NBC Execs are refusing to hire an outside investigator to look into the misconduct over at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, more specifically the Matt Lauer incidents, instead wanting to keep the investigation in-house.
Just last week, they announced that they were indeed firing Matt Lauer — one of their longest standing and biggest stars with NBC News Chairman Andy Lack sending the memo to the staff saying “why this was able to happen, why it wasn’t reported sooner, and what we can do to make employees feel more empowered to report unacceptable behavior.”
The memo was obtained by TVNewser which outlined 40 employees of NBC were being interviewed and the process “will continue for several more weeks.” and of course not saying WHO was doing the interviewing.
William Jacobson, a founder of Legal Insurrection and Cornell University law professor, called out Lack saying he has no business overseeing the investigation.
“It’s hard to see how an internal investigation that reports to senior executives would be viewed as complete and transparent when the conduct, or lack of conduct, of senior executives, such as Andrew Lack, necessarily should an issue,” Jacobson told Fox News.
“Anything other than an independent outside investigation that reports to the NBC Universal Board of Directors would raise questions as to whether responsibility is being pushed down to lower corporate levels.”
And he’s absolutely right. A huge sexual misconduct claim has been levied against one of NBC’s biggest stars (and really who knows if anyone else and we’re just not hearing about it) and NBC plans to keep it in the family, so to speak. Why? It makes THEM look guilty by association in a sense, right?
“It is time for all institutions and organizations to examine themselves, accept honest criticism, and change; it is time we all accept responsibility for work places that are safe and respectful for everyone,” Webster University School of Communications Dean and media history guru Eric Rothenbuhler told Fox News.
Even Gloria Allred — who I am not a fan of as I am sure you aren’t — as called the move into question; echoing that they have no business NOT hiring an outside firm to conduct the investigation.
“NBC should hire an outside law firm to investigate what knowledge the network had, or should have had, about Matt Lauer’s alleged sexual harassment of female employees at NBC,” Allred said. “An outside law firm hired to do an independent investigation is more likely than HR to be impartial and not subject to internal pressures and potential conflicts of interest.”
