News anchors are great, in theory.
We rely on them to help us understand what's going on in the world.
We watch them head into hurricanes and war zones, do things we as viewers could never
do, all in the name of information.
But despite being champions of information, news anchors have secrets too, and some of
them have hid just how terrible they really are.
From accusations of inappropriate behavior to bullying guests and outright bigotry, here
are a few news anchors who are actually pretty terrible people.
For decades, Matt Lauer was the likable face
of the wildly popular Today show.
He was the guy who could keep you interested in the news, even when you hadn't had your
coffee yet.
But then the world learned about his off-the-air behavior.
According to Variety, many young staffers were called to his hotel room late at night
and propositioned.
He'd even do it at work.
His desk was one of several in the building that had a button that allowed you to lock
the door without getting up, and he would allegedly use it to trap women in his office.
Once the complaints became public, Lauer was fired.
The harassment accusations that tore through
newsrooms in 2017 and 2018 brought down seemingly untouchable men.
Charlie Rose had 45 years of journalistic experience, and roles on 60 Minutes, CBS This
Morning, and his own prestigious show.
But in 2017, eight women told the Washington Post that Rose crossed the line, with accusations
including groping, nudity, and lewd phone calls.
Then in 2018, 27 more women came forward for another Washington Post story.
"There is no excuse for this alleged behavior.
It is systematic, and pervasive."
How did Rose take it?
He now reportedly wants to have a TV show interviewing other men accused of similar
crimes.
Legendary anchor Tom Brokaw was the face of
NBC Nightly News for 22 years, until accusations against him dating back two decades surfaced
in 2018.
According to reports of an incident occurring during the 1990s, Brokaw reportedly asked
a correspondent to come to his hotel room in the middle of the night.
When she refused, he allegedly then went to her room and forcibly kissed her as she tried
to break free.
Another woman alleged that Brokaw offered her help with her job, but made clear there
would be physical favors involved.
Brokaw denied the allegations and a letter was published in April 2018, signed by over
115 female colleagues of his saying: "We know him to be a man of tremendous decency
and integrity."
The problem was some of women reportedly felt forced into signing.
One source told Page Six: "We had no choice, particularly the lower
level staffers.
The letter was being handed around the office and the unspoken threat was that if your name
was not on it, there would be some repercussion down the road."
Bill O'Reilly
"Hi I'm Bill O'Reilly reporting from Washington."
Regardless of whether you share political views with Bill O'Reilly, The O'Reilly Factor
was unbelievably popular.
But O'Reilly is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a big ball of anger.
This was his shtick when he was on Fox, but it wasn't just an act, as evidenced by his
Inside Edition meltdown years earlier.
"Do it live!
WE'LL DO IT LIVE, F---- IT!
DO IT LIVE!
I'll write it and we'll do it live!"
And like many other newsmen, O'Reilly is accused of being a serial harasser as well.
According to the New York Times, he would get close to women who worked with him or
came on his show, often offering to help them with their careers.
Then he crossed the line.
In the five lawsuits he settled for $13 million total, accusations included lewd comments,
unwanted flirtation and other advances, as well as verbal abuse.
He finally lost his Fox job after advertisers started fleeing.
It might be hard to imagine, but there was
a time when Geraldo Rivera was a respected newsman.
These days, that isn't what he's known for.
Rivera and one of his producers were accused in 1991 of assaulting Bette Midler before
an interview in the 1970s.
"They broke two poppers and pushed them under my nose, and proceeded to grope me."
As more and more harassment allegations came to light in 2017, Rivera tweeted out that
maybe the women involved were just confused.
After all, news is a "flirty" business and maybe they were "criminalizing courtship."
He later backpedalled, but come on Geraldo.
Seriously?.
Nancy Grace
It's not every news anchor who has a section on "controversies" that takes up half of their
Wikipedia page.
But Nancy Grace is not every news anchor.
She once reported on true crime and had a bit of a problem of assuming absolutely everyone
was guilty.
Rushing to judgment means she often gets things wrong.
She was humiliated when the Duke lacrosse team was acquitted of rape charges and was
wrong about who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart.
"You were afraid, I assume."
'Yeah"
But perhaps the biggest stain on her reputation her dealings with Melinda Duckett.
The 21-year-old mother came on Grace's show just two weeks after her 2-year-old son had
been kidnapped.
Grace automatically assumed she was guilty and berated her with aggressive questions
for 20 minutes.
The next day Duckett shot herself.
Grace did not feel the least bit bad about what she did.
"To suggest that a 15-20 minute interview caused someone to commit suicide I feel is
focusing on the wrong thing."
Grace even went so far as saying it was guilt, and not the interview, that drove Duckett
to take her own life.
After being with CNN for six years, Rick Sanchez
derailed his career when he made bigoted remarks on the radio while going after Jon Stewart,
after Stewart made fun of him on The Daily Show.
Sanchez said the comedian was just bigoted against "everybody else who isn't like him."
Then it got worse.
When the radio show host pointed out that Stewart was part of a minority group since
he is Jewish, Sanchez went all in, denying Jewish people are a minority group.
"A lot of People who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that
somehow they the people in this country that are Jewish are an oppressed minority?
...Yeah."
It unsurprisingly didn't go over well, and Sanchez was fired from his show.
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