NBC up to their lips in it

One can imagine how nauseous the executives are at NBC over the blitzkrieg firing of Matt Lauer, their number one star. But in the midst of this comes mounting pressure on Comcast, the parent company, to launch an investigation into whether NBC's top executives knew about Lauer's sexual misconduct and harassment with women. And if they knew about it, when did they know?

NBC News Chairman Andy Lack and Noah Oppenheim, his deputy, have been close to Lauer for many years, and both spent most of their careers at NBC.

However, NBC said, "We can say unequivocally, that, prior to Monday night, current NBC News management was never made aware of any complaints about Matt Lauer's conduct."

Yeah, sure.

The statement isn't being believed by industry observers amid a slew of press accounts saying repeated complaints about the sleazeball were ignored by executives more worried about pleasing Lauer than doing the right thing. In fact, it's known that the "Today" show was a sex-charged "boys club" filled with lewd comments and mistreatment of women.

"It seems that those at the top of the NBC food chain have really dug themselves into a hole. A lot is still unknown, but it could be a lose-lose situation for Lack and Oppenheim," Mediate columnist Joey Wulfsohn said.

He went on: "Either they continue their lack of transparency, which only feeds into the narrative that there was complicity among NBC management; or they reveal the truth, which may also prove complicity among NBC management."

Now there are three scandals in which Lack and Oppenheim have kept quiet about, yet promised transparency. Who knew about Matt Lauer? What about Ronan Farrow's story that would have outed Harvey Weinstein as a sexual predator--when did these two clowns spike the story? And why did NBC do nothing for all those years over the "Access Hollywood" tape in which Donald Trump and future "Today" co-host Bill Bush made disgusting comments about women and grabbing them by their genitalia?

The network said they were investigating all three scandals and would be transparent but alas . . . crickets.

Now it's beginning to appear as if all three scandals could be linked.

Regarding Lauer, Lois Boynton, a journalism professor and media ethics expert at the University of North Carolina, said that from an ethics perspective, 'there is a concern about a conflict of interest since the two execs are friends" with Lauer.

Everyone knows that Lack is a close personal friend with the disgraced anchor and it was Lack who promoted Lauer to co-host "Today" when Lack was president of NBC News in the 1990s. They have also vacationed together, but never to "Lolita Island" with Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein.

Oppenheim also has close ties to Lauer and he spent most of his career at NBC since graduating from college. He was senior producer at "Today" for several years and worked closely with Lauer both in the office and on the road.

The close relationships of the executives likely made it impossible for them to keep Lauer in check.

The Variety reporters who broke the story on Lauer, Elizabeth Wagmeister and Ramin Setoodeh, essentially told Fox News' Tucker Carlson on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Thursday that Lack and Oppenheim were lying to cover up knowing about widespread sexual corruption of the studios at '30 Rock'.

Setoodeh feels "it's a fair question to ask as a journalist" why Lack and Oppenheim have remained silent and failed to publicly clarify what they knew and when they knew it.

"As two reporters who have been covering this story pretty aggressively, we would like to interview either of them," Setoodeh told Carlson.

Andy Lack first claimed that a complaint he received Monday night resulted in Lauer's firing, and said it was the first complaint regarding his [Lauer's] behavior "in the over 20 years he's been at NBC News."

Then NBC had to clarify the statement and issued another stating that "prior to Monday night, current NBC News management was never made aware of any complaints about Matt Lauer's conduct."

Yeah, sure.

Setoodeh said it was curious that the word "current" was in the network's statement about which managers knew about Lauer's sexual misconduct. He also explained that NBC staffers told him that the term "current" is being defined in a "very narrow circle" and "there are people who work at the 'Today' show, staffers, producers, anchors--current and previous anchors--of the 'Today' show who were aware there had been complaints about Matt Lauer's alleged conduct toward women."

Also on "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Melissa Francis said that a friend of hers had been sexually assaulted by an NBC executive when she was at the network.

"People are really shocked right now," Wagmeister said. "They're waiting for answers."

Now we have to sit and wait to see if Comcast executives step in to staunch the bleeding.

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