Where in the World is Matt Lauer After Being Fired For Sexual Harassment

If you tuned into Today this morning hoping to see Matt Lauer, you were probably very disappointed. You’re also probably fictional, because who the hell is a fan of Matt Lauer? Even 30 Rock made regular jokes about how insipid Today was. But the number of people who are actually fans of Lauer are probably considerably lower now that he’s been fired following a complaint of inappropriate sexual conduct, and NBC’s statement said the network had reason to believe it was not an isolated incident.

There have long been rumors of Lauer being kind of a dick, especially after his Today co-host Ann Curry was fired, reportedly because Lauer and Curry didn’t get along. This isn’t to say stories of Lauer’s sexual harassment were floating around like Harvey Weinstein, because they weren’t, this is the first allegation made against Lauer.

First, that is, unless you count Katie Couric saying he was always pinching her ass in a 2012 interview. Couric laughs about it with host Andy Cohen, who says he wouldn’t mind that, but Couric did call it Lauer’s “most annoying habit”.

Katie Couric In 2012: Matt Lauer ‘Pinches Me On The A** A Lot’ pic.twitter.com/qXMVx3UERY

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 29, 2017

I mean, that’s the sort of behavior that’s okay if you’re doing it with a friend and you both think it’s funny, but very not okay to do with someone who doesn’t want you to. Which is true of a lot of behavior, if you think about it. But the point is that even if Katie Couric didn’t actually mind Lauer pinching her ass, if he was walking around doing that to everyone and someone did mind, well, that’s bad.

So we don’t actually know what Lauer did, but it seems pretty likely that behavior Lauer considered playful or collegial was considered inappropriate by someone on the receiving end, which is ultimately on Lauer. Plenty of things that are okay to do with your friends aren’t okay to do to your subordinates.