Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Bark louder, little dog.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

We still have time to mess this up!

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

The willow is too close to the house.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

You are here: Home / I changed the lock

I changed the lock

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This post is in: 

Ok, I’ll admit that some of these things do surprise me a bit:

Lauer, who was paranoid about being followed by tabloid reporters, grew more emboldened at 30 Rockefeller Center as his profile rose following Katie Couric’s departure from “Today” in 2006. His office was in a secluded space, and he had a button under his desk that allowed him to lock his door from the inside without getting up. This afforded him the assurance of privacy. It allowed him to welcome female employees and initiate inappropriate contact while knowing nobody could walk in on him, according to two women who were sexually harassed by Lauer.

According to sources, the sexual harassment extended to when Lauer traveled on assignment for NBC. Several employees recall how he paid intense attention to a young woman on his staff that he found attractive, focusing intently on her career ambitions. And he asked the same producer to his hotel room to deliver him a pillow, according to sources with knowledge of the interaction.

If this keeps up, pretty soon you won’t be able to lock your co-workers in your office without their consent.

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  3. 3.

    Nashville_fan

    If this keeps up, pretty soon you won’t be able to lock your co-workers in your office without their consent.

    Best line I have read in this whole sordid mess . . .

  4. 4.

    TenguPhule

    @Mike J:

    A button under your desk to lock the door is a tip off. If any of your employees asks for one, just fire him right then.

    The problem is that it was the bosses getting it installed for themselves.

  5. 5.

    Schlemazel

    These fuckers are going to make it so no man can offer support to a woman’s career because the man could be a shitheel. Nice work you scum sucking piles of shit. As if the harassment & assault were not enough you managed to cut off mentoring that would help level the playing field.

    I want the goddammed meteor NOW!

  8. 8.

    Doug!

    @Schlemazel:

    These fuckers are going to make it so no man can offer support to a woman’s career because the man could be a shitheel.

    I don’t think that’s true.

  9. 9.

    Kay

    More
    The Senate tax bill:
    —Cuts $25B annually from Medicare
    —Cuts Medicaid enrollment by 5 million
    —Raises ACA premiums

    25 BILLION annually. Those Trump voters better start tightening their health care belts. No chemotherapy for you!

  11. 11.

    Droppy

    No fair – you lure several attractive young women into your office and use your secret automatic door locking button so they can’t leave, and your labeled for life.

  17. 17.

    jl

    @Mike J: Sure is. Clearly there were many warning signs from this guy.

    Matt Lauer always struck me as an angry passive-aggressive control freak who could barely maintain. His charms completely eluded me. The attempt to pass of a person who was really never anything but a talk show host as a journalist was an example of the fraud that much of US corporate dominated has become. And his attempts to actual journalism of any kind always tuned into messes.

    So, sad end to an unfortunate career.

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    @germy: I thought Jerry Rivers had an accusation a long time ago. You’re not wrong (and I didn’t think he was in the NBC hive either) but his would be the least surprising.

    @jl: He did a cooking segment with Nigella Lawson and him alone once and it’s so creepy. She tries to handle it with grace but it’s clear on her face she doesn’t relax until the co-hosts come in.

    EDIT: It’s on YouTube. If I remember when I get home tonight I’ll try to find it.

  19. 19.

    germy

    I remember Geraldo back from the 1970s when I was watching NYC tv news.
    Ron Burgundy was a documentary.

  20. 20.

    Felonius Monk

    @Schlemazel:

    Apparently many execs at NBC have one

    This is probably going to make it very difficult for NBC to defend itself in what will soon be a tsunami of sexual harassment lawsuits. It smacks of institutionalized sexual harassment.

  23. 23.

    Kay

    @TenguPhule:

    Trump has been telling unrebutted lies all day on the tax bill. I heard a clip on local radio where they treated his lies as fact.

    This is why it matters that the President lies constantly. It’s not adorable maverick behavior. He’s a liar and his speeches are intended to deceive vulnerable people. They’ll die without health care. This is not a game. There will be a body count.

  24. 24.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Kay: This bill is a gift. It heightens the contradictions and lays the foundation for a glorious revolution.

  27. 27.

    lamh36

    @Yutsano: apparently Chump did…he mentioned Lack in a tweet.

    Oh and in a deleted tweet, he also mentioned Joey Scar and the dead intern.

