It was never a big expectation that NBC would give in to the demands to pay Matt Lauer the rest of his contract. The Today Show host was recently discovered to have joined the list of men being accused of being inappropriate in a sexual manner to a female coworker. What’s more is that Lauer has apparently been doing this for years and is now being made to pay for it. He’s expressed remorse for his actions but is still being released, which is as it should be if he is truly guilty. Why the hedge? It’s very simple really, if a male celebrity or person of importance is accused of sexual misconduct these days then their reputation and their livelihood is on the line without question. If they are truly guilty then they will need to answer to the law if possible, but if not, then the damage continues to spread as more people are sucked into the wake of the storm that has hit Hollywood recently. Statistics say that only a very small percentage of men that are being accused are actually innocent, which would mean that a lot of them are quite guilty.
The fact that Lauer has apologized for his actions goes towards confirming his guilt, but that isn’t truly the issue right now. What is the issue is that Lauer’s attorneys are now going after NBC for the rest of his contract and then some. Lauer’s contract with the network wouldn’t have ended until 2019, but thanks to a morals clause that has become standard for such positions he is able to be fired based on the grounds that he has done something morally reprehensible.
What’s really confusing about it was that at one point, when he was making his apologies, sources indicated that he wouldn’t be seeking to receive the rest of his contract. Perhaps those sources were misinformed or weren’t that reliable to begin with since Lauer is now attempting to get what he feels is owed. The problem with that is the fact that NBC can likely stand on that morals clause until the cows come home and refuse to pay him a single dime. With his misconduct he essentially rubbed NBC’s reputation in the dirt, which means that thanks to their written contract with one another the network can simply deny him and go on about their day without a care in the world.
Those that act in such a manner towards their colleagues and others, as Lauer has been alleged to do, seem to think that they can get away with just about anything since they’re celebrities and have influence and status to throw around. It would be great to think that their apologies mean something rather than a measure of goodwill to show people that they’re genuine human beings but really a lot of them seem to do it because their attorneys urge them to so that they aren’t metaphorically burned at the stake to appease those that they’ve wronged and those around the globe that would love nothing less than to see them humbled.
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