NEXT! NBC Fires Lauer Over Sexual-Harassment Claim — But Are More Coming?

Ed Morrissey:

After the announcement, HuffPost reporter Yashar Ali remarked that he and other reporters began hearing about Lauer before they started working on a bigger story:

If that was the case, Lauer’s sudden firing removes that obstacle. He has no more power over careers inside or outside of NBC, which means that the floodgates should open up shortly. That may produce some uncomfortable moments at NBC, including for Guthrie and Kotb, who worked with Lauer for years without apparently ever knowing of any issues. Just as with CBS This Morning, the women may not only have to pick up the pieces but also ask themselves how they missed the signs.

Apparently Lauer’s bad behavior was something of an open secret at NBC, which still hasn’t received any real blowback for spiking the original Ronan Farrow story on Harvey Weinstein. Farrow took his story to The New Yorker, where burst the dam on the infotainment industry’s tolerance (to put it mildly) for sexual predators.

So Lauer is gone, but the Peacock Network still has much to do before anyone believes that it has actually cleaned house.