“People are more angry and tired of accusations being made than they are of the decades of men harassing and abusing women.”
That.
And it includes so many women making assumptions about other women.
@scout59 - sorry, there are some stories floating around about him too (well I actually spoke directly to the person guarding the door and the team covering him)
I’m tired of it only because I’m tired of anonymous allegations - if anyone is going to take anyone out at least have the decently to attach your name to it. It’s the ultimate dream revenge…accuse someone of something and totally trash them and ultimately their family’s lives but no one needs to know you are the one who did it except whomever you reported to. You, as the anonymous person may have a perfectly accurate allegation and it could be heinous as all get out or totally innocuous, but to me it’s cowardly and a tad suspect if you don’t take ownership. But even deep throat eventually got exposed. I still worry that when there’s a lookback ten/twenty years down the road all it all this will have a negative impact on equality in the workplace and I’m not usually a pessimist.
^^^Substitute names of your family members in place of the accuser above and see if you still feel the same way.
The meeting between the accuser and the network and legal team took place 36 hours ago. Time will tell.
Hence why this is such a contentious issue. I partly agree with you though… it’s hard to swallow the idea of letting people make accusations against someone that have the potential to ruin that person’s life, with little or no evidence involved. On the other hand though, what are the options for people who are genuinely assaulted when evidence is not available in 99.9% of assault cases?
How do you tell who is lying and who is telling the truth?
When the public stops threatening the lives of those accusers who do go public, when they stop asking how the victim’s were dressed, whether they had any alcohol and when they stop questioning the victim’s sexual history… then maybe I will agree victims should go public.
We have no way to know whether there was little to no evidence involved in the Lauer complaint. Nor do we know it was assault. Or whether he is denying whatever it is.
I never saw this one coming. Woke up to a shock this morning.
True all we have is an anonymous complaint and less than 48 hours 'til he was fired. I don’t know, but my gut says this is not going to go well for women in the workplace…sigh…glad I’m retiring soon. Glad I don’t have daughters because they are the ones that may be faced with the consequences of men distrusting women. I hope that doesn’t come to pass and I hope that we get our arms around what is harassment worthy of destroying lives (both people who feel so strongly their life has been destroyed that they want to destroy someone else’s life and vice versa) and what is not. Just doesn’t feel in my gut like this is headed in a good direction anymore.
Well, women haven’t been able to trust men in the workplace so maybe it’s about time that was balanced more.
People love to bring up the fear of false accusations, but which high profile man has yet been brought down by what has been proven to be a false accusation?
That fear has nothing to do with this case. Had he felt it was a false accusation, there is no way Lauer wouldn’t have already issued a statement somehow.
^Exactly. It’s possible there was overwhelming evidence and that explains why NBC was able to fire him so quickly. Otherwise, the story/accusations probably would have never been made public.
While I’m 100 percent in favor of routing out all of the inappropriate behavior that’s been going on for years, I’m concerned that anyone gets fired just on an accusation. What happened to a suspension and investigation and a right to defend yourself? I hope that they had a lot of other information that hasn’t been disclosed.
And I know a private company doesn’t have to give a non-union employee the right to defend themselves, but I really hope we are not entering into a new era of McCarthyism. I don’t care how noble the cause (and I do think routing out this gross conduct is noble), ruining someone’s life over an accusation without the right of defending yourself is truly scary to me.
My son wants to go into political science. Bless his heart, he’s 12. He wants to volunteer stuffing envelopes on the local congressman’s campaign next year. Hubby and I have told him that he is never to let himself be alone in a room with an adult of either sex.
I don’t think I would’ve thought that was necessary even a year ago. But it was, and is, so all I can say is that I’m glad this current spate has put the issue front and center in my mind, so I can guide my kids a little better.
I guarantee that NBC is not going to fire someone over an unsubstantiated accusation. There must be a fire somewhere for this smoke to appear… stay tuned.
There is no “anonymous complaint”. The people at NBC who are responsible for determining if NBC policy on workplace activity was violated and who responsible for firing Matt Lauer know who filed the complaint. They determined that Lauer violated their corporate policy and have fired him. From what they have said they have talked with the accuser and Matt Lauer as well. This is not a lawsuit, this is not a criminal action. This is private business taking action in accord with their own policies. We will get just as much information as NBC wants us to have, just as we would if he had been fired for stealing office supplies.
News accounts say NBC has been investigating Lauer for weeks.
McCarthyism? Premature to suggest that.
Some here disputed when named women accused. You just don’t want to believe it, imo. Maybe it never happened to you or you could point to some other woman’s hemline. Or the fact she worked with men, omg.
But surpressing this does no good. Let time tell.
Now Garrison Keillor.
It’s reported Vanity Far was working on this ML story for 2 months.
Reportedly, various news outlets had been working on the Lauer story for weeks if not months. It’s far from “just an anonymous accusation.”
The Washington Post story preceded the Farrow story. Both outlets were chasing the same sorry tale. Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of the Washington Post had been working on the story since May.
I expect named Lauer accusers to surface in the next 24 hours.