Investigative reporter Rich McHugh said Wednesday that in the wake of NBC and MSNBC Chairman Andy Lack’s ouster and the outlet’s alleged mishandling of reporting the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the network should replace Lack with a woman.
McHugh worked with Ronan Farrow on investigating Weinstein’s sexual misconduct for NBC. In 2018, NBC allegedly directed McHugh and Farrow to kill the exposé on Weinstein, according to McHugh. Lack was recently ousted from NBC as part of what the network said was a restructuring effort.
McHugh noted frustration within the ranks at NBC that Lack had been allowed to leave the company on a high note.
“It’s interesting to note that given how they’ve done this and how they’ve reorganized everything that they couldn’t find one qualified female executive to join the ranks. It might be something they’d want to consider, especially given how sensitive these things are,” he said.
Asked by co-host Krystal Ball whether he believed allegations against figures within the company like Lack and former “Today” host Matt Lauer made the network reluctant to investigate similar claims, McHugh responded “No doubt about it.”
“We saw it firsthand with the reluctance to go after Harvey Weinstein … our reporting was robust and yet we still couldn’t go forward,” he said, adding that he now understood this was because “there were these conversations happening in the background about this very thing.”
Earlier this week, reports surfaced that the New York Attorney General was investigating NBC News over numerous claims of sexual assault including those brought against Lauer and an alleged cover-up of those accusations by Lack.
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