The former NBC reporter who claims Tom Brokaw sexually harassed her on two occasions during her time at the network sat down for her first television interview since going public with her accusations last month.
Linda Vester appeared on Good Morning America to discuss her allegations on Thursday, and immediately fought back when asked by George Stephanopoulos if she was certain that she accurately remembered both incidents.
‘George, my memory of those incidents is crystal clear. The notes that I took immediately afterward are crystal clear,’ stated Vester.
Right before that she had been asked what it felt like to hear Brokaw accuse her of lying and ambushing him, to which she replied: ‘Well, I expected a denial. That is what harassers generally do.’
She then added: ‘What I didn’t expect was such a personal attack and what I’m concerned about is the message that that sends to women inside NBC News about whether or not they are safe to report somebody who is powerful .’
Speaking out: Linda Vester (above on Thursday) gave her first TV interview since coming forward with allegations that Tom Brokaw had sexually harassed her while working at NBC in the 1990s
On the attack: Brokaw (above in 2017) denounced Vester in an email to friends and colleagues, and soon after close to 75 high-ranking women at NBC signed a letter of support for Brokaw
Vester was a war correspondent for NBC in the 1990s who went on to host Weekend Today before leaving for Fox News.
She told The Washington Post and Variety magazine that Brokaw forcibly tried to kiss her on two occassions, first in 1994 and then again in 1995.
That timeline means that both of those alleged incidents occurred while Brokaw was the network’s star anchor.
Brokaw initially said that he met Vester twice, ‘both at her request’ because she wanted career advice.
‘The meetings were brief, cordial and appropriate, and despite Linda’s allegations, I made no romantic overtures towards her at that time or any other,’ he said in a statement.
Then came the letter, in which Brokaw declared: ‘My family and friends are stunned and supportive. My NBC colleagues are bewildered that Vester, who had limited success at NBC News, a modest career at Fox and a reputation as a colleague who had trouble with the truth was suddenly the keeper of the flame of journalistic integrity.’
In addition to vester, a 24-year-old production assistant who also worked at NBC around the same time as Vester accused Brokaw of sexual harassment.
One day later, a third woman, Mary Reinholz, said Brokaw forcibly tried to kiss her in 1968 when they both worked in California.
That incident happened at her home and two were no co-workers.
As is often the case in many of these incidents, Vester did not report Brokaw’s harassment to management or executives at the network, and during the interview she explained the reason for her silence.
‘Let me paint a picture of what it was like inside NBC News when this happened. I was a young reporter, just getting started,’ said Vester.
‘Tom Brokaw was the most powerful man at the network, so the idea that I could go forward to management and say that I had been assaulted by the most powerful man at the network and a major moneymaker, well, that just wasn’t going to get heard.’
Backing it up: Vester (above in 2006) responded to Brokaw’s denial by stating: ‘My memory of those incidents is crystal clear’
Vester went on to tell Stephanopoulos that she did not feel HR at the network was equipped to hand that sort of situation either, and so she chose to stay quiet.
‘I felt it was unsafe to go to NBC, and I never felt safe at NBC News again,’ said Vester.
NBC is now interested in talking to Vester in the wake of her claims, but she said that she is reluctant to speak with a team of lawyers and executives from her former place of employment.
‘They called my attorney and said they would like to talk to me and our answer is, as soon as NBC news or NBC Universal hires outside counsel to do a proper, thorough investigation, I will be glad to sit down,’ explained Vester.
That statement came one day after NBC revealed that the six-month internal investigation into Matt Lauer’s sexual misconduct had determined that no executives or upper-management at Today or NBC News knew about the host’s predatory behavior.
Vetser thinks that investigation, and others like it, are a waste of time.
‘Well, I mean I think it’s common sense. You can’t investigate yourself. You just can’t,’ stated Vester.,
‘There’s an internal bias. That’s how it works, so you have to have outside counsel.’
Vetser was then asked about the letter supporting Brokaw that was signed by a number of high-profile female staffers at NBC in the wake of her allegations.
She acknowledged that it is ‘everyone’s right to defend a friend,’ but noted: ‘What concerns me is the message that that petition may have actually sent, the fact that that petition was sent around internally to employees could be viewed by many as intimidation, as pressure, not to report any misconduct.’
Vetser then suggested that those women take a different approach and use their voices ‘to call on NBC Universal to hire outside counsel to really get to the bottom of this long-standing widespread problem of sexual misconduct by multiple men at the top of the power structure of NBC News.’
Victimized: ‘I am facing a long list of grievances from a former colleague who left NBC News angry that she had failed in her pursuit of stardom,’Brokaw said of Vester (Brokaw and his wife Marilyn above in 2016)
Recommendation: Vester (above with George Stephanopoulos on Thursday) also said that NBC should hire outside counsel to investigate the claims and make women feel safer about coming forward with allegations
Brokaw meanwhile has not been in touch with Vester she revealed, and when asked what she wanted from the anchor she had just one request.
‘An apology would be nice, but I think he set the tone for the conversation that’s not really helpful,’ said Vester.
‘What’s so much more important is that NBC news not only investigate the culture broadly but now there are three women, I’m not the only one who has accused Tom Brokaw of misconduct. And NBC News has yet in over a week to say that it will conduct an investigation into Tom Brokaw.’
