Journalist Ronan Farrow claimed NBC made settlements with women, including accusers of disgraced news anchor Matt Lauer prior to his firing in 2017.
Farrow appeared on “Good Morning America” to defend the findings in his new book “Catch And Kill: Lies, Spies, And A Conspiracy To Protect Predators” on Friday. In his book, a former NBC staffer accused Lauer of anally raping her in a hotel room during the 2014 coverage of the Sochi Olympics.
Farrow confirmed the book was “extensively fact checked.”
He also slammed NBC News for the way the network handled the sexual misconduct claim by Brooke Nevils and other accusers. Andy Lack released a statement claiming the news network first learned about Lauer’s behavior in November of 2017 when the formal complaint was received. (RELATED: Matt Lauer Denies Allegation He Raped Former NBC Staffer)
“Any suggestion that we knew prior to that evening or tried to cover up any aspect of Lauer’s conduct is absolutely false and offensive,” Lack said in a memo to staff Wednesday.
1. The Chairman of NBC News Andy Lack has just sent a lengthy memo to staff re NBC’s role in @RonanFarrow @RichMcHughNBC’s reporting on Harvey Weinstein. I will reproduce the cover letter and the memo in this thread. First, the cover letter. pic.twitter.com/EvotCM61yE
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) September 3, 2018
Ronan, however, claims the reporting suggests that multiple settlements with Lauer accusers were made “years before” the incident that led to his firing occurred.
“Years before, over a period of six to seven years, a period in which NBC had previously denied any settlements, there were seven non-disclosure agreements, multiple ones of those were with Matt Lauer accusers,” Farrow, who is also a former NBC employee, claimed. “This is years before this incident occurred.”
“And I spoke to senior executives who were told about those earlier incidents,” he added.