Current Events > NBC News chief Andy Lack preyed on female employees for sex

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https://pagesix.com/2019/10/09/nbc-news-chief-andy-lack-preyed-on-female-employees-for-sex-report/

NBC News chief Andrew Lack once accused of mishandling sexual harassment complaints at the Peacock Network preyed on female underlings and pursued sexual relationships with them, according to one of his alleged victims.

Lacks alleged behavior is detailed in Ronan Farrows upcoming book, Catch and Kill an excerpt of which was obtained Wednesday by The Post.

In it, Jane Wallace, an anchor on CBSs West 57th news show when Lack was an executive producer in the late 1980s, discussed her affair with the then-married news man.

Lack, 72, a close friend of ousted Today show anchor Matt Lauer who oversaw his 2017 termination, was almost unrelenting in asking Wallace out to dinner every day for almost a month, saying he wanted to celebrate her contract, according to the book.

If your boss does that, what are you gonna say? Wallace told Farrow. You know if you say I dont want to celebrate with you, youre asking for trouble.

She said their sexual relationship was ultimately consensual, but I didnt just get flirted with. I got worked over.

Eventually, Wallace claimed Lack bullied her out of the job she loved and lorded his power over her when their relationship soured.

As she left the show, she recalled him yelling, You will never get credit, Farrow wrote. Then the network deployed a tactic that the public was barely conscious of at the time: it offered her a substantial payout to sign a binding nondisclosure agreement.

It was an offer Wallace accepted reluctantly.

It wasnt till I really got out of there that I felt the full force of it. Of how disgusted I was, she told Farrow. The truth is, if he hadnt been like that, I would have kept that job. I loved that job.

Lack also allegedly had a relationship with a young associate producer, Jennifer Laird, and turned hostile toward her when things ended, according to the book.

When Laird asked to be reassigned, Lack wouldnt allow it, Farrow wrote. He compelled her to work longer hours, and on weekends, and proposed she cancel vacations.

Laird confirmed the relationship to Farrow, telling the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Theres clearly a reason you dont get involved with your boss.

In the book, a rep denied Lack ever took retaliatory action against Laird.

Lack, whose first stint at NBC began in 1993, was brought back to helm NBC News in 2015 following the Brian Williams crisis.

But his return to the newsroom received pushback from some, Farrow wrote.

Why would you do that? one executive recalled asking [NBCUniversal CEO] Steve Burke upon learning of his decision to reinstate Lack, the book said. The reason you have those cultural problems down there he created that!

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sounds like he had a lack of human decency
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This story made me realize i hate reading a quote about someone quoting someone else...
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mcpwnia posted...

sounds like he had a lack of human decency

lol first thing I thought of
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Godnorgosh posted...

Ironic, because he's the one who sent out the memo for Matt Lauer's termination.

He also helped quash Ronan Farrows investigation of Harvey Weinstein, IIRC. (Farrow, to his credit, brought the story to the New Yorker, which handled it appropriately)