November 29, 2017

With Matt Lauer ousted from "Today" over an allegation of sexual harassment, it's a good time to remember the furious political bias charges Hillary Clinton made against him...

... in her book "What Happened." It was so bad, she said "Trump should have reported [Lauer's] performance as an in-kind contribution":
It was disappointing but predictable that [Matt Lauer] had so quickly steered the supposedly high-minded “Commander in Chief Forum” to the subject of emails, months after the director of the FBI had announced there was no case and closed the investigation. I understood that every political reporter wanted his or her pound of flesh... If Lauer intended to ask Trump tough questions, he had to make a show of grilling me, too.

Of course, that isn’t balanced at all—because balanced doesn’t mean strictly equal. It means reasonable.... If Trump ripped the shirt off someone at a rally and a button fell off my jacket on the same day, the headline “Trump and Clinton Experience Wardrobe Malfunctions, Campaigns in Turmoil” might feel equal to some, but it wouldn’t be balanced, and it definitely wouldn’t be fair....

I launched into my standard answer on the emails... Instead of moving on to any of a hundred urgent national security issues... Lauer stayed on emails....
Finally, after learning absolutely nothing new or interesting, Lauer turned to a question from one of the veterans NBC had picked to be in the audience. He was a self-described Republican, a former Navy lieutenant who had served in the first Gulf War, and he promptly repeated the right-wing talking point about how my email use would have landed anyone else in prison. Then he asked how could he trust me as President “when you clearly corrupted our national security?”

Now I was ticked off. NBC knew exactly what it was doing here. The network was treating this like an episode of The Apprentice, in which Trump stars and ratings soar. Lauer had turned what should have been a serious discussion into a pointless ambush. What a waste of time.

When another veteran in the audience was finally allowed to ask about how to defeat ISIS, Lauer interrupted me before I began answering. “As briefly as you can,” he admonished. Trump should have reported his performance as an in-kind contribution. Later, there were rumors ginned up by fake news reports that I was so mad at him I stormed off stage, threw a tantrum, and shattered a water glass. While I didn’t do any of that, I can’t say I didn’t fantasize about shaking some sense into Lauer while I was out there.

Now I wish I had pushed back hard on his question. I should have said, “You know, Matt, I was the one in the Situation Room advising the President to go after Osama bin Laden. I was with Leon Panetta and David Petraeus urging stronger action sooner in Syria. I worked to rebuild Lower Manhattan after 9/11 and provide health care to our first responders. I’m the one worried about Putin subverting our democracy. I started the negotiations with Iran to prevent a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. I’m the one national security experts trust with our country’s future.” And so much more. Here’s another example where I remained polite, albeit exasperated, and played the political game as it used to be, not as it had become. That was a mistake.

Later, I watched Lauer soft-pedal Trump’s interview. “What do you believe prepares you to make decisions that a Commander in Chief has to make?” he asked. Then he failed to call Trump out on his lies about Iraq. I was almost physically sick. 

129 comments:

Bay Area Guy said...

Thank you, Althouse, for reading "What Happened?", so that we don't have to.

And, of course, it's important to remind folks in cyberland that Hillary is still not President.

Drago said...

And, of course, it's important to remind folks in cyberland that Hillary is still not President

LLR Chuck hardest hit.

jaydub said...

If Lauer almost made Hillary physically sick, maybe he does have some redeeming value that I had previously overlooked.

n.n said...

Well, that explains Bill. I guess he stayed for the good of their child.

Drago said...

If you, even for one moment, forget "your place" with Hillary, the Dowager Empress (since Bill Clinton is "dead" politically) of "Democratia" will never forget nor forgive.

Drago said...

n.n: "Well, that explains Bill. I guess he stayed for the good of their child."

It appears the details of his "stay" arrangement did not actually mean he had to "stay stay".

Original Mike said...

"With Matt Lauer ousted from "Today" over an allegation of sexual harassment, it's a good time to remember the furious political bias charges Hillary Clinton made against him..."

