NBC does not have the best history when it comes to the #MeToo movement or dealing with sexual harassment in general. The network of Matt Lauer, the network that buried the Harvey Weinstein story has another potential problem.
The latest salvo in that conflict arrived on Sunday, when former NBC News reporter Emily Miller stated that the network “just fires the bad guys” when caught treating a female employee inappropriately.
Ken Meyer of Mediaite explained:
Conservative pundit and former NBCer Emily Miller said she was sexually harassed when she used to work at the network.
Miller joined Fox News Channel’s Howard Kurtz on Sunday to discuss Andy Lack’s step-down as NBC News and MSNBC chairman.
While a guest on Kurtz’s MediaBuzz program Sunday morning, the reporter noted that Lack’s suppression of Ronan Farrow’s Harvey Weinstein reporting will be a permanent stain on his legacy. In addition, she stated that the New York attorney general’s office is now investigating NBC over harassment claims connected to Lack.
Kurtz asked Miller if she has had to deal with sexual harassment, and she replied: “I did suffer from sexual harassment and from older men and men in power. … I was so young, so naive I didn’t even really understand what was going on. I knew that I had to leave.”
Miller, who is now the senior political correspondent at the One America News Network, noted that “everyone who harassed her still works for NBC.” She also claimed to have evidence of the harassment and is willing to cooperate if law enforcement asks her to speak with them.
“I was young and powerless and sure wasn’t going to sleep with a married man my father’s age for a promotion at NBC. I walked out the door and never went back.”
NBC, Miller noted, “which [is] supposedly a news organization -- has refused” to have an outside law firm investigate any complaints, which is what “every other network that’s been caught up in the whole #MeToo system” has done. After the program ended, Miller continued the discussion on Twitter, where she posted: “It’s outrageous” that the situation has “gone on this long.”
Miller also posted that “I'm going public now to call on Comcast/NBC for external investigation.”
As NewsBusters previously reported, the networks and cable channels have been dragged, very slowly, to former Biden staff member Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations against the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate. Of course, that’s a sharp contrast from when the people at NBC hired and employed Matt Lauer for 20 long years.
