Speaking on CBS This Morning for her first network television interview since leaving the Today show, Ann Curry told the show’s hosts on Wednesday that she had witnessed a climate of verbal and sexual harassment at NBC during her time there and that she was “not surprised” by the allegations of sexual misconduct by Matt Lauer.
Curry, who abruptly left her position as a Today anchor five years ago, resisted commenting on anything specific about Lauer’s behavior, saying she didn’t want to “hurt people.” At the time, many attributed Curry’s departure to Lauer. Media reporter Brian Stelter, in his book about morning television, wrote about Lauer’s efforts to push out Curry while negotiating a new contract. According to CNN Money, Today took years to recover from the hit it took from her ousting. Lauer was fired from the show in November after being accused of sexual misconduct. Other shocking allegations followed.
“I can tell you I’m not surprised by the allegations,” Curry said on Wednesday. “I would be surprised if many women did not understand there was a climate of verbal harassment that existed.”
When pressed to elaborate, Curry acknowledged she considered there to be a problem with verbal and sexual harassment at NBC, but she did not speak of any specific incidents with Lauer or anyone else.
She also said she did not know if Lauer was behind her ousting. “I know it hurt like hell,” she said. “I’ve learned a great deal about myself. I’ve let it go.”
She did speak to the general problem of sexual and workplace harassment and said she had experienced harassment at several of her jobs. “I think that the real question in my view is what are we going to do with all this anger,” she said. “We clearly are waking up to a reality of injustice that has been occurring for some time.”
CBS This Morning fired Charlie Rose, one of its co-hosts, in November after the Washington Post reported on allegations of sexual misconduct in connection to his PBS show.