Someone doesn't know how to spell frivolous.

mockturtle said...

It's never a good time to remember Hillary.

mezzrow said...

So. Much. Winning.

Dude1394 said...

"If Trump ripped the shirt off someone at a rally and a button fell off my jacket on the same day, the headline “Trump and Clinton Experience Wardrobe Malfunctions, "

She actually WROTE THAT?? Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus for my favorite president. Man america must really be blessed, dodging that harpy.

alan markus said...

If Trump ripped the shirt off someone at a rally and a button fell off my jacket on the same day

Thank heavens we were spared the image of Hillary's shirt being ripped off.

bleh said...

It's really rich of Hillary to complain about the media going soft on her Republican opponents and making in-kind contributions to them. It seems deflection is a common tactic of hers. She uses her own vulnerabilities as inspiration for her attacks on others. The Steele Dossier is a notable example.

JPS said...

"I was the one in the Situation Room advising the President to go after Osama bin Laden."

Wow.

I don't know what's worse, if this is self-puffery or if he really needed her to tell him that.

Curious George said...

"I was almost physically sick."

Hey, maybe Lauer was in the van?

tcrosse said...

If the election had turned out differently, Lauer would have been out anyway. The Moral Panic would not have happened, but the Clintons would have their vengeance.

Megthered said...

I have heard stories about Matt Lauer for 20 years. I would have thought Hillery would be comfortable with a womanizing perv.

Sydney said...

I can't believe that Hillary Clinton still doesn't understand that her careless handling of email was a major national security issue. What an idiot. Or maybe she just thinks we are idiots.

Qwinn said...

There has never been a graver national security threat to this country than Hillary Clinton. And I read the Venona documents.

DanTheMan said...

So, Lauer wasn't 100% in the tank for her. That, in her mind, is unfair.

The left view having the media on their side as the natural order of things...

Achilles said...

Just remember her supporters “think” the media is against them.

They know the truth and they know what they have to say to get power over other people.

The truth comes in second place.

Qwinn said...

Sydney, she knows the people who want to vote for her are idiots, and she is correct.

Matt Sablan said...

I wonder how much of this media purge is score settling.

FullMoon said...

"If Trump ripped the shirt off someone at a rally and a button fell off my jacket on the same day, the headline “Trump and Clinton Experience Wardrobe Malfunctions, "

"Kind of like Trump supporters clash with protesters", when the mob attacks women at a Trump ralley

Drago said...

Now, include Garrison Keillor in the long list of Inga-heroes that has been exposed.

Quick question: is there any lefty/dem anywhere who wore their "male feminism" on their sleeve and attacked republicans at every turn who DIDN'T harass women?

Because right now, it's looking like a big fat "no".

And why did they all do it and have it covered up for so very long even as they lectured us?

Because "liberal".

Matt Sablan said...

"I don't know what's worse, if this is self-puffery or if he really needed her to tell him that."

-- It's why he thinks it is such a great accomplishment. He honestly had to be convinced to pull the trigger on the operation. Maybe the intelligence made it less of a slam dunk than it looked like from the outside, but remember: Obama truly believes he made a gutsy call that other people would not have.

Drago said...

Matthew Sablan: "I wonder how much of this media purge is score settling."

Could be alot. Very intense infighting and positioning at all times. Like politics. And business. Oh, basically the human condition.

Qwinn said...

I think the current purge is getting rid of liberals who know where the bodies are buried and have at some point made a paranoid liberal somewhere think they might talk. And I think the paranoid liberal in question is either Hillary or Obama 80% of the time.

gspencer said...

Lauer against Hillary?

Oh spare us.

Hillary might consider moving to the Boston area. Oodles of mental health hospitals.

traditionalguy said...

Lauer thinks in categories and he automatically wanted answers to the forbidden question.

You bet Hillary was furious. Lauer blatantly disobeyed orders to stick to the Clinton Narrative...the same orders that had been obeyed everywhere since 1993 by the US media and the FBI and the world Deep State Propagandists.

