Two white cameramen who are suing NBC claiming the network is racist allege the network has a pattern of protecting itself and sweeping misconduct under the rug, and they are pointing to the Tom Brokaw and Matt Lauer cases. Kurt Decker and Michael…
Showing posts with label Brokaw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brokaw. Show all posts
Monday, May 7, 2018
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Rachel Maddow & 63 NBC Staffers Defend Tom Brokaw Against Sexual Harassment
Tom Brokaw’s current and former colleagues at NBC, including Rachel Maddow, are coming out strong in his defense against sexual harassment allegations. Maddow, Maria Shriver and longtime NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell — along with 61 other…
Friday, April 27, 2018
Tom Brokaw Blasts Sexual Misconduct Accuser: This Is An Ambush!
Former NBC staffers have accused Tom Brokaw of sexual misconduct, and he has admitted that he acted inappropriately, but says that it did not rise to the level described.
Now, he sent out a mass email to a number of colleagues, in which he takes a much harsher tone towards the accusations and one of the women who made them.
That email has been obtained and published for all to see.
In a lengthy email to his colleagues that has been obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Tom Brokaw denounces the allegations against him.
“It is 4:00 am on the first day of my new life as an accused predator in the universe of American journalism.”
It’s off to a very melodramatic start.
“I was ambushed and then perp walked across the pages of The Washington Post and Variety as an avatar of male misogyny.”
If you think that this hyperbole is a bit much, just wait for this next line.
“Taken to the guillotine and stripped of any honor and achievement I had earned in more than a half century of journalism and citizenship.”
After the hyperbole train comes to a near-stop, he suggests that he knows the motives of Linda Vester, the woman identified by name in the article.
“I am facing a long list of grievances from a former colleague who left NBC News angry that she had failed in her pursuit of stardom.”
He then drops that he’s responsible for her career.
“She has unleashed a torrent of unsubstantiated criticism and attacks on me more than twenty years after I opened the door for her and a new job at Fox news.”
Brokaw seems bewildered that these accusations against him were in print.
“Linda Vester was given the run of the Washington Post and Variety to vent her grievances.”
He then characterizes the accusations against him:
“To complain that I tickled her without permission (you read that right), that I invaded her hotel room, accepted an invitation to her apartment under false pretenses. …”
He sees these accusations as a personal attack.
“And in general was given a free hand to try to destroy all that I have achieved with my family, my NBC career, my writing and my citizenship.”
He says that, essentially, everyone is on his side.
“My NBC colleagues are bewildered that Vester, who had limited success at NBC News, a modest career at Fox and a reputation as a colleague who had trouble with the truth, was suddenly the keeper of the flame of journalistic integrity.”
It sounds like he’s trying to say that she is not trustworthy or truthful. One wonders if he will also say the same about his other accuser if she is named, and about any others who might speak up.
“Her big charge: that on two occasions more than 20 years ago I made inappropriate and uninvited appearances in her apartment and in a hotel room.”
“As an eager beginner, Vester, like others in that category, was eager for advice and camaraderie with senior colleagues. She often sought me out for informal meetings, including the one she describes in her New York hotel room.”
In her accusations, he called her and informed her that she was coming over — after having been turned down when he asked her out for a drink.
“I should not have gone but I emphatically did not verbally and physically attack her and suggest an affair in language right out of pulp fiction.”
She said that he tried to kiss her against her will, which is something that clearly has stuck with her for a long time.
“She was coy, not frightened, filled with office gossip, including a recent rumor of an affair.”
So … they were talking.
“As that discussion advanced she often reminded me she was a Catholic and that she was uncomfortable with my presence. So I left,”
He says that he’s now shocked that she was upset by the visit.
“23 years later, to be stunned by her melodramatic description of the meeting.”
Interesting to hear the guy who just described being guillotined accuse someone else of being melodramatic.
“As I got up to leave I may have leaned over for a perfunctory goodnight kiss, but my memory is that it happened at the door – on the cheek.”
Brokaw says that her description of that kiss was not as she described.
“No clenching her neck. That move she so vividly describes is NOT WHO I AM. Not in high school, college or thereafter.”
Brokaw also says that she left out some details.
