joint venture that owned MSNBC.com after 16 years
The online divorce stemmed from the two partners’ desire to gain greater control over their digital destinies as the Internet becomes an increasingly important part of their businesses.
The inherent constraints of being locked into a joint venture sometimes handcuffed Microsoft and NBC.
Microsoft, in particular, had grown frustrated by contract terms requiring it to exclusively feature MSNBC.com content on its own websites. That exasperation was exacerbated by the MSNBC cable channel’s strategy to counter Fox News Channel’s appeal to conservative viewers by tailoring its programming for an audience with a liberal viewpoint.
The strategy fed a perception that material from MSNBC’s website was also politically slanted.
“Being limited to MSNBC.com content was problematic to us because we couldn’t have the multiple news sources and the multiple perspectives that our users were telling us that they wanted,” said Bob Visse, general manager of MSN.com.
Now that it has shed those shackles, Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this fall. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation, Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for the MSNBC.com.
By hiring its own news staff to feed material to its websites, Microsoft is embracing the same strategy as the owners of two other major Internet companies, Yahoo Inc. and AOL Inc.
Microsoft has leaned on its lucrative franchise selling personal computer software to pay for massive Internet investments that have rarely paid off, much to the frustration of its shareholders. The software maker initially invested $220 million in the MSNBC joint venture. It’s unclear if Microsoft ended up making any money on the alliance. As a whole, the company’s online operations, which include the Bing search engine and MSN portal, have lost more than $10 billion in the past seven years.
Even as it sets out to compete against NBC News, Microsoft will continue to highlight the top stories from its former partner for the next two years under terms of the split.
NBC News, in turn, believes it will be able to attract more traffic to its stable of websites by forging other partnerships that were off limits when it was tied to Microsoft.
“There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions,” said Vivian Schiller, NBC News’ chief digital officer.
“This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better.”
MSNBC.com and its affiliated sites ranked as the Internet’s fourth most popular site for general news in the U.S., with nearly 50 million visitors in June, up 5% from last year, according to the research firm comScore Inc.
Yahoo’s recently formed alliance with ABC News topped the charts with 81 million visitors, followed by AOL/Huffington Post, and CNN.
As part of its online restructuring, NBC News plans to create a new online destination for the MSNBC cable channel’s personalities next year.
Although it will be based in New York, NBCNews.com will retain a significant staff in the Seattle area, according to Schiller. About 170 of MSNBC.com’s 300 employees worked in the Seattle area.
Microsoft is letting NBCNews.com remain in its Redmond office while it looks for a new location in the area.
Ann Curry is going to tell her viewers this morning that she is leaving NBC’s Today Show and is giving up her co-host chair.
In an interview with USA Today, Ann Curry admitted it is “going to be a bit of a tough day” as she ended over a week of speculation about her future.
“I’m going to have to tell our viewers. That’s what makes me more emotional than anything. I don’t want to leave them. I love them. And I will really miss them.”
Leaving with a reputed $10 million pay-off, Ann Curry, 55, will remain at NBC with a new title – Today Show anchor-at-large and NBC News national/international correspondent.
Negotiated by her lawyer Robert Barnett, her new contract to remain at the Peacock Network lasts “a significant amount of time” but she has not disclosed the size of her new salary, reputed to be as much as $20 million a year.
Ann Curry described the moment that she was called into NBC News president Steve Capus to receive the bad news about her position as co-host of Today after little more than a year as anchor.
“I walked into his office expecting to say goodbye,” said Ann Curry.
“Steve sat me down and told me I’m not done and he convinced me there is far more to do.”
Ann Curry is going to tell her viewers this morning that she is leaving NBC's Today Show and is giving up her co-host chair
Creating a seven-person roving news team for Ann Curry, the soon-to-be former Today show anchor will now travel the world to report on the world’s biggest stories.
She will produce pieces for NBC Nightly News, Dateline and Today.
However, despite her cushioned manoeuvre out of the morning show hot-seat, Ann Curry admitted to USA Today that the rumors and reporting over the past week hurt.
“I don’t know who has been behind the leaks, but no question they’ve hurt deeply,” she said.
The main reason for her removal at Today is thought to be her lack of on-screen chemistry with co-host Matt Lauer.
However, Ann Curry was adamant that was unfair.