He literally stormed that Bastille. So he is lucky to be fired rather than the victim of another "Sudden-Onset Mental Illness with Suicide."

Original Mike said...

"I can't believe that Hillary Clinton still doesn't understand that her careless handling of email was a major national security issue. What an idiot. Or maybe she just thinks we are idiots."

Embrace the power of "and".

She understood enough to threaten an Inspector General.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

How dare the media discus Hillary's private server... Oh wait - she means "e-mails".

FU Hillary. You massive tumor on our politic.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Still waiting for Bill clinton to sit in a jail cell for his sex crimes.

Curious George said...

Hillary didn't have Lauer fired. That's beneath her. She would have him suicided.

Infinite Monkeys said...

Hillary's counting Syria in her "win" column?

Original Mike said...

"Still waiting for Bill clinton to sit in a jail cell for his sex crimes."

Sitting at home with Hillary may be worse.

Matt Sablan said...

"She understood enough to threaten an Inspector General."

-- Why wouldn't she? Obama fired one who found potential criminal activity by his cronies, and called him senile to boot to ensure his career pretty much ended.

Original Mike said...

"Hillary's counting Syria in her "win" column?"

Stunning.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

But please, don't say the democrats have a corruption problem.

Lori said...

Very revealing. She is upset at the direction of Lauer's questions, can't believe that after avoiding the media on the topic since Comey's absolution that he would have the temerity to ask her basic competence on national security "instead of moving on to any of a hundred urgent national security issues."

Hmmm.

"Finally, after learning nothing new or interesting..." because of Lauer acquiescing to her standard answer on the emails, she wants us to believe NBC sideswiped her by allowing a DEPLORABLE (self-described Republican, former Navy lieutenant) to ask her a question.

She dismisses as a right-wing talking point his 100% obviously true statement that others have and would go to prison for less than her use of a private email server for official and classified government business.

Then he asks THE question of the election, and one that has only been proven more true in 2017. "How could he trust me as President 'when you clearly corrupted our national security?'

"Now I was ticked off." But she doesn't respond the way she should have, unfortunately, because she is too polite.

Uh-huh.

Hillary proves nothing in her book except that half the country's impression of Hillary was correct. She is always telling us what she really wanted to do or say, but didn't, because...why?

She knew she was seen as inauthentic, but she couldn't alter the perception, because she is a fake or has just lied for so long she doesn't remember what it feels like to be honest.

"I'm smiling at you, Matt Lauer/deplorable veteran/Trump democrat/college-educated woman, but I really want to ring your neck."

Matt Sablan said...

Hah, I hadn't seen the Keillor article about how Franken should get to keep his job.

I guess it is KIND of ironic. Someone get Alanis Morissette on the phone.

Unknown said...

So Hillary is saying she too has a serious case of inappropriate behavior against Matt Lauer. Questions that don't lead to talking points is a serious breach of dem journalism.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Noted: Hillary doens't want to brag too much on how she wrecked Libya.

robother said...

"...he had to make a show of grilling me, too."

Just like her tune-up primary match with aging, unfunded Crazy Bern, who took her the whole 15 rounds, life was so unfair to Hillary in 2016. What part of playing the patsy did these guys not get?

"In the fifth, your ass goes down."

Big Mike said...

Thank you, Althouse, for reading "What Happened?", so that we don't have to.

+1

Matt Sablan said...

I may read What Happened after Being and Nothingness and some other Existential stuff on my reading list. I'll need a pick me up.

traditionalguy said...
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traditionalguy said...

Hillary killed off our ally Khadafy and made Libya into a wrecked failed State to be looted.

And we know how many Clinton Global Initiative friends of Bill were all set to loot that place of the weapons and the flow of high grade Libyan Oil. Some even suspect that was why Hillary insisted on doing it.

YoungHegelian said...

