Former Rare Staff
In the aftermath of her colleague Matt Lauer’s firing from NBC due to multiple sexual assault allegations, “TODAY” team member Megyn Kelly has taken a rather audacious step: she’s invited Lauer — and the women who accused him — onto her show to share their stories.
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“As hard as it is to report on one of our own colleagues, we remain committed to telling people’s stories if they choose to come forward,” Kelly told her viewers during Thursday’s episode. “The women in this case, too – the Matt Lauer case – are invited and welcome to do exactly that on this show. We have been that place in all the other cases, and we will be that place – as well as for the accused – on this hour.”
Prior to issuing the invitation, Kelly had been chatting to NBC’s Stephanie Gosk about the complications of reporting on a case about someone with whom she was acquainted.
“You don’t want to be getting that explicit about a colleague that you worked with 24 hours ago,” Kelly confessed. “But that’s how we’re going to report it here for you at NBC because that’s our commitment to you – to bring you the truth and to do a full and fair investigation of this story as it comes to us.”
Kelly’s invitation comes a day after she admitted on her show that Lauer’s sudden firing “hit close to home.”
“I too have known Matt for a long time and he has been a friend and kind and supportive to me in my transition to NBC News, and I see the anguish on my colleagues’ faces,” Kelly said. “But when this happens, what we don’t see is the pain on the faces of those who found the courage to come forward, and it is a terrifying thing to do. We don’t see the career opportunities women lose because of sexual harassment or the intense stress it causes a woman dealing with it when she comes to work each day. I am thinking of those women this morning and hoping they are okay. The days to come will not be easy,” the former Fox New host added.
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“We are in the middle of a sea change in this country, an empowerment revolution in which women who for years have felt they had no choice but to simply deal with being harassed at work are now starting to picture another reality, to feel that change is within their grasp,” continued Kelly. “As painful as this moment is for so many here at NBC today, at CBS earlier this month, at Fox News over the last year, in Hollywood this fall, it is a sign of progress, of women finding their voices, their courage, and of the erosion of a shameful power imbalance that has been in place for far too long.”
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