    Scarborough’s brother: I supported Trump all along but he just crossed the line

    …Trump on Wednesday mentioned an “unsolved mystery” that took place in Florida years ago in a tweet questioning when Joe Scarborough and MSNBC president Phil Griffin will be fired.

    “So now that Matt Lauer is gone when will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of Phil Griffin?” Trump tweeted.

    “And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the ‘unsolved mystery’ that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!”…

    the tweet was have since been deleted

  28. 28.

    Mike in NC

    When I worked at places where people had offices — as opposed to cubicles — it was generally understood that your door was to be kept open pretty much all the time, unless for example you left the building to go to lunch or a meeting with a customer.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    I loathe Matt Lauer because he sucks at his job. The fact that this clown made hundreds of millions of dollars should make people question the whole basis of “merit” in media.

    Good fucking riddance. I hope they fire all of them.

  31. 31.

    germy

    @jl:

    His charms completely eluded me.

    Yeah, that’s one thing I didn’t understand this morning when I read various news reports that described him as the “beloved” or “popular” morning show host. I mean, who the fuck loved Matt Lauer? I don’t know anyone who liked him or found him charming. He’s just someone the network executives promoted.

  32. 32.

    Trentrunner II - Pie Is Squared

    This is fine. This is all fine:

    Also at this morning’s House Democratic caucus: James Clyburn compared Conyers’ accusers to the child murderer Susan Smith, who initially claimed a black man had abducted her kids. Clyburn said, these are all white women who’ve made these charges against Conyers.

    – NYTimes Magazine

  35. 35.

    Felonius Monk

    @Corner Stone:

    As long as they get Chuck Todd

    Difficult to imagine that any attempt by the Toad to sexually harass anyone would not have resulted in a swift kick in the nuts. He sort of zeroes out on the suave meter.

  36. 36.

    Corner Stone

    The self-righteousness of Chuck Todd confirms for me he is guilty AF of something wrong with women/boys.

  37. 37.

    germy

    @Corner Stone:

    As long as they get Chuck Todd, also too.

    There’s got to be something going on with Chuck. That goatee and the hair remind me of bad Spock. We’ll have to leave it there.

  39. 39.

    TenguPhule

    @Kay:

    This is not a game. There will be a body count.

    Sadly it is a game to them. The body count is how they keep score.

  40. 40.

    jl

    @Droppy: This is one guy who should NOT be allowed a comeback after a hiatus or some BS country club ‘program’. From what I have heard so far, just to damn stone cold and pathologically abusive and manipulative.

    I have trouble seeing the supposedly rehabilitated Mel Gibson. And even Alec Baldwin, though what he was doing was not sexual, but still emotional abusive to his kid. But they were more rage freaks, and Gibson was trained from an early age to be a horrid bigot. But Lauer is worse than those guys. Maybe Gibson and Baldwin saw the error of their ways and reformed? Maybe? But Lauer? He seems like the kind of person Dr. Phil talks about who goes to therapy to learn how to get better at his racket. I’m no fan of Dr. Phil, but sometimes he drops the reality show schtick and sounds like a professional. Maybe he is right about that.

  41. 41.

    Trentrunner II - Pie Is Squared

    Congresswoman Kathleen Rice:

    Speaking to reporters at the Capitol, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) said Pelosi’s Sunday appearance on “Meet the Press” — when she raised questions about the accounts of Conyers’ accusers and described him as an “icon” — ceded the party’s moral high ground on sexual harassment issues, especially because one of Conyers’ accusers is bound by a nondisclosure agreement.

    “I think that her comments on Sunday set women back and – quite frankly, our party back – decades,” said Rice, who is advocating for legislation that would expose a slew of hidden, taxpayer-funded settlements for sexual harassment by lawmakers and aides.

    Rice said Pelosi’s comments were particularly egregious in light of President Donald Trump’s tacit embrace of Roy Moore, the Alabama GOP Senate candidate accused of molesting a minor.

    “I think that we ceded the moral high ground on Sunday when our leader said on ‘Meet the Press’ that John Conyers was an icon and we don’t even know who these women are, when she was fully aware that the woman in question was bound by a nondisclosure agreement,” Rice said. “I think we had an opportunity to stake that moral high ground when you have a president who is supporting a man for Senate who — all credible allegations that have not been refuted — showed him to be a predator of teenage girls.”

    Conyers must resign. Franken must resign.

  45. 45.

    ruemara

    @germy: He seemed weaselly.