I launched into my standard answer on the emails... Instead of moving on to any of a hundred urgent national security issues... Lauer stayed on emails....

There right in front of HRC is why everyone, including folks like Lauer who were probably sympathetic to her, could not deal with her without getting hacked off. The "standard answer". The massaged, mambey-pambey answer that Team Hillary wanted the rest of country to believe even though it made no sense at all. I can imagine being a reporter like Lauer getting handed this pile of steaming horseshit for the Nth time & thinking "just how fucking stupid does this woman think I am?".

The more I read of the HRC campaign it seems that thinking the rest of us were stupid as a bag of hammers was one of its defining features. I'm so glad that woman lost.

Bay Area Guy said...

Can we just give the Pulitzer Prize award now to Ronan Farrow, and be done with it?

Talk about draining the swamp of leftwing media/Hollywood sexual harassment factories!

Garrison Keiler just bit the dust, too.

Let the great unraveling continue!

Big Mike said...

What IS IT about Democrats that they are so effing casual about data privacy and data security?

There's the OPM hack, there's the hack of the SF-86 forms (you folks who don't have security clearances can't begin to understand how much detailed information about personal finances is recorded on SF-86 forms), there is the lack of security for people using the Obamacare web site, and a whole order of magnitude above that is Hillary Clinton keeping some of this country's most sensitive communications on an unsecured server. But she thinks it's nothing.

traditionalguy said...

What hath God wrought? Garrison Keillor just got tossed out of NPR for doing bad things. And that guy really is an icon.

JPS said...

"In a follow-up statement, [Keillor] says he was fired over 'a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version MPR heard'."

Ah. It's complicated....

mockturtle said...

What hath God wrought? Garrison Keillor just got tossed out of NPR for doing bad things. And that guy really is an icon.

Just saw that. He was fired from Minnesota Public Radio for 'inappropriate behavior'.

Big Mike said...

Hillary killed off our ally Khadafy and made Libya into a wrecked failed State to be looted.

He wasn't our ally; after the invasion of Iraq we wrangled an agreement out of Khadafy that he'd give up weapons of mass destruction in exchange for us not invading him and dealing with him as we dealt with Saddam. Hillary and Barack Obama made that agreement null and void. Today we'd like to get Kim Jong-un to agree to give up his nuclear weaponry and ability to blow up west coast cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and LA in exchange for ... what? Not in exchange for a noninvasion agreement because the next administration might be Democrats who see no reason to abide by agreements made with Republican administrations. So where is our carrot?

Matt Sablan said...

"What IS IT about Democrats that they are so effing casual about data privacy and data security?"

-- When you think your team is the biggest and brightest, you don't realize how many blind spots you actually have.

Larvell said...

I would bet good money that Hillary wasn't "almost physically sick" as a result of Lauer's questions (unless the word "almost" is infinitely elastic). And if she was, do we really want someone so sensitive as our president? I would prefer someone who doesn't get sick as the result of hearing words.

mockturtle said...

What IS IT about Democrats that they are so effing casual about data privacy and data security?

By and large, these people are not terribly bright.

Yancey Ward said...

Hillary, as usual, is full of shit. As I remember the forum, an audience member raised the question- Lauer, to his credit, didn't allow Clinton to just give her rehearsed and lying answer. That is what pissed her off. I remember at the time that I thought the audience member probably tricked Lauer into letting him ask that question, but Lauer had to go with it since the event was live.

Of course it made Clinton sick- so sick she collapsed like a sack of doorknobs into a van 3 days later.

Michael said...

Garrison is an asshole. Not one bit surprised. All these smug men and their relationship problems.

Amadeus 48 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Yancey Ward said...

Everybody knew you don't participate in a Commander in Chief Forum with Matt Lauer (Cokie Roberts 2018)

Lyssa said...

Wow. I'm not happy about President Trump, but the fact that she wrote all of that, and people who apparently wanted her to look good approved it, is just breathtaking. Outraged and sickened that someone questioned her? What a horrible option she was!

