More Than 60 Female Media Professionals Pen Letter In Support of Tom Brokaw Amid Sexual Harassment Claims

The NBC Nightly News host denies the allegations.

Associated Press

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Nearly 65 female media professionals have signed a letter in support of famed NBC Nightly News host Tom Brokaw amid recent allegations that he acted inappropriately towards two female co-workers in the 1990s.

“As professional women, we fully endorse the conversation around abuse of power in the workplace. In the context of that conversation, we would like to share our perspectives on working with Tom Brokaw,” the letter read, according to Deadline. “Tom has treated each of us with fairness and respect,” it continued, and “[w]e know him to be a man of tremendous decency and integrity.”

Popular cable news hosts Rachel Maddow and Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC and NBC news anchor Andrea Mitchell were among the dozens of news correspondents, producers, executives, and others who vouched for Brokaw.

Brokaw this week became the second high-profile media personality at NBC to be accused of sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior in the workplace. The Washington Post ran a story on Thursday in which a former NBC correspondent said that Brokaw made unwanted physical advances toward her in two instances when she was in her 20s, including an attempt to kiss her. A second woman also told the Post that Brokaw “acted inappropriately” toward her, the Post wrote. In November, former Today host Matt Lauer was fired amid accusations of egregious sexual misconduct.

In response to the allegations, Brokaw penned a letter to his NBC colleagues defending himself. “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,” Brokaw wrote in the letter, which was leaked to outside media. “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,” he continued, referencing one of his accusers.

Brokaw announced on Friday that he was cancelling his planned commencement address at Sacred Heart University amid the harassment claims. The allegations come just days after it was reported that former PBS host Charlie Rose, himself felled by sexual harassment allegations, would host a show where he would interview other men whose careers were ended by similar claims, and after Bill Cosby was found guilty of drugging and assaulting a woman in Pennsylvania nearly 15 years ago, making him the first celebrity to be convicted of sexual misconduct in the #MeToo era.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate