It's not a good look for NBC: sitting on the Access Hollywood tape last year, quashing Ronan Farrow's Harvey Weinstein story, and now having to fire Today show host Matt Lauer following allegations of sexual misconduct. That morning news show was number one in the key demographic and made the network $500 million a year in ad revenue, essentially subsidizing the rest of NBC News. No word yet on who Lauer's replacement will be. In the case of NBC, and also at Disney, where Pixar chief John Lasseter is on a six-month "sabbatical" -- these are publicly held companies and investors would want to know how long this kind of inappropriate behavior has been going on, and if company money has been used to cover it up.
KCRW