Bay Area Guy said...

I'm telling ya, if men re-learned how to date, and women re-learned how to entice men to ask them out on dates, and act nice on dates, all of this sexual harassment madness would end!

If you like the girl, don't grab her ass, ask her out!

Why are my Rockwell ideations so difficult to implement?:)

traditionalguy said...

Keillor really hated southerners...because. So it would be great if he was screwing a southern belle. But that presumes he is heterosexual.

The next layer to fall will be the network Executive lesbians who hire and fire the female wannabes who want it enough.

YoungHegelian said...

@mock,

What IS IT about Democrats that they are so effing casual about data privacy and data security?

By and large, these people are not terribly bright.


No, I disagree with you there. If you've got to be smart to be secure, you've set up your security protocols wrong.

The problem with physical & IT security is that it's a constant PITA. It slows everything down, & makes even the simplest action complicated. It's also expensive in terms of personnel & equipment.

Given all their intrinsic disadvantages, security procedures are obvious targets for those people who think they or their work is too important to be bothered. And the big cheese sets the tone. If he or she refuses to follow protocol, then as time goes on the underlings get sloppier & sloppier, until the whole operation is a risk.

Original Mike said...

"What hath God wrought? Garrison Keillor just got tossed out of NPR for doing bad things. And that guy really is an icon."

No surprise at all.. He has a long-time reputation of being a real bastard to his coworkers.

Big Mike said...

@mockturtle, but how bright do you have to be to understand that people's medical data is sensitive and its privacy needs to be assured? There is reason why the laws refer to "protected health information" (PHI) and why laws are on the books to safeguard "personally identifiable information" (PII). Democrats keep trying to float the story that they did the best they could (about which I have no doubt at all!) and that no one could have protected the data from those terrible Russians and Chinese (but you could have at least tried!).

exhelodrvr1 said...

I think a bigger question, that isn't getting enough play (I don't remember reading it or hearing it anywhere - I apologize if someone has posted it here):

So we see what a huge cover-up there has been over the past __ years, where the media has not reported the sexual harassment/assault issues of (what appears to be significantly disproportionately Democratic) politicians.

What other illegal/unethical actions by the Democrats are the media refusing to report on? IRS targeting of conservative groups, bribery involving the Clintons and their "charities", UN malfeasance - what else?

Big Mike said...

I never much cared for Keillor's "Lake Woebegon" shtick, but I didn't seriously despise him until he came down on Midwesterners for their industriousness. WTF?!? If it weren't for their industriousness who could afford a luxury item like NPR?

YoungHegelian said...

@exhelodvr1

what else?

Oh, how about that the Obama administration was the most corrupt since Warren G. Harding?

Obama brought Chicago politics to the national level.

Michael said...

All these woke men weren't woke at all.

Molly said...

Sabian and others, re: score settling. I don't think that's much of what is going on. The NYT was actively pursuing a story on Matt Lauer. Not because the NYT hates him or NBC, or is paying back for some promised NBC story that caused the NYT to suspend Glenn Thrush (that might have happened, but as far as I know it did not). I think we have some reporters wanting to make the front page, and following a story with genuine news interest, especially in the current climate. And NBC knew they were going be outed in the NYT and wanted to get ahead of the story, for their own reasons.

Original Mike said...

I used to enjoy Keillor's show, but I stopped listening to it many years ago when I learned what a prick he is.

Sebastian said...

@YH: "I launched into my standard answer on the emails... Instead of moving on to any of a hundred urgent national security issues... Lauer stayed on emails....

There right in front of HRC is why everyone, including folks like Lauer who were probably sympathetic to her, could not deal with her without getting hacked off."

Good catch.

Matt Sablan said...

"Wow. I'm not happy about President Trump, but the fact that she wrote all of that, and people who apparently wanted her to look good approved it, is just breathtaking."

-- Hillary Clinton is... poorly supported by her staff at this point.

