New York Attorney General's 'Weinstein Unit' Reportedly Investigating Cover-Up at NBC
LatestJust one day after news broke that NBC News chairman Andrew Lack was being forced out at the network, the New York Post reports that NBC and Lack are being investigated by a department within New York Attorney General’s office nicknamed “The Weinstein Unit” for its role in gathering evidence against convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein.
Over a dozen women have reportedly been interviewed about years of sexual assault, harassment, and subsequent cover-ups at NBC. One of those women, according to the Daily Mail, is former NBC news anchor Linda Vester, who has previously accused former colleague Tom Brokaw of sexual harassment and said the sexual assault allegations against Matt Lauer were well known at the network for a decade before his firing.
On May 4, NPR reported that Andrew Lack would be replaced as chairman of NBC News after a disastrous tenure during which network earned headline after headline about its failure to properly address the sexual assault and harassment that had allegedly been rampant at NBC for decades. Lack was also responsible for killing the Ronan Farrow investigation into sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, which would later result in a Pulitizer for Farrow and a prison sentence for Weinstein, allegedly because Weinstein threatened to expose Lauer in retaliation, according to Farrow’s book Catch and Kill.
Vester told the Daily Mail that New York officials had questioned her about Lack’s possible involvement in other cover-ups of sexual harassment and assault at the network:
“They wanted to know as many details as I could offer about what Andy Lack’s involvement was in orchestrating a public response against me and a defense or cover-up. He was one of many,” Vester said.
Telemundo chief Cesar Conde will now oversee NBC News, CNBC, and MSNBC.