What Katie Couric Hopes Will Come From The Matt Lauer Scandal
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The "Me Too" era has brought to light a lot of dark situations that many women have faced in the workplace. Journalist Katie Couric knows all too well about the horrible experiences women face from their coworkers, supervisors, and bosses while trying to keep on a professional face. According to Daily Mail, Couric was once in a meeting with CNN network executives when one of them inappropriately boiled her early career success down to her looks. "'She's successful because of her hard work, intelligence and breast size,'" Couric repeated at a forum on the state of women in the workplace, hosted at Proctor & Gamble's Cincinnati headquarters.
That is why it's understandable that Couric and her old co-worker of nine years, infamous ex-"Today" show host Matt Lauer, do not keep in touch following Lauer's sexual harassment scandal that broke in 2017. Lauer also faces sexual assault allegations in Ronan Farrow's book, "Catch and Kill," per Variety.
Now Couric is back in the news again promoting her autobiography "Going There," which was released on October 26. Inside the book are juicy tidbits of what her career really was like, some personal anecdotes she's never shared with the public, and even what she hopes will come out of the scandal Lauer faced.
Katie Couric hopes the workplace environment will change
Katie Couric went on "The View" on October 25 to promote her memoir, "Going There," and to talk about her own experiences with sexual harassment in the workplace. Couric also spoke about Matt Lauer, and told the hosts of "The View" that she would have "gotten to the bottom of it" if she knew about what was going on with Lauer at the time.
She then explained what she hopes comes of the whole ordeal. "I got reconnected with one of the women who he took advantage of, and I think we've all learned a lot in processing the 'Me Too' movement about what does it mean to have a consensual relationship, how really you can't if someone is responsible for your financial fate and your professional job security, and understanding power dynamics," Couric said. "So I just hope it's a very different environment in many of these workplaces than it was."
The same day, Couric opened up about some of the drama surrounding her memoir to USA Today. "I wrote this book not for tabloid reporters who are looking for clicks," Couric said. "I wrote this book for young women who are maybe trying to make their way in the world, for people who have a terminally ill spouse, for someone who took a chance on a job and was disappointed with the way it turned out, for the person who has to work for a jerk who is sabotaging her. I wrote this book for real people."
If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit RAINN.org for additional resources.