DuraBull said...

“Keillor hated southerners...because.”

Bless his heart.

buwaya said...

"I never much cared for Keillor's "Lake Woebegon" shtick, but I didn't seriously despise him until he came down on Midwesterners for their industriousness. WTF?!? If it weren't for their industriousness who could afford a luxury item like NPR?"

Even poor third-world countries have state-owned broadcast media.
Its not that expensive, and very useful. Lots of bang for the buck.
Its not really a luxury.
The US just puts some largish fig-leaves on PBS/NPR.

Qwinn said...

Now if Lauer had insisted on talking about Benghazi, Hillary would've been ok with that.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Matt might be a womanizing creep - but anytime the Clintons benefit from retribution - it smells bad. But then, the Clintons smell bad.

Big Mike said...

It occurs to me that if Hillary Clinton had the political sense of a three-toed sloth, it would have dawned on her right then and there that her “standard amswer” was not being bought by the ordinary people whose votes she needed. That she still doesn’t get it speaks volumes.

Qwinn said...

Or Fast and Furious. Why couldn't Lauer have talked about REAL national security issues like the US Govt running guns to Mexican drug cartels? Obviously a right wing hack.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Keillor had real talent. I remember being shocked when he came out as a rabid democrat in the GWB era -- The people in Lake Wobegon were always so sensible and middle class that I just assumed they were all low-key Republicans.

I do remember however that the first time he retired, went to Holland and came back there was a story about him sleeping with his producer, Moose, I think, which I thought was iffy.

For the record, he put on a very friendly show in SC.

M Jordan said...

Matt Lauer, Garrison Keillor ... wouldn’t it be the perfect hat trick if Michael Moore’s name was next on the MeToo guillotine list?

Qwinn said...

I know! Hillary wanted to talk about all the Gitmo prisoners who returned to the battlefield after being released by Obama! Why couldn't that conservative mouthpiece Lauer ask her about that?!

Qwinn said...

Perhaps Hillary was yearning to talk about the security issues around her Uranium One sale. Yeah, I bet that was it. She had a GREAT answer for that, but stupid Lauer only cared about her emails.

Nonapod said...

Sounds like Lauer was a real terror. He apparently sexually assaulted female staffer duinrg the Sochi Olympics in 2014, and many women were apparently "terrified" of him.

Charlie said...

Meanwhile, the fawning continues. Longest book tour in history!

http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/names/2017/11/28/relaxed-clinton-gets-warm-reception-opera-house/Gtz3BdI7EF9EdBn83jIFHN/story.html

Matt Sablan said...

Man. Another open secret? Geesh.

buwaya said...

"It occurs to me that if Hillary Clinton had the political sense of a three-toed sloth, it would have dawned on her right then and there that her “standard amswer” was not being bought by the ordinary people whose votes she needed. That she still doesn’t get it speaks volumes."

She didn't have an answer. So the response then and now is to suppress the question.
She was not entirely successful then or now in spite of enormous institutional support.

That has not changed in any issue pertaining to the Clintons.

Fabi said...

The democrats' role in this harassment panic reminds me of a certain movie scene:

[the Konovalov's own torpedo is about to strike the Konovalov]

Andrei Bonovia: You arrogant ass. You've killed *us*!

buwaya said...

I just thought of this -

Has there been anyone at CNN implicated in this season of scandals?
I don't think so.
Hmm. That sets off my paranoid reflex.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"Maybe NBC was happy to get an opportunity to break its contract with Matt Lauer."

Maybe they got tired of their at-gunpoint negotiations. Isn't that how Lauer says negotiations are done?

exhelodrvr1 said...

"it would have dawned on her right then and there that her “standard amswer” was not being bought by the ordinary people whose votes she needed."

Not much else she could do at that point. The email server was a deliberate choice, and she was fully aware of the illegalities/security issues involved. That was a calculated risk on her part, and once it was discovered, the only option she had was to pretend she had no clue about that sort of thing.