    It’s amazing how often I get to talk to interns, deal with students, man-handle weightlifting guys into good pose positions for the pose down, yet never needed to lock them into rooms or done anything worse than maybe hug them to say goodbye when they left. I like being in a position of power to help folks and get mail from them years later saying thank you. Not stories of me molesting them. It’s really easy to not harass folks, even gorgeous ones!

  46. 46.

    different-church-lady

    …to deliver him a pillow…

    Pil.. what… in god’s name everlovin fuck?

    A PILLOW?!?

  47. 47.

    jl

    @Kay: Did you document the lies and contact the local station? I think that is one area where just a few high quality, polite but firm and complaints, with evidence can make a difference.

  49. 49.

    germy

    @lamh36:

    April Ryan, the black woman the White House loves to hate on, will not be going to the scary White House white-walking winter wonder-klan for its annual Christmas party—for the first time in 20 years.

    The NAACP tweeted the news Wednesday morning, saying that Ryan was not invited.

    who’s surprised?

  50. 50.

    lamh36

    @germy: I see Chuck on MTP now..trying to make NBC sound so noble…”we hold our people more accountable than the party leadership”…

    Bish…bullshit…how long has it been known that Lauer was scum…at CBS…that Rose was scum…at Fox News…oh O’Reilly/Ales were scum…

    Give me a break Chuckles…Vanity Fair was ready to BLOW UP with this story…that is when NBC, or CBS, or Fox news acted…profiles in courage my azz

  53. 53.

    Yutsano

    @lamh36: Heh. I wonder if Twitler knows where just enough bodies are buried at NBC to throw the channel into complete chaos. Granted it won’t be enough to actually break the channel. There are enough underlings who know how to handle operations that it can run until replacements are found. But if some of the institutional rot comes out from NBC, so be it. Maybe then MSNBC can get back to some quality and Joy can finally get her daily show.

  55. 55.

    germy

    @Yutsano:

    I wonder if Twitler knows where just enough bodies are buried at NBC to throw the channel into complete chaos.

    But they’re sitting on a vault full of “Apprentice” out-takes. Surely dolt45 knows not to pull the lion’s tail?

  56. 56.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    Trump has been telling unrebutted lies all day on the tax bill. I heard a clip on local radio where they treated his lies as fact.

    *Sigh* I wonder what company owns that radio station.

    People rightly complain about Fox News. But there are some conservative owned radio and tv stations that also deliberately distort the news. And as always, when Trump decries “fake news,” what he is really saying is that he benefits from deliberately faked news.

  58. 58.

    Matt

    @Kay:

    He’s a liar and his speeches are intended to deceive vulnerable people. They’ll die without health care. This is not a game. There will be a body count.

    Oh, absolutely. But at this point, I’m not going to shed a tear about anybody who still believes the guy – they’ve decided they WANT to be lied to, and WANT to believe the lies. They deserve every ounce of suffering they’re going to get.

    I’m much more concerned about the people who he’s going to hurt who aren’t collaborators.

  60. 60.

    jl

    @TenguPhule: What Rice said was not good. The Democrats are not ceding some ambiguous undefined moral high ground on what exactly? Everything? Talking like that and making it some kind policy to force everyone accused out of office based on accusations, or some leaked history of apparently resolved cases will just make the Dems a target of dirty tricks.

    Remember there is evidence that alt-right operators selectively leaked the Conyors info. That doesn’t change what Conyors did, and he deserves censure and sanction. But I am not going to be a sap and sit by and say nothing when there is evidence of corrupt and very partisan selective leaking of Congressional Democrats while GOPers are protected.

    Society has to learn how to handle these cases, for elected officials, in a way that every offense does not deserve a death sentence, and the punishment fits the crime.

    Rice is wrong and what she said is foolish.

    Also remember that journalists were trying to use Frankens sexual harassment problem as an excuse to discredit his work on the Trump/Russia scandal and Sessions’ lying.

    Kay may disagree with me on this, but I think her comment that this is not a game and there will be body count needs to be remembered.

    Edit: and also remember O’Keefe’s latest stunt. We always know about his stunts because he stinks at them, but others do the same thing and are much more skilled.

  62. 62.

    Emma

    @Trentrunner II – Pie Is Squared: I have never, ever felt tempted to curse someone until you came along. True curse, not a feeble “damn you.” Our country is toppling over a cliff, and more personally, my two best friends, one of whom is disabled, may lose what little medical coverage they have — not to mention my 84 year old father losing medicaid — and all you want to do in every bloody thread is to push your imbecile moral sense of superiority. I hope someone is paying you because trying to cause so much destruction for free is the clearest representation of degradation I’ve ever seen.