“You know, Matt and I have had great on-air chemistry for 14 years, been part of the No.1 winning team for a history-making number of years,” she said.
“That said, I just finished my freshman year as co-host.
“In every single co-host’s first year, there have been kinks to be worked out and perhaps I deserve as much blame for that as anyone.”
Ann Curry has also taken the blame from many at NBC for the Today show’s ratings decline.
The program lost the top spot among network morning shows this spring to ABC’s Good Morning America, a position it had held, unbroken, since 1995.
“I know I am not to blame for the ratings worries,” replied Ann Curry.
“And my bosses have said to me there are many factors involved.”
Reports surfaced last Wednesday that Ann Curry, who took over the anchor chair June 9, 2011, would be removed from her spot as Matt Lauer’s co-host before the network’s Olympic coverage begins next month.
In April GMA broke the 16 year winning streak of the Today show as the No.1 rated morning show and in the week of May 21 Today lost to their rival by 33,000.
Ann Curry has been criticized for not being as flexible or quite as quick-witted as Matt Lauer or Katie Couric, who had the hosting job for 15 years before leaving in 2006.
“We had a many-year run in first place in total viewers and it got snapped, but since then, every week in the past month we’ve started a new streak,” said NBC News president Steve Capus.
“There’s nobody complacent around here.
“We’re aggressive and we’re going to continue to evolve the broadcast and this one of the moves, but it’s not the only move in response to all of that.”
While Ann Curry will take some time off after her final appearance on Today, she will be back on U.S. screens reporting from the Olympics in London and then return to her love of foreign reporting.
“In my secret heart of hearts, I see this as a thrilling opportunity. To have a ticket to every big story in the world – no small matter,” said Ann Curry.
Speaking about what it has been like to work alongside Matt Lauer for the past year, Ann Curry was enthusiastic.
“Well, we’ve had a terrific relationship for all these years, and he’s such a star,” said Ann Curry.
“Obviously he’s considered the golden boy of morning television. He’s so good when you sit next to him; it’s hard not to be helped by that.
“He’s funny and glib, and he knows how the show works. It’s been my honor in this last year to sit next to him.”
Ann Curry will get her walking papers from the Today Show next week, and NBC will pay $10 million for its blunder.
NBC sources told TMZ that Ann Curry was under a contract that guarantees her $10 million a year.
The sources also said Ann Curry signed a new contract almost a year ago, when she took over as co-anchor of Today Show. Under the deal, Ann Curry gets a cool $10 million, and it’s a long-term contract.
Ann Curry will get her walking papers from the Today Show next week, and NBC will pay $10 million for its blunder
According to TMZ, Ann Curry was guaranteed that amount for 3 years.
The sources said the likely scenario is that Ann Curry will become a foreign correspondent for NBC News.
Ann Curry will be the first foreign correspondent who will rake in an amount equal to the gross national product of some of the countries she will cover.
NBC News has reportedly licensed photos from Whitney Houston’s hairstylist Tiffanie Dixon for two of its shows.
The network nabbed an exclusive interview with Tiffanie Dixon, one of the few people present in Whitney Houston’s hotel room at the time of her death.
NBC News, which has spoken out against the practice of “paying” for interviews, reportedly licensed photos from Tiffanie Dixon, Whitney Houston’s hairstylist, when they interviewed her for two of its shows, “Dateline” and “Today.”
NBC‘s Tamron Hall had said that they were licensed when they appeared on-screen.
NBC News has reportedly licensed photos from Whitney Houston's hairstylist Tiffanie Dixon for two of its shows
While American networks forbid “paying” people for interviews, they sometimes pay individuals licensing fees for their photos or videos in exchange for exclusive interviews. The controversial practice is seen as unethical by some.
Rival news bureaus NBC and ABC had a rather testy exchange about this very subject in July 2011. ABC News announced that the network was suspending the practice after some heated criticism.
The declaration opened up a war of words with NBC, which said: “We agree that their recent activity has been bad for journalism and the news industry. And we welcome them back to the practices that we work hard to uphold.”
ABC‘s Barbara Walters recently stuck to the new standard after rumors swirled that she was reportedly asking ABC News to pay Pippa Middleton a six-figure sum for an exclusive interview.
“ABC News does not pay for interviews,” Barbara Walters pressed during her daytime talk show “The View.”
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