Star newsman Matt Lauer fired over sexual misconduct claims

WASHINGTON: Star US morning news anchor Matt Lauer has been sacked over allegations of sexual misconduct, broadcast giant NBC announced Wednesday, in the latest fall from grace of a power player in the media and entertainment industry.
Lauer, 59, is a familiar face to American television viewers as the host of NBC's popular morning news show Today for more than 20 years.
He also led the network's coverage of many major news events, from the Sept 11, 2011 attacks to presidential campaigns and the Olympics.
His co-host Savannah Guthrie announced his termination on air as their program began.
"This is a sad morning here at Today and at NBC News," Guthrie said.
The network said it fired Lauer after receiving a detailed account from one of his colleagues of what it called inappropriate sexual behaviour on the job.
Lauer thus joins the ranks of other giants of American film, television and journalism who have fallen amid allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment or assault in a groundswell of outrage that began weeks ago with a flood of charges against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The wave of allegations has reached Capitol Hill, where several lawmakers stand accused of inappropriate behaviour, and nearly every day seems to bring another stunning case involving a well known public figure.
In a memo to staff, NBC chairman Andrew Lack said that on Monday night, the network received a detailed complaint accusing Lauer of inappropriate behaviour.
"It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company's standards. As a result, we've decided to terminate his employment," Lack wrote.
NBC said it was provided with evidence suggesting this may not have been an isolated incident.
Veteran journalist Katie Couric, who was Lauer's co-host for years, said in 2012 during an interview with the showbiz gossip news outlet TMZ that "Matt pinches me on the ass a lot."
She was responding to the question of what Lauer's most annoying habit was.
But Couric, the interviewer and the studio audience all laughed after her remark.
O'Reilly, Rose ... and now Lauer
President Donald Trump, himself accused of harassment by more than a dozen women, seized on the Lauer news hungrily.
"Wow," he said on Twitter, adding that executives at NBC and its parent company Comcast should be fired for "putting out so much Fake News".
Trump was embarrassed in the final stretch of last year's presidential campaign by the release of audio in which he is heard boasting that his fame allowed him to grab women's genitals and get away with it.
At the time, he acknowledged the veracity of the so-called Access Hollywood tape and apologised publicly.
Trump has since changed his tune and told a Republican senator shortly after his election victory that "we don't think it was my voice", The New York Times reported Wednesday, quoting a person familiar with that conversation.
And Trump has continued to suggest that the voice on the tape was not his, the Times said, quoting three people close to the president.
Firestorm in media world
Lauer was an NBC veteran, equally called upon to present serious news stories and lighter morning fare.
On the morning of Septe 11, 2001, attacks, it was he who interrupted an interview to break the news of the suicide airliner attacks against New York's World Trade Centre.
During the 2016 election campaign, he oversaw a forum featuring Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Lauer's sacking comes a week after CBS fired Charlie Rose, one of America's most respected TV journalists after eight women told The Washington Post he had made unwanted sexual advances toward them.
Rival television giant Fox News has long been rocked by allegations that its late former chairman Roger Ailes and ex-star presenter Bill O'Reilly, who was fired this year, settled multiple cases of sexual harassment brought by female colleagues.
Former Fox anchor Megyn Kelly, who has said she was sexually harassed at that network and now hosts an NBC show that comes on right after Today, struck a firm tone in defence of harassment victims as she addressed Lauer's firing.
Lauer's NBC colleagues may be distressed at his ouster, Kelly said, "But when this happens what we don't see is the pain on the faces of those who found the courage to come forward, and it is a terrifying thing to do."
Hours after word of Lauer's firing broke, National Public Radio said its chief news editor, David Sweeney, had left the company over allegations of sexual harassment. NPR senior vice president of news Michael Oreskes resigned early this month, also over sexual misconduct allegations.
Then came yet another case Wednesday: Garrison Keillor, a writer and long-time radio host, saw his ties with Minnesota Public Radio severed over what it called inappropriate behaviour with a co-worker.
The 75-year-old Keillor said in an email to the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he had inadvertently "put my hand on a woman's bare back" and later offered an apology that was accepted. — AFP