  63. 63.

    Gelfling 545

    @Mike J: I once worked in a place where I could lock the door from my desk. I was supposed to lock it with my dying breath to protect the rest of the office from whatever horrible fate I was suffering. It was meant to kerp people out, not in.

  64. 64.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Yeah, that’s one thing I didn’t understand this morning when I read various news reports that described him as the “beloved” or “popular” morning show host. I mean, who the fuck loved Matt Lauer? I don’t know anyone who liked him or found him charming. He’s just someone the network executives promoted.

    Nope. TV don’t work like that. TV is built on a “Q” factor that leads people to come back and watch you every day, even if they just love to hate you, like a Jerry Springer. But Lauer was popular. From a 2015 Variety story:

    Matt Lauer’s relationship with TV audiences in the morning has taken a turn for the better.

    The “Today” anchor caught some flak in 2012 when NBC ousted his co-host, Ann Curry, from the popular morning show. As viewers fumed, Lauer’s Q Score, a measure of likeability that is used by advertisers and media companies to vet celebrities for commercial and programming opportunities, fell. In 2015, however, ratings for “Today” are growing, and so too are Lauer’s numbers, particularly among women.

    Among women 18 or older, Lauer’s Q Score has moved from an 8 to a 12 over the past year…. The score is on par with that of George Stephanopoulos, the co-host of rival “Good Morning America.” The ABC program swiped the title of the most-watched morning show in the U.S. from “Today” in April of 2012, a few months before Curry left the program in June of that year.

    It’s all about the numbers.

  65. 65.

    TenguPhule

    @jl:

    What Rice said was not good.

    And I agree. Its long past time our purity ponies get with the program and either pitch in or get the hell out.

  68. 68.

    Schlemazel

    @Doug!:
    If you were a woman and some guy was interested in “helping your career” would you believe him? I wouldn’t

    This is an extra whammy they have to deal with

  70. 70.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @lamh36:

    Scarborough’s brother: I supported Trump all along but he just crossed the line

    Oh, nooooooooow he goes too far. the birtherism, the sexual assault, the racist crap about mexicans, blacks, and mooslims was okay, but attacking his brother was over the line.

    what entitlement.

  71. 71.

    different-church-lady

    OK, let me get this straight: Lauer wanted a pillow. He decided the best way to get this pillow was not from housekeeping, but from a female coworker. Because… NBC has pillow interns?

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    Wow. What a crazy day. Firings over sexual harassment. Congress trying hard to push a terrible tax bill. War criminals committing suicide by taking poison. The North Koreans acting up.

    And the Supreme Court hearing a major privacy case:

    A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court justices seemed prepared Wednesday to impose new limits on the government’s ability to track cellphone users through records kept by their wireless providers.

    “Most Americans, I still think, want to avoid Big Brother,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the most outspoken in expressing concern about an invasion of privacy.

    “A cellphone can be pinged in your bedroom. It can be pinged at your doctor’s office. It can ping you in the most intimate details of your life,” she said.

    Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

  73. 73.

    Schlemazel

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    OK, I didn’t know that & admit my creeper radar is broken. There is a guy in a social group we hang out with that I always thought of as an OK guy. When my wife said he was a creep I was a bit surprised. I checked with some other women & they all said he was a creep. I guess when you don’t have to deal with that shot you don’t develop the antenna for it.

    But are you really sure you can be 100% accurate?

  74. 74.

    Patricia Kayden

    @lamh36: Someone should ask Todd why NBC is protecting Trump by refusing to release the Apprentice tapes which we know exist (showing him engaging in sexual harassment and racism). For some strange reason, NBC is protecting the Orange Bigot and they need to be challenged.

  77. 77.

    germy

    @different-church-lady: This is a man whose contract clearly stated a private helicopter would pick up him from his estate and bring him to work so he could enjoy more “family time.” Of course he wanted co-worker to bring him a pillow. And he wanted her to fluff it up for him.

  81. 81.

    different-church-lady

    @germy: It’s not just ego at play — at a certain point it crosses the line from harassment to just deliberate and outright humiliation.

  82. 82.

    debbie

    Does anyone know why Trump referred to Lack’s “past” this morning? I can’t find anything on Google. I wonder if he threatened to cancel The Apprentice or something similar.

  83. 83.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Patricia Kayden:

    “If you think it is pragmatic to shore up the status quo right now, then you are not in touch with the status quo. The status quo is not working.”

