“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,” The New York Post’s Page Six reports, adding that Lack’s alleged behavior is described in “Catch and Kill,” the upcoming book from Ronan Farrow.
As we reported separately, the book also discusses the news division’s alleged mishandling of Farrow’s Harvey Weinstein reporting and includes a rape allegation against former “Today” show mainstay Matt Lauer. The Post story is based on the publication’s examination of an excerpt from the book.
“In it, Jane Wallace, an anchor on CBS’s ‘West 57th’ news show when Lack was an executive producer in the late 1980s, discussed her affair with the then-married news man,” The Post reports. “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.”
Wallace is quoted telling Farrow: “If your boss does that, what are you gonna say? You know if you say ‘I don’t want to celebrate with you,’ you’re asking for trouble.”
The Post report adds: “She said their sexual relationship was ‘ultimately consensual, but I didn’t just get flirted with. I got worked over.’”
Wallace alleges that Lack eventually bullied her out of her job after their relationship went awry.
The report quotes Farrow writing in the book: “As she left the show, she recalled him yelling, ‘You will never get credit.’ 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.”
Wallace reportedly accepted the offer, albeit reluctantly.
I have worked with Andy Lack at both CBS and NBC over the years. Accusing him of any sort of this kind of behavior is pure bullshit. Lack has been a solid mentor for dozens of people, female and male. It is time for the “media”..male AND female, to take a close look at Ronan Farrow. He clearly has some very serious issues and fantasies. Farrow made his bones slandering Woody Allen as part of his mother’s war with Allen. He hates Lack and NBC because the organization insisted that the Weinstein reporting be backed up with real victims, which Farrow refused to provide, prompting Lack to say the story wasn’t ready. Farrow finally did get some victims to id themselves but that was AFTER NBC’s rejection. So Farrow is now trying to stab Lack, as he has stabbed Allen. Matt Lauer’s story is also not as cut and dry as Farow makes it. Read Lauer’s statement. It shows that while Lauer did wrong, his “victim” was a willing participant, even calling Lauer at home to try to rekindle what she wanted to be a “romance.”. Farrow left all of that out of his new book. Farrow has a sickness which needs to be addressed.It probably began with his hatred of his “father”> And ANY editor needs to closely examine his “worK”. Of course, facts have NEVER been a problem for Rupert’s PAGE 6 so don’t expect any honesty there.
When I do unethical things in order to advance my OWN career and they do not work out as planned, then, you know, I can place the blame on to others and not be PERSONALLY accountable for my OWN actions/behavior.