Jeff Zucker says “there was never a complaint” about Matt Lauer back when he executive-produced the “Today” show. Of course, the current CNN boss left the NBC News morning show 17 years ago.
Still, he and Lauer shared more than a cup of coffee in the late ’90s. And in their years together, there was “not even a whisper” of sexual misconduct by the anchor, per Zucker.
“It’s incredibly, incredibly disturbing what we’ve learned in the last 24 hours,” he said this morning at Business Insider’s Ignition conference. “And incredibly sad.”
“I’ve known Matt for 25 years and I didn’t know this Matt,” Zucker said, qualifying the accusations against Lauer as evidence of “deviant and predatory behavior.”
“That was not something that I was ever aware of, or had even heard of, or had ever been suggested or anything like that,” Mike Shields’ guest concluded his answer to the advertising editor’s requisite opening question. “There was never a complaint about Matt… not even a whisper of it.”
And then they talked about CNN for a while.