Original Mike said...

"Andrei Bonovia: You arrogant ass. You've killed *us*!"

I will enjoy that scene forevermore.

tim in vermont said...

I guess I have to admit that her blood lust served Americans well that day. That is her one accomplishment, she should be proud. Not so much in the wars she started or escalated.

Caligula said...

I'd have to agree that the interview was unfair. What it showed was that when Hillary Clinton needs to think on her feet, she's capable of moving at the speed of molasses.

Just as the learning-disabled may be given extra time to complete an exam, Clinton should have been furnished with the interview script (including scripted questions to be asked by audience plants) at least a week prior to her appearance.

Which, really, seems to be what much of this book is about: it contains all the responses she would have given, if only she'd been able to deliver them when it might still have made a difference. Since she was apparently unable to respond to events in real time, we now get to find out how she would have responded if only she could have responded when it still mattered.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

I must admit that I'm very surprised about Garrison Keillor. I've never really listened to Lake Wobegon, but I usually catch the Writer's Almanac in the morning. Now I suppose I'll just have to learn to play that lovely Norwegian folk song myself. (Which I could do -- I bought a book containing it not a month ago.)

Kyzer SoSay said...

Goddamn I love me a good Tom Clancy reference!

Even thought it didn't happen that way in the book, it made for a better movie ending IMO.

tim in vermont said...

Hillary is like the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. Borderline personality disorder.

tim in vermont said...

Maybe she should have called her book "Carriage Wit."

gadfly said...

Trump tweets that Andy Lack is the real villain here. I suppose that is because Lack had the audacity to hire Megyn Kelly for the NBC morning lineup. Let the blood flow!

Bay Area Guy said...

From the Variety Piece with the details on Lauer:

“Management sucks there,” says a former reporter, who asked not to be identified, speaking about executives who previously worked at the show. “They protected the s— out of Matt Lauer.”

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AZ Bob said...

I take Ann at her word that she would not read the book. But one thing is for sure, Ann is a master of the search engine.

buwaya said...

Ah here, the first one down at CNN.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/362432-senior-cnn-producer-dismissed-over-inappropriate

CNN on Friday announced its firing of Teddy Davis, a senior producer of anchor Jake Tapper's show "State of the Union," over allegedly inappropriate behavior.

The network issued a statement saying it had fired Davis after an in-house investigation of his behavior, following an initial report that Davis was dismissed after three women came forward with complaints.

----- comment - not Friday, but today, as the story goes n to say it was just hours after Lauer.

Anonymous said...

Why is it, in all of these widespread revelations of sexual assault, no father, brother, husband, boyfriend didn't just kick the offenders ass? The laws of probability say this should have happened. Not once? Doesn't make sense.

If it is so prevalent you would think Weinstein et al would have met Mr. Louisville Slugger or
a tire iron.

Why never? Are we just too civilized?

buwaya said...

"Why is it, in all of these widespread revelations of sexual assault, no father, brother, husband, boyfriend didn't just kick the offenders ass?"

Because these were all "career women" separate and independent of father, brother or husband. No clan or tribe.

I doubt they were brought into these womens confidence at the time.

Anonymous said...

"Because these were all "career women" separate and independent of father, brother or husband. No clan or tribe.

I doubt they were brought into these womens confidence at the time."

In all of these (hundreds?) of examples, no woman confided in a male family member or
lover? Not once? They talk to faceless functionaries in HR and other women.



DanTheMan said...

Patronized by our inferiors.

Yes, indeed.

Matt Sablan said...

Wait. They built him a lock the door button? ... It is a shame SNL won't tear him apart. They could be funny again if they'd just take the God dann bait.

Matt Sablan said...

"I'll admit," a theoretical NBC executive will say. "The reports about Lauer were disconcerting. So we built him a button so he could lock himself away from this cruel world. Boy, is our face red to learn what he did with that. Just... Shucks."

Sam L. said...

I have no need to read more of what Hillary said.

