Willful Ignorance is a Helluva Drug
Willful ignorance is a helluva drug, and it seems NBC is high as a kite.
The network released a report today on its internal investigation surrounding Matt Lauer’s firing for sexual harassment in late 2017. NBC concluded that management had no idea the former Today host was channeling his inner-Dirk Diggler in the workplace.
This whole situation raises a litany of issues. For the sake of time and blood pressure, I’ll tackle just two.
The “We Had No Idea” Routine
NBC feigning knowledge is really special — particularly given that former Today host Ann Curry said she told management about Lauer’s misconduct in 2012. But the network’s response isn’t shocking. NBC joins NPR and WNYC in coming back with reports of no known systemic harassment after an “internal” investigation.
A lot of companies will pretend they didn’t know about sexual harassment in their workplace. They do that for two reasons: (1) in hopes of evading legal liability, and (2) so the public doesn’t find out that they’re devoid of character.
First, to the legal issue. If a company knowingly retained a notorious sexual harasser and did nothing to address his behavior, as Variety reported was the case with Lauer, the company could easily be on the hook for hostile work environment and other claims. It’s against the law for executives and supervisors to simply look away and ignore harassment.
Second, NBC also may be claiming ignorance, because to have known and done nothing would be indicative of poor character.
By and large, people want others to think of them as good people because with that comes praise and financial gain. It’s hard to be known as a good person if others know that you did nothing when you knew someone was being mistreated.
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Even so, people look away all the time — especially in the workplace. They then justify it to themselves by saying they can’t jeopardize their income. But it’s more difficult to justify it to others as third-parties are more likely to see that, in such situations, income is being elevated over human life and people who do that are not honorable, courageous or worthy of praise. They’re not good people. They’re just keeping up the charade of decency and concealing the cowardice all while cashing the checks.
If we want better workplaces, we need to encourage more accountability and reward those who speak up. Just as whistleblowers receive multimillion dollar rewards for reporting misconduct on Wall Street, those who speak up about sexual harassment too should be rewarded. But until our society values human life more than money, we’ll be stuck with a bunch of companies who pretend to have known nothing.
The “Internal Investigation” Shenanigans
NBC concluded that all is well after its legal department conducted an internal “investigation” of sexual harassment in the newsroom.
This is beyond problematic. That’s textbook conflict of interest.
For NBC to have its own powerful people inquiring into the misconduct of its own powerful people is like having President Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen oversee the Russia investigation. It’s nonsense, if not Grade-A shenanigans.
Also, the sexual harassment scandals rocking NBC are too disturbing to let inside people address the matter. The allegations involve decades of unabated, incessant and severe sexual harassment by Lauer and former anchor Tom Brokaw, and these are allegations of which the higher-ups now claim to be ignorant. Clearly, management isn’t top notch at managing and shouldn’t be investigating.
This is the kind of situation that called for an outside, independent law firm. Better yet, two law firms would have been best given the gravity and duration of the alleged misconduct.
The fact that NBC used its own people suggests that the network may have a severe sexual harassment culture that it doesn’t want the public to know about it and that it doesn’t want to end. (Of course, we should remember that NBC wouldn’t run journalist Ronan Farrow’s expose on Harvey Weinstein last year, and it signed Mike Tirico despite his well-documented history of alleged sexual harassment.)
The fact remains that companies won’t change on their own. The Department of Justice needs to police them and has the power to do so. Unfortunately, the sexual harassment provisions of the Civil Rights Act are the only sections of the Act the U.S. Attorney’s Office doesn’t actively push to enforce. That puts the onus on individual citizens — particularly women — to speak up and to pursue their rights through legal channels.
We’re all entitled to work in a safe and lawful workplace. May the day come when we all can do so and no one has to look away.
