NBC Fires Matt Lauer

Is this the one that was (maybe still is) circulating as a Google doc? A female co-worker said there were some interesting names on there.

 

You don't have to report rumours and speculation, just don't write puff pieces about their character and work ethic when you'd have to be naïve as hell to not know what was going on.

I think Tom Verducci on Clemens is the perfect example. Was their concrete proof that Clemens was using? No, but it would be ridiculous to think that there wasn't a good chance he was. So why write it?

I still can't get over when people are still shocked when athletes are caught or they think sports are clean because people don't test positive.

 

Yeah. There are some interesting names on it. I have no idea how valid any of it is, and I'm not going to help circulate it. (The list literally starts with a warning to take it with a grain of salt.) I wanted to see it in case anyone I know and liked was on it, just so I didn't get caught out. Thankfully, it contains none of my friends.

 

A 9 iron to the head would tell me they didn't.

 

But I mean before that.

Headline: Tiger Woods was fucking a waitress last night

"Who gives a fuck? Not me," said Elin Woods, when contacted by Esquire.

 

Nor was I expecting you to. It really doesn't move the needle for me because I assume everyone is a scumbag.

 

Neither do I but you know that millions do.

 

Yeah, but without the positive test... You're kind of on shaky journalistic ground.

I do get what you're saying about puff pieces. I never wrote puff about Tiger, because I knew enough to know he wasn't what he said he was. And as a career rule, I never wrote redemption stories, because almost always those guys revert and you look like an idiot.

But sometimes you do get surprised. Like, if something came out about George Clooney, I would be absolutely stunned. (Please, not Clooney. I need him.) I just don't know what you're supposed to do there. Some people do keep secrets.

 

No, you couldn't. Plus, his sex life was ... "consensual"; stipulating he was fucking everything that moved, whatever was moving was (as far as I know) completely OK with doing the nasty.

The point might be raised that in these sexual misconduct (assault, harassment, etc.) cases, there have long been victims and they've been talking with one another. Maybe it might have behooved journalists (celebrity, sports, whatever) to spend a bit of time with "the little people" that are around these folks. If Weinstein, or Laurer, or Franken, or Woods, or Keillor, or whoever, knows that anybody they've ever dealt with might actually be put on the record, this stuff might not have gone down as bad (and as long) as it did. Maybe not ... just a thought.

Oh, I and you and everyone else around here understand why it was a story ... the world's best golfer, a black guy, married to a gorgeous white woman ... that's gonna lead every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

 

Yeah, no, I wasn't saying that assuming you'd ask. That was my way of saying I'm not sure how valid any of it is. There are people I can't stand on that list, and part of me was like, Of course they're here, they're scumbags. But another part of me is like, Maybe they aren't that scummy. Some of the alleged behaviour is pretty much as bad as it gets without killing someone.

 

But why would you be surprised about Clooney? I'm assuming you don't know him personally so all we know is a carefully constructed image that we are given by his handlers and himself.

 

Of course. But it's like the Texas Congressman story.

Hed: Texas Congressman sends naked photo to his girlfriend

OK ... and???