RESTON, VA -- Media Research Center (MRC) President Brent Bozell released the following statement today calling on NBC to hire an independent investigator to review its culture of sexual misconduct following new claims against MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. According to a report by the Daily Caller, NBC paid one of Matthew’s former producers $40,000 after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against the Hardball host in 1999.
In the past few months, NBC has been forced to fire Matt Lauer, Mark Halperin, and Matt Zimmerman, an NBC News executive, over allegations of sexual misconduct. In October, it was reported that NBC turned down the opportunity to run Ronan Farrow’s bombshell story exposing Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual harassment.
Here's MRC President Brent Bozell:
It is evident NBC has been breeding a culture of deviancy for decades and doing everything in its power to cover it up along the way. Two major on-air personalities and a top executive have already been fired from the network for sexual misconduct and now a fourth is being accused of the same. While at this time we do not know the full story behind these allegations against Chris Matthews, NBC’s history of covering for deviants creates suspicion.
Numerous NBC executives – including Jeff Zucker, the then chairman of NBC Universal – along with Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Meredith Vieira and many other NBC celebrities attended Matt Lauer’s 2008 'roast' where his debauchery was not only acknowledged, but celebrated. Lauer’s lecherous behavior was well-known throughout the NBC hierarchy and went unchecked for years before they were forced to fire him. I can only speculate the same applies to others. If NBC wants to redeem any semblance of credibility they should be transparent and launch an independent investigation into their issues with sexual misconduct in the workplace.
