I find it hard to believe that Katie Couric wouldn’t pinch back harder and tell him to knock it off if she minded.
@gouf78 Oh you don’t think she told him to stop “if she minded so much.”
Let’s do a poll. Women please hit the like for this post if you DO NOT like to get your butt pinched. Is there a woman on the planet who likes her butt pinched?
Actually I said she would make sure it didn’t happen twice.
Depends on who is doing the pinching I suppose.
I can’t imagine it happening to her, or to most women, more than once.
On the other hand, once is more than enough.
@momofthreeboys Not even my husband. I would find that flipping annoying.
And so did Katie Couric. Matt 's most annoying habit was pinching her on the butt alot. I think it was a show of dominance/power on the Sex Pest Lauer’s behalf.
If someone pinches you on the butt without your permission, the best thing to do would be to turn and slap the pincher across the face. This is a person that is clearly fine with touching without permission and appreciates rough contact on the off chance it might be liked.
I believe the ML excuse will be all the interactions with these women were consensual.
Either way his co-host look bad. If i believe they didn’t know, they are horrible reporters and couldn’t see the story under their nose. If they knew, they are lying to their audience and did nothing to help their fellow coworkers.
I don’t see how it is being a bad reporter if you are out of the loop on the gossip, he doesn’t try to pinch your butt, and you don’t see him pinch someone else’s. Especially a co-host with a short tenure.
And really – someone like Katie Couric is supposed to go off script on the air one day and out him or something? Not that the Today show has ever been about “hard hitting news”.
@dadoftwingirls You’d think ML would go with the rule of holes and stop digging. I would hope he’d shut up about it or his lawyers might ask him to shut up.
I have been struggling with the issue of what women’s responsibilities are in situations like this. I tend to agree with @dadoftwingirls. How can we complain about workplace harassment and then turn a blind eye or support those who harass just because the harassment was not directed at us? I get that Guthrie didn’t experience what these other women did with Lauer. But her very public endorsement of him immediately after the news broke just seemed pretty self serving. Basically it was a “I’m O.K. so he’s still a great guy.” Then she threw some crumbs to the women who had the wherewithal to stand up and report.
When it comes to 18 to 22 year old young men I am all for forgiveness and second chances. They don’t have the benefit of life experience and are entitled to a couple of mistakes along the way. But a 45 or 55 year old man? I am going to hold him to the same standards that I hold myself and my own husband to. There are children and spouses to consider in this equation. This sort of behavior says to me they don’t care all that much or they would not risk their families for a half hour of physical gratification. Can you imagine the things that Lauer’s and Weinstein’s children are going to read about their father? That alone would deter me.
If a guy pinches me on the butt, he has shown he’s indifferent to the rules of civilized society. I’d be afraid if I slapped him he’d punch me, because he has already shown he doesn’t care about normal behavior. Women always always know that men are stronger, and that most men could physically overcome us. This is lurking in the back of all these sex pest stories: if he’s willing to pinch me, or whip out his johnson, I’d better placate him so he doesn’t do something worse.
@“Cardinal Fang” If you’re in a professional setting, I doubt you’d get punched in the face back but everyone would surely notice. But that is very true that women are afraid to physically fight back and then ashamed that they didn’t and blamed for not fighting back by the apologists.
I think the face slapping only appears in movies of our mothers’ generation. Slap him in public and you could have battery to deal with. Especially if the butt pinch wasn’t seen or looked like his hand just accidentally swiped near her.
As for “sources” claiming NBC will yield $0, that’s just classic positioning.
I’m afraid attention on this problem is already dying down. The issue isn’t whether co-hosts said something supportive, that’s some time-old refocusing the glare on the woman or women around the perp.
A year from now, will we see changes? From corporate on down and from the bottom up? I wince that maybe not. Certainly not with this round being dismissed by so many *women * who question other women.
Unfortunately.
We disempower ourselves.
Reports I have seen, say he is not going to get paid the balance of his contract
As for Katie and the butt pinching story, I took that to be a joke.
As for Savannah’s comments, given that she had found out just moments before and did know all the allegations, I though her comments were genuine and appropriate. I think his colleagues must have known he was having affairs, but quite possible they did not know the other stuff.
Where was she supposed to go? It’s not easy to get your foot in the door of a major broadcast network. Why should women have to leave their jobs to avoid harassment?
These accusations put a different spin on the S&M pranks that Ellen Degeneres was pulling on ML last year. Not sure if youtube can be linked on this sight, but you can search for ‘Ellen pranks Matt Lauer’ to bring up multiple videos and articles. At the time, the pranks appeared to be done in fun, but I wonder if ED knew something of the dungeon??
I thought Savannah’s discussion that morning was right on point. She said sometimes people that you love do bad things. This is true. She defended the accusers.
If you find out that someone you like has done a bad thing, that doesn’t mean you stop liking the person. I only saw a small clip of the Today host’s reactions, but they seemed normal to me. How could the hosts not have mixed feelings? Anyone would have mixed feelings.
My good friend questioned the hosts reactions to Lauer, but then I put it in perspective for her. What if we found out (respected, good friend, male co-worker) had been fired for sexual allegations. How would we react? Then she understood.