    ~ Susan Sarandon Axis Sally

  84. 84.

    germy

    @Shana: I thought NBC had legal ownership of the outtakes and hot mics. I don’t know what arrangement the producer and network have.

  85. 85.

    Felonius Monk

    @Shana:

    I don’t think “suave” has anything to do with harassment.

    I didn’t mean to imply that it was. Only making an observation.

  86. 86.

    Schlemazel

    @Shana:
    No, you are right. It is not NBC but Mark Burnet, that would be the guy who with his wife, Romey Downey, produces the Bible for TV – you remember that, they searched for an actor that looked like Obama to play Satan . . .

  87. 87.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Trentrunner II – Pie Is Squared: Conyers should resign but I’m not sure about Franken. The accusations against him aren’t as egregious as those against Conyers (which include pressuring women to have sex with him and threats to job security). Franken has admitted wrongdoing and has apologized for his behavior. As far as I’m concerned, that should be enough. Let his voters vote him out if they’re unhappy with him.

  88. 88.

    Brachiator

    @Schlemazel:

    OK, I didn’t know that & admit my creeper radar is broken. There is a guy in a social group we hang out with that I always thought of as an OK guy. When my wife said he was a creep I was a bit surprised. I checked with some other women & they all said he was a creep. I guess when you don’t have to deal with that shot you don’t develop the antenna for it.

    But are you really sure you can be 100% accurate?

    Some people can hide it well, and I guess sometimes people can be wrong, but when you have so many women coming to the same conclusion, you got to treat it seriously.

  90. 90.

    debbie

    @Yutsano:

    It’s time for an NBC special where they interview every single woman who came forward about Trump’s harassing behavior.

  92. 92.

    Yutsano

    @Patricia Kayden: I mostly want Conyers to resign for two reasons.
    A) He’s old, like in his 80s.
    B) He’s in a safe Dem seat. It’s time to get a new Representative in there.

  93. 93.

    Schlemazel

    @Brachiator:
    Oh, I don’t doubt it I am just amazed I don’t see it. I pride myself on reading people very well & figuring out what their motivation and style are. I do know some guys that are creepers but this is the first time I actually knew someone well enough to make a guess about them & not pick that up at all.

  94. 94.

    debbie

    @Schlemazel:

    Yes, you can always tell.

    ETA: Once you’ve learned or experienced this, you can always tell. And it’s pretty much a given that you will experience this.

    You of course being a woman.

  95. 95.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Yutsano: True. And his behavior has been outrageous when it comes to sexual harassment. He needs to go. He’s been a politician since the 1960s so it’s time for him to retire. I’m more ambivalent about Franken. I don’t see why he should go unless there are more serious charges out there. He’s submitting to an investigation so we shall see.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    @lamh36:

    …current NBC News management was never made aware of any complaints about Matt Lauer’s conduct,

    bolding is mine.

    Look at the wording. Someone apparently thought they could “tell the truth” if they worded their statement very carefully.

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    @Schlemazel:

    Oh, I don’t doubt it I am just amazed I don’t see it. I pride myself on reading people very well & figuring out what their motivation and style are. I do know some guys that are creepers but this is the first time I actually knew someone well enough to make a guess about them & not pick that up at all.

    I’m in a similar boat. I’ve recognized some creeps. Others totally escaped my notice.

  98. 98.

    J R in WV

    @Mike in NC:

    I had a private office with a door and a nice view in my last position. I closed the door when I was alone working on a sharp deadline. I pushed it partly closed when doing employee evaluations, but those were mostly “Keep up the good work!” so not super secret confidential. Or for hiring interviews, with a committee of 3 and the potential new hire.

    But when working on a grant application with a hard deadline, I didn’t need distractions while trying to keep the numbers all in my head. Or when I was working on something for the boss and he came in to help me with input from his level. Or a phone conference with people from all over the country listening and speaking. Now I’m thinking of the reasons to have your door mostly closed.

    But a button to lock your door? My door wouldn’t lock from the inside, that’s a fire trap safety hazard waiting to kill someone. When locked, it would open from the inside, and opening it would unlock it. I never had a key! It was supposed to be open when I left. I could have locked file cabinets, but I didn’t. Mostly shit was piled in stacks on my credenza.

  99. 99.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    As the co-host of NBC’s “Today,” Matt Lauer once gave a colleague a sex toy as a present. It included an explicit note about how he wanted to use it on her, which left her mortified.