David Baker said...

At the very least, Savannah Guthrie was an enabler, if not an accessory.

Because no one can be that naive. (Except Erin Burnett, of course)

madAsHell said...

Does anybody wonder if they aren't eating their seed corn to recover their reputation?

madAsHell said...

Hmmm.....maybe I should have said cash cow, and not seed corn.

madAsHell said...

Holy shit!!

The national evening news is crying about Trump re-tweeting videos about muslims behaving badly in the UK.

Right now, I'm leaning towards fucking genius.

David Baker said...

Btw, I really liked Erin Burnett when she had to make believe she understood the stock market.

MacMacConnell said...

Are there like only three or four woman at NBC Lauer didn't grope, expose himself to, pinch, make lude comments to, gift dildos to or fuck?

BJM said...

Lauer dropping trou, whipping it out and demanding oral sex sounds vaguely familiar. Wasn't there another high profile perv who...

Oh. Well. Nevermind.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

And, of course, it's important to remind folks in cyberland that Hillary is still not President.

Because conservatives project onto others and think that they need to be reminded of basic reality, too?

Every time I hear about the next blame shifting cyber temper tantrum I know who's president.

I know who's president every time a press conference or diplomatic meeting is turned into another "me me me" fest.

President Orange Chest Beater is still president. We know because if he didn't beat his chest about it, his otherwise ignorable unaccomplished administration wouldn't be doing anything to report on.

Leland said...

Bill Cosby, Al Franken, Matt Lauer, Mark Halperin, Matt Zimmerman, Donald Trump all had the same employer that seemed to cover up questionable to unlawful behavior over decades.

David Baker said...

"Are there like only three or four woman at NBC Lauer didn't grope, expose himself to, pinch, make lude comments to, gift dildos to or fuck?"

That last one would have required Jamie Gangel and Savannah Guthie to hold her down.

NBC is a perverted cesspool - and one way or another they were ALL in on it, imo.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Those are some crazy details about Lauer, BTW. I'd assumed the latest round of allegations was bullshit, but these ones are pretty bad. Pretty damn unprofessional!

I guess it was just incredulous because he projects this on-air personality that's completely, 180-degrees different.

The phoniness in America knows no bounds. How could such a perverted horndog act like a completely different person on air? That's some pretty intense sublimation.

In the land of bizarro countries, America takes the cake. Weird.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Despite being married, Lauer was fixated on women, especially their bodies and looks, according to more than 10 accounts from current and former employees.

So was his fucking employer. So what?!

If I worked at a place with that many women done up with that much... oh well. Wait. Forget it. I can't stand phony done-up looks.

But still. The point stands!

Comanche Voter said...

"I launched into my standard answer on the e-mails. . ."

Well Hillary you are missing the point. It's understandable that the Deplorables wouldn't accept that load of codswallop. But you are outraged, I say outraged! that even little Mattie Lauer couldn't find your line of fluff credible. Progressive types are supposed to eat that bull dust up.

The problem is that our "standard answer on the e-mails" simply wasn't credible to anybody with an IQ above oh say 35 or so. It's not Little Mattie sweetcakes. It's you.

David said...

Hillary reveals again and again that she gets very upset when the script departs from her preference or she is challenged directly. So upset that only later does she realize what she "should have said." Generally not good traits for someone who is the President of the United States.

Quaestor said...

Lars Porsena wrote: Why never? Are we just too civilized?

Not nearly civilized enough. The Sixties begat a culture without classical virtue. Thus we have men without virility pleasing themselves like apes.

Yancey Ward said...

I have read about the NYTimes and Variety stories, and it seems to me that the NYTimes was again the go-to outlet where NBC hoped to salvage both itself and Lauer (exactly what happened in the Weinstein case when Farrow was about to unload on Weinstein {pun intended}), but Variety's story was simply too awful to be undercut that way, so NBC bit the bullet and fired Lauer, but then lied about what they knew and when.

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