NBC News says Lauer situation will be dealt with most severe way possible

NBC News president says “on a personal level”, the Lauer situation will be dealt with in “the most severe way possible”.

MATT Lauer will not get his $39.42 million ($US30 million) payout from NBC News, network bosses have ruled, even though his lawyers argue he still has over a year left on his contract.

The disgraced anchor will not be paid a day past the last one he worked, NBC News president Noah Oppenheim ruled on Friday during a tense meeting with NBC Nightly News staff, reports the New York Post.

According to Page Six, lawyers for Lauer had been studying his contract to see if he could demand the remainder of his $26.28 million a year deal through 2018 — which would have amounted to around $39.42 million.

But Oppenheim told staff that Lauer would not be paid a penny more because he was terminated “for cause” — or, more explicitly, his own sexual bad behaviour. Lauer was fired Tuesday night for “improper sexual conduct in the workplace” with a much younger female staffer, and the revelation has been met with a stream of further allegations against the one-time prince of the Peacock Network.

Lauer was terminated from his position at NBC following a string of allegations. Picture: Neilson Barnard / Getty Images.

Sources told Page Six there is increasing anger among the staff at NBC News at Lauer’s longtime behaviour, which appears to have been swept under the carpet by NBC News bigwigs for years to protect their biggest and most bankable star, while he preyed on his female subordinates.

One source at the meeting told the New York Post, “There is a lot of anger among the NBC News staff. Noah tried to calm the situation and failed. He came to the Nightly News meeting Friday afternoon and had a lot of nothing to say. People in the building are furious how the Lauer scandal was handled and, while before everyone was afraid of Matt, finally they are not afraid of speaking up about it.

“Noah told the group there would be no negotiations for a payout to Matt. He said he had no knowledge of [the allegations against Lauer] or any other ones like them. Noah did admit he knew of rumours of infidelity, but Matt had always strongly denied them.”

Oppenheim also revealed that Lauer had continued to lie about his sexual impropriety up until the very moment he realised he was caught red-handed. Lauer was caught out by sexts — racy texts and photos he sent to the woman who first complained to NBC human resources on Monday.

Lauer reportedly denied the accusations until he was caught red handed. Picture: Roger Kisby / Getty Images.

After bosses announced an internal review about sexual harassment at NBC News, Oppenheim also told NBC staffers during Friday’s meeting, according to a source, “There has been a lot of swirl and noise, surrounding a really good and important question. Which is, how the hell did this happen? How did this horrific behaviour go on without it being brought to light and dealt with?

“And no one wants to know the answer to that more than I do. It would disgust and appall me if during the two and a half years that I have been here, that this had been going on and I wouldn’t have known about it. And I can tell you, on a personal level, that if there is anyone who works here, who still works here, who knew about this and didn’t report it, this is going to be dealt with in the most severe way possible. And that is why we are conducting this review.

“In terms of what I personally knew, I think I knew what anyone who has walked into a supermarket for the last 20 years knew, which is that there had been in the National Enquirer and other places, rumours that Matt had relationships with other celebrities, those people had denied it, as had he.”

A pervnado sandwich Katie Holmes probably regrets. Picture: Ilya S. Savenok / Getty Images.

He said of their confrontation with Lauer, “Andy and I and at least two other people that I know of, confronted Matt directly. And said, ‘Matt.’ We asked him multiple different ways, ‘Is there something you have done, is there any behaviour that we need to know about, what could this be about?’ And he looked all those people in the eye and said nothing.”

In defence of the National Enquirer “and other places,” (as deliriously ignorant Oppenheim dismissively says), one top media insider summed it up, “It seems like every journalist inside NBC had no idea what Matt Lauer was up to, while every journalist outside NBC knew all about it.

“Those journalists outside NBC have been met with endless and increasingly aggressive denials over the years from NBC News and Matt himself when trying to report on it. It is undeniably a huge cover-up.”

NBC News reps didn’t comment.

This article was originally published on the New York Post and was republished here with permission.

Originally published as NBC News says Lauer situation will be dealt with most severe way possible