Former NBC producer on silence, shame and finding words after #MeToo
Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Timestamps stay in sync with the live audio
This is Fresh Air, I'm Tanya Mosley. Before we get started, a heads up that today's interview includes a discussion of sexual assault. It's been eight years since Matt Lauer was fired from NBC at the height of the Me Too movement. In the years since, public attention has shifted, and some of the men who were forced out during the reckoning are beginning to test whether there's a way back. According to reports, Matt Lauer is one of them.
Today, we're hearing from one of the women whose allegations helped bring his career to an end. For twenty years, Lauer was the most trusted man in morning television. Hundreds gathered outside of Rockefeller Center in New York each morning for a glimpse of him and his co hosts, while millions more watched at home as he sat on the Today Show couch, interviewing presidents, celebrities, and everyday Americans. At the height of his power, NBC paid him $25 million a year, more than any other news anchor in the country. But behind the scenes, there were complaints, rumors, and an atmosphere of fear.
In his 2019 book Catch and Kill, journalist Ronan Farrow documented a pattern in which Lauer pursued women on staff at NBC over the course of years. of decades. One of those women was Brooke Neville's, who was in her late twenties and working with former Today show co-anchor Meredith Vieira on NBC's coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. According to her account, first reported by Faro, one night after drinks with colleagues at a hotel bar, she went to Lauer's room. There she says, he sexually assaulted her, an allegation Lauer denies.
We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (44 minutes, 6,165 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.
No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 10 episodes for $5, and monthly plans are cheaper still.