NBC Fires Matt Lauer

You have to be a generalist on any subject. From Palestine to Pilates. Lauer was exceptional at that. As was Gumbel before him. Even if they were assholes.

 

Super villain? Is that a gay joke?

In all seriousness, another factor is that the Post and the Times not only have the physical resources that the average paper in Alabama or anywhere else doesn't have in this day and age but also the financial resources that allow for the cadre of lawyers and such that is needed to play the investigative game. Those papers can AFFORD in every sense to dig for the truth. Most organizations can't.

 

To this day, I’m bothered by the Tiger Woods infidelity “story.” Even with people willing to go on the record, consensual infidelity isn’t news, it’s gossip. But the MSM took a bath for “covering it up.” Covering what up?

(I felt that way about the Congressman who had cybersex, as well. How was that newsworthy?)

 

I have only really worked with women who were Chuck Wepner clones, Grandma Clampett lookalikes, twins for the Porky's coach, or meaner than a pit viper. Can't say I have ever felt the urge to grope any of them (two hands firmly around the neck doesn't count, amirite?).

 

This is two years old from The Onion but recently made its way to my Facebook feed:


Matt Lauer Waits In Parking Garage For Anonymous Source On Parenting Trends

https://www.theonion.com/matt-lauer-waits-in-parking-garage-for-anonymous-source-1819577812

 

I guess the answer is easy access, but honestly: Why the fuck does Matt Lauer need to put his career and reputation at risk harassing professional colleagues anyway? Unlike Harvey Weinstein, can't Matt Lauer basically walk into any bar in America without walking out alone?

 

Oh, I'm guessing he did the rich man version of that, too. He was estranged from his wife for the past decade and living during the week in Manhattan while the family is in the Hamptons.

But I suspect it's more this:

Just as the (non-sexual) power play was in play with Ann Curry and countless other colleagues.

 

Without knowing a single detail, I'm fairly certain Lauer was convinced these much younger women were attracted to him. The desire to hook up with coworkers is as much to do with ego as it is attraction. If you're Lauer and you're divorced from your wife (or even if you're not), what's easier for you:

1. Go to a bar and try to hit on randos and risk Page 6 or TMZ getting video of you with a hot young woman that could embarrass you and NBC, or...

2. Convincing yourself that the hot young intern who is RIGHT THERE is into you not as a professional mentor but because you're irresistible in your charming male suaveness.

Men are lazy. Men often chase women who are around them based on what they think of as "signals."

I will bet you a beer that when the Socchi/Rio stuff comes out, Lauer's defense will be that he thought it was consensual, two lonely people who connected halfway around the world in the cold shadow of Putin. And the co-worker may have felt initially flattered by his attention and then totally creeped out by him wanting it to be sexual back at the NBC hotel but went along with some of it out of fear of what he'd do to her career if she said no.

 

Or, pushing 60, scared shitless that they weren't.

 

True, but don't sell us the alternate narrative in its place.

If you don't want to tell us that Tiger is banging the waitress at Perkins, don't tell us instead what a great guy, and devoted husband he is.

 

I can't wait for his version of the, "I thought it was consensual, but have since learned that not ever woman felt the same, and I am taking this as an opportunity to learn about myself," statement.

 

Reeks big time of it.