    On another day, he summoned a different female employee to his office, and then dropped his pants, showing her his p3nis. After the employee declined to do anything, visibly shaken, he reprimanded her for not engaging in a sexual act. (link)

    Hoooooooooconode!

  100. 100.

    B.B.A.

    @Yutsano: as I understand it, Conyers has Alzheimer’s and is barely functional. Sure, he’s Dean of the House, founder of the CBC, etc., but he hasn’t been an effective representative for a very long time. Even setting aside the allegations, he should go.

  107. 107.

    geg6

    @Brachiator:

    We women who have been in the workforce or are not agoraphobic for any period of time have well developed creep radar sheerly out of self preservation. Men have no idea. Even at my age (59), it still happens. It is part of life for us. Maybe good men will start developing better radar because of all of this. It’s not that hard if you pay close attention. The signs are glaring once you know what to look for.

  108. 108.

    different-church-lady

    @Barbara:

    “We can say unequivocally, that, prior to Monday night, current soon-to-be-former NBC News management was never made aware of any complaints about Matt Lauer’s conduct”

  109. 109.

    WaterGirl

    @Barbara: Yeah, I made that point, too. I think “was never made aware of any complaints” is also doing a lot of work. Doesn’t say they didn’t know, just that there’s no proof that anyone formally made them aware of any formal complaints.

    Do they think we’re stupid?:

  110. 110.

    WaterGirl

    @geg6: Oh, yeah. Not one woman would be alone in a room with one male who worked in our unit, and we would not allow ourselves to be in a closed stairway with him, either. We all knew instinctively.

  111. 111.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I wonder how this starts

    Two possiblities;

    Guys like Lauer were otherwise decent guys who got carried away with the groupies and those women seeking career advancement threw a bed room to assume everyone woman is one. Sooner or later Lauer forgot no means no.

    or

    The Lauer is a stone cold creep from the get go and mind games was how he got his gig at the Today Show. He does sound like an odd choice since my understanding of a talk show host the guy is supposed to be the father figure for the female host who is the audience surrogate. That don’t sound like Lauer. NBC dropped him really quickly, so that sounds like management didn’t consider Lauer one of their bros and the people Lauer crossed saw their chance and took it.

  112. 112.

    Mnemosyne

    @jl:

    Maybe Gibson and Baldwin saw the error of their ways and reformed?

    FWIW, everything I’ve seen says that the Baldwin call happened during a low point in the relationship with his daughter when she was a teenager, and they have since worked it out and are back in contact.

    Gibson is another matter because he was physically abusing his girlfriend. To me, that’s totally different from yelling at your teenager on the phone.

  114. 114.

    J R in WV

    @WaterGirl:

    Do they think we’re stupid?

    Actually, they are counting on stupidity to carry them through to the touchdown. So, YES, they DO think we’re stupid. We should plan on making them pay for that misconception!

  115. 115.

    ribber

    Not that I want to provide exculpatory facts, but the door lock thing doesn’t lock them in, it only locks others out. Office doors would always allow free exit unless someone installed the lock backwards, and then he’d never be able to lock it from the outside. A door hardware set that locks both sides is an anomaly against code in such a manner that locksmiths would not install them in a corporate environment.

  116. 116.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Schlemazel

    @But are you really sure you can be 100% accurate?

    What? Have people make potentially unwarranted assumptions about you, and not believe what you say… welcome to what women have experienced forever.

    I’m not trying to be snarky, because I know you’re genuinely interested in learning, but yeah.

  117. 117.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @geg6:

    We women who have been in the workforce or are not agoraphobic for any period of time have well developed creep radar sheerly out of self preservation. Men have no idea. Even at my age (59), it still happens. It is part of life for us. Maybe good men will start developing better radar because of all of this. It’s not that hard if you pay close attention. The signs are glaring once you know what to look for.

    As someone who crossed the gender divide, one of the first things I learned is to be hyper aware of
    Schrödinger’s rapist.     Because yes, there are so, so many of them.

  121. 121.

    Bruce K

    I ran across a comment elsewhere that justifies the existence of those remote-locking buttons in certain circumstances. Specifically, the commenter stated they worked in a substance abuse treatment unit, and the remote-lock button was right next to the panic button that called the cops.

    So, yeah, there’s a reason for such things to exist … but what the hell is the justification for a television news presenter to have such a mechanism in his office in a presumably reasonably secure network headquarters building?

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