“Here is a part of her story she somehow left out. I think I saw her in the hallways and asked how it was going.”
He says that he offered her career advice.
“She was interested in cable start up [sic] and I said I didn’t think that was going anywhere. What about Fox, which was just building up?”
He says that he then made that connection happen.
“She was interested and followed me to my office where, while she listened in, I called Roger Ailes. He said, ‘send her over."”
He then accuses her of hypocrisy by having never said anything publicly about Ailes after he was accused of sexual harassment and forced to resign.
Again, he reiterates that he does not like that the accusations against him were published, as she believes that this woman is biased.
“I am stunned by the free ride given a woman with a grudge against NBC News, no distinctive credentials or issue passions while at FOX.”
He believes that she was accusing him out of a desire for attention, which is a fairly common deflection from people accused of misdeeds.
“Strip away all of the hyperbole and what has she achieved? What was her goal? Hard to believe it wasn’t much more Look At Me than Me:Too.”
Sometimes, it’s difficult to know a person’s true character until you see how they respond to adversity.
And this scathing letter is how Brokaw has responded.
Tom Brokaw Adamantly Denies Accusations by Woman Accusing Him of Sexual Harassment
Tom Brokaw’s firing back at one of his sexual harassment accusers, referring to her as a former colleague with a grudge who has had “trouble with the truth.” In an email reportedly sent to a few NBC News coworkers, the former “NBC Nightly News”…
Tom Brokaw Accused of Sexual Misconduct by Former NBC Staffers
The #MeToo Movement may have nailed another reporter.
Months after Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose each saw his careers come to an end due to some damning allegations, Tom Brokaw has now been accused of sexual misconduct.
The veteran journalist and former host of the NBC Nightly News faces claims from a pair of ex-co-workers, both from incidents that allegedly took place in the 1990s.
First, per The Washington Post, comes a detailed account from Linda Vester.
She says that, while working as a reporter for NBC on “Weekend Today” in 1994, Brokaw once asked her to have a drink with him.
She responded “I only drink milk and cookies” at the time.
Hours later, however, Vester tells the aforementioned newspaper that Brokaw called her New York City hotel room around 3 a.m. and told her to order the milk and cookies … because he was coming over.
When Brokaw arrived at her door, he tried to kiss her, Vester claims, jerking her head in his direction.
But she resisted.
Vester also says Brokaw grabbed her from behind and tickled her waist in front of her colleagues in Denver, Colorado.
The Washington Post also published an allegation from a second woman, who asked to remain anonymous, claiming that Brokaw acted inappropriately toward her around this same time.
This woman worked as a production assistance at NBC News when she alleges Brokaw took her hands and put them under his jacket against his chest.
He then invited her to his office, insinuating he wanted the pair to engaged in some kind of sexual activity.
She says she left the network to go work someplace else after these events occurred.
Both women say they did not report the allegations when they transpired out of fear of Brokaw’s power at the network and how he could bring down their careers.
Brokaw has been married since 1992 and has five children.
This is what he said in reply to Vester’s claims:
I met with Linda Vester on two occasions, both at her request, 23 years ago because she wanted advice with respect to her career at NBC.
The meetings were brief, cordial and appropriate, and despite Linda’s allegations, I made no romantic overtures towards her at that time or any other.
He also denied acting in the sort of manner described by the second woman above.
Back in November, Lauer was fired from the Today Show for what the network called “inappropriate workplace behavior.”
He actually just spoke out again on Thursday, acknowledging in a statement that he has “acted inappropriately,” but denying “any allegations or reports of coercive, aggressive or abusive actions.”
NBC itself is yet to respond to this story about Brokaw, or to a larger story run by The Post that outlines a lack of institutional control when it comes to sexual harassment.
Brokaw works as a contributor at the network.
We’ll keep readers apprised of more news regarding these allegations against Brokaw when or if it breaks.
Tom Brokaw Accused of Sexual Harassment by 2 Women
Tom Brokaw is being accused of making inappropriate and unwanted advances in the workplace … allegedly on 2 women in separate incidents in the 1990s. One of the women, Linda Vester, claims the veteran broadcast journalist and former anchor of NBC…
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