Vetser went on to say that she views Brokaw as a wolf in sheep’s clothing when compared to other offenders.
‘Some people might be tempted to believe that all harassers look and act like Harvey Weinstein. It’s not true,’ said Vester.
‘Some of them can look like cultural icons like Tom Brokaw and they can be decent during the day to a lot of people and actually be really kind a lot of the time. And yet still have hidden behavior.’
Vetser also said that she has no interest in a lawsuit, but at the same time was not going to stay quiet.
‘A lot of brave people, brave people started this movement, the me too movement and broke the dam and I am kind of standing on their shoulders, or really following in their footsteps and just trying to help continue this movement and move the discussion along so that we can make it better for everyone in the workplace,’ she said.
TOM BROKAW DENIES SEX ASSAULT CLAIM IN EMAIL
It is 4:00 am on the first day of my new life as an accused predator in the universe of American journalism. I was ambushed and then perp walked across the pages of The Washington Post and Variety as an avatar of male misogyny, taken to the guillotine and stripped of any honor and achievement I had earned in more than a half century of journalism and citizenship.
I am angry, hurt and unmoored from what I thought would be the final passage of my life and career, a mix of written and broadcast journalism, philanthropy and participation in environmental and social causes that have always given extra meaning to my life.
Tom Brokaw and wife Meredith in 2016
Instead I am facing a long list of grievances from a former colleague who left NBC News angry that she had failed in her pursuit of stardom. She has unleashed a torrent of unsubstantiated criticism and attacks on me more than twenty years after I opened the door for her and a new job at Fox News.
Linda Vester was given the run of the Washington Post and Variety to vent her grievances, to complain that I tickled her without permission (you read that right), that I invaded her hotel room, accepted an invitation to her apartment under false pretenses and in general was given a free hand to try to destroy all that I have achieved with my family, my NBC career, my writing and my citizenship.
My family and friends are stunned and supportive. My NBC colleagues are bewildered that Vester, who had limited success at NBC News, a modest career at Fox and a reputation as a colleague who had trouble with the truth was suddenly the keeper of the flame of journalistic integrity.
Her big charge: that on two occasions more than 20 years ago I made inappropriate and uninvited appearances in her apartment and in a hotel room. As an eager beginner, Vester, like others in that category, was eager for advice and camaraderie with senior colleagues. She often sought me out for informal meetings, including the one she describes in her New York hotel room. I should not have gone but I emphatically did not verbally and physically attack her and suggest an affair in language right out of pulp fiction.
She was coy, not frightened, filled with office gossip including a recent rumor of an affair. As that discussion advanced she often reminded me she was a Catholic and that she was uncomfortable with my presence. So I left, 23 years later to be stunned by her melodramatic description of the meeting. A year or so later, as I passed through London after covering end of WWII ceremonies in Moscow, I saw her in the office. chatted and agreed to a drink later. (If NY was so traumatic, why a reunion?) She knew a bar but by that late hour it was closed so she suggested her nearby apartment (not, “Well, no where to go. See you tomorrow).
Again, her hospitality was straight forward with lots of pride in her reporting in the Congo and more questions about NY opportunities.
As I remember, she was at one end of a sofa, I was at the other. It was late and I had been up for 24 hours. As I got up to leave I may have leaned over for a perfunctory goodnight kiss but my memory is that it happened at the door – on the cheek. No clenching her neck. That move she so vividly describes is NOT WHO I AM. Not in high school, college or thereafter.
She came to NY and had mixed success on the overnight news. As I remember her try out on TODAY did not go well. Her contract was not renewed.
Here is a part of her story she somehow left out. I think I saw her in the hallways and asked how it was going. She was interested in cable start up and I said I didn’t think that was going anywhere. What about Fox, which was just building up? She was interested and followed me to my office where, while she listened in, I called Roger Ailes. He said, “send her over.”
She got the job. I never heard from her or saw her again. I was aware that she became a big fan of Ailes, often praising his considerable broadcasting instincts in public. But when he got in trouble on sexual matters, not a peep from this woman who now describes her self as the keeper of the flame for Me:Too.
I am not a perfect person. I’ve made mistakes, personally and professionally. But as I write this at dawn on the morning after a drive by shooting by Vester, the Washington Post and Variety, I am stunned by the free ride given a woman with a grudge against NBC News, no distinctive credentials or issue passions while at FOX.
As a private citizen who married a wealthy man she has been active in social causes but she came to Me:Too late, portraying herself as a den mother. In the intervening years since we met on those two occasions, she had no reason to worry I could affect her career.
Some of her relatives by marriage are very close friends. She couldn’t pick up the phone and say, “I’d like to talk. I have issues from those two meetings 20 years ago?” Instead she became a character assassin. Strip away all of the hyperbole and what has she achieved? What was her goal? Hard to believe it wasn’t much more Look At Me than Me:Too.
I deeply resent the pain and anger she inflicted on my wife, daughters and granddaughters – all women of considerable success and passion about women’s rights which they personify in their daily lives and professions. We’ll go on as a family that pursues social justice in medical emergency rooms, corporate offices, social therapy, African women’s empowerment and journalism. And no one woman’s assault can take that away.
I am proud of who I am as a husband, father, grandfather, journalist and citizen. Vester, the Washington Post and Variety cannot diminish that. But in this one woman piece of sensational claims they are trying.
Tom Brokaw