Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators

by Ronan Farrow

One on-air personality, who signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2012, said that NBC sought the deal after she showed colleagues messages that she took to be propositions, from both Lauer and one of the senior executives who later departed the company. Colleagues recalled both men making lewd remarks about the on-air personality over open mics during broadcasts. “I was like a hanging piece of meat,” she said. “I would walk into work with a knot in my stomach. I would come home and cry.” After she declined the advances, she felt she received fewer assignments. “I got punished,” she said. “My career took a sharp nosedive.” She decided not to make a formal report because she doubted the efficacy of the company’s HR department and feared further harm to her career. She did, however, begin to tell colleagues, and to plan her departure from the company. When NBC proposed the agreement as she departed, she recalled her agent saying, “I’ve never seen this before in my life. They want you to sign an NDA,” adding, “You must have something huge on them.” The agent told me that he recalled the exchange too. The contract, which I later reviewed, waived the on-air personality’s right to sue. It barred her from making negative statements about NBCUniversal, “except as may be required for bona fide news reporting.” It was on NBC News letterhead, signed by her and the executive she said harassed her.

Ann Curry left NBC in 2012.