“Today” show host Matt Lauer has always had that sanctimonious air that the hardcore liberals have in spades, that holier-than-thou, “I’m-right-and-you’re-wrong” contempt for anyone who doesn’t think exactly like him.
While he’s a morning talk show host — one that sometimes dresses up as Dolly Parton or helps chefs cook Autumn pizzas “your teen will love” — Lauer has always played at being a “journalist.” He isn’t, of course, as he makes no effort to be unbiased, or if not unbiased, at least even-handed. He’s a morning show entertainer, nothing more.
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(Sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves. Liz Lemon always cuts to the point.)
Anyway, with the sudden firing of Lauer over what NBC is calling very credible allegations that the $25 million man committed a bit of “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace,” we thought back to his pretentious grilling of Bill O’Reilly over his own allegations of sexual impropriety with women while host of a Fox News show.
“You were accused of sexual harassment,” Lauer says to O’Reilly, the two sitting opposite each other in high chairs. “You said at the time you did absolutely nothing wrong. Do you stand by that?”
“I do,” O’Reilly says in the September 19 interview.
“So did you provide Fox News any evidence, any information that you think could have changed their minds as to what you were guilty or not guilty of?” Lauer asks.
Then this absolutely wonderful exchange happens.
“You were probably the last guy in the world that they wanted to fire, because you were the guy that the ratings and the revenues were built on. You carried that network on your shoulders for a lot of years,” Lauer said. “So doesn’t it seem safe to assume that the people at Fox News were given a piece of information, or given some evidence, that simply made it impossible for you to stay on at Fox News?”
Wow.
O’Reilly says no, calling that a “false assumption.”
“There were a lot of other business things in play at that time and still today that 21st Century was involved with,” O’Reilly says. “And it was a business decision that they made. But there isn’t any smoking gun.”
“But you don’t let your No. 1 guy go unless you have information that you think makes him…” Lauer says.
“Sure you do,” O’Reilly says. “That’s not true. There are billions of dollars at stake in business deals, and they made a business decision that they could possibly prosper more without me.”
“Why didn’t you sue those women if you say you did absolutely nothing wrong?” Lauer asks.
“Because you can’t win those lawsuits. If you’re a public figure, you cannot win them. And I could do that, but the collateral damage of these lawsuits, the press frenzy, every allegation is a conviction,” O’Reilly says.
“You don’t have this story, Lauer, correct,” O’Reilly says. “The lawsuits involved many people, many people. I was named in a few of them. This was a hit job, a political and financial hit job.”
“Was this a vast left-wing conspiracy?” Lauer says.
“Don’t be sarcastic,” O’Reilly responds.
Then there was this great question to O’Reilly that now surely applies to Lauer himself:
“But think about those five women and what they did,” Lauer says. “They came forward and filed complaints against the biggest star at the network they worked at. Think of how intimidating that must have been, how nerve-wracking that must have been. Doesn’t that tell you how strongly they felt about the way they were treated by you?”
Ouch.
Oh, and one last Lauer question: “Were there any self-inflicted wounds here, Bill?”
See the rest below.