What we don't know as we watch this is whether Lauer is aware of what was closing in on him. If he's grilling O'Reilly about six women talking to the New York Times about him while he's fully aware the Times is working on a similar story about him, dang. The guy would have a future as an actor if that profession wasn't also running as fast as it can from newly revealed pervs.
But even if Lauer doesn't know the ziggy is coming for him, he still knows about his own behavior. And yet he sits here and does this:
Since the Lauer story broke this morning, we've now had Garrison Keillor and Supergirl producer Andrew Kreisberg join the ranks of the damned. Seriously, where does this stop? Or does it ever?
It's almost to the point where you figure it's customary for every large scale media operation to have at least one superpowerful male personality who spent years pulling this stuff with perpetuity, only to finally have it come back to bite him with the breaking of this cultural dam. Let's see: O'Reilly, Halperin, Rose, Lauer. There's your big four as far as broadcast news is concerned.
Cripes, the only one not included thus far is CNN. But the day is young.
Legislatively, you've got the Senate (Franken) and the House (Conyers), and between Slick Willie and David Cop-A-Feel, even the presidency is well represented. We're running close to clean sweeps just about everywhere.
It's not like none of this ever happened before. Does anyone remember Bob Packwood, he of the roaming hands during rides in the Senate elevator? It's always been recognized as inappropriate for men in powerful positions to exploit their status to get all handsy with women. It's just that apparently most of the women it happened to didn't think they had any recourse. They sure know different now.
Difficult question: Do we reach the point where this goes too far, and we're bum-rushing men to the exits for relatively innocuous things just because the train has left the station and no one knows how to stop it? I don't see an example - yet - that I would say fits that description. But it seems like a real danger given the way these things take on lives of their own.
What we don't know as we watch this is whether Lauer is aware of what was closing in on him. If he's grilling O'Reilly about six women talking to the New York Times about him while he's fully aware the Times is working on a similar story about him, dang. The guy would have a future as an actor if that profession wasn't also running as fast as it can from newly revealed pervs.
But even if Lauer doesn't know the ziggy is coming for him, he still knows about his own behavior. And yet he sits here and does this:
