WASHINGTON - Oct. 26, 2019 -NBCUniversalhas freed the women from any confidentiality restrictions - a move suggested publicly by public interest law professor John Banzhaf

This followed a suggestion by Banzhaf that "instead of trying to simply deny them, NBC News president Noah Oppenheim could virtually destroy allegations of an extended coverup of sexual misconduct allegations long preceding Matt Lauer's firing, set forth in Roman Farrow's new book, by releasing the women from the confidentiality clauses he admits now legally bind them."

Oppenheim had termed Farrow's claims that NBC employees, who had reported Lauer's sexual misconduct to NBC long prior to his firing, were paid settlements to silence them "false," and a "lie."

More specifically he said that it's evident that "[Farrow's] smear rests on the allegation that NBC's management knew about and took steps to hide Matt Lauer's misconduct before his firing in November of 2017. Without that, he has no basis on which to rest his second conspiracy theory - that his Harvey Weinstein reporting was squashed to protect Lauer."

Reportedly, "the NBC News exec goes on to list three people - a woman who is named in the book, an 'on-air personality' who departed in 2012 and a 'senior member of the 'Today' show team' who departed in 2017' . . . who he said are 'the only three examples we can find that Farrow alleges are Lauer-related before 2017, with even minimal detail'."

He furthermore admits that all three signed a "completely standard separation agreement," which includes a "routine confidentiality clause that was designed to protect proprietary company information," but that was not used to "prevent an employee from reporting misconduct, nor has it ever been used that way."

Since Oppenheim then claimed that "we have no secrets and nothing to hide," Banzhaf noted that NBC could "regain the public's trust and confidence, and virtually destroy Farrow allegations in the process," simply by releasing the women from the agreements. More specifically he wrote:

"If, once legally free to speak out, the individuals don't contradict Oppenheim's claim that 'there is no evidence of any reports of Lauer's misconduct before his firing, no settlements, no 'hush money',' then the public will have every reason to believe NBC's denials, and to distrust claims in Farrow's book 'Catch and Kill.'"
http://banzhaf.net/ jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com @profbanzhaf

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