Linda Vester emerges from the woodwork to claim that Brokaw groped her over 20 years ago. I have no clue if he did or he didn’t. But it is interesting that Vester comes forward now, decades after the alleged incidents. Makes me wonder if someone whose career has stalled may need or want some attention.
Tom Brokaw Accused of “Me Too” Offenses
- Thread starter JohnnieHolmesNole
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Apologies. I meant to post this in the Locker Room. I have asked the Mods to transfer it. Regrets, I’ve had a few......
There are obviously thousands and thousands of women who have been victims.
But unfortunately there are also a lot who want to be part of something / claim victim status so they came up with something so they could join the victim status movement. There are also many who were willing participants at the time, many to benefit their career, but now they want to claim victims status years later.
But unfortunately there are also a lot who want to be part of something / claim victim status so they came up with something so they could join the victim status movement. There are also many who were willing participants at the time, many to benefit their career, but now they want to claim victims status years later.
She most recently worked for fox news. Brokaw has denied the allegation. I imagine this won't get too much traction and in this case many will attack the accuser's credibility. That being said.. 20 years ago, I am not sure how any thing can be proven one way or the other. He said she said.
I need to go to your Starbucks!
The entertainment industry is filled wile vile characters who are given far too much credit and praise and this would not surprise me. If it was a one time thing, then it is just another celebrity doing what they do to get laid. That doesn't work for normal people but I hear groping works well and straight to the point with people of power.
Why would someone wait so long to say something. There is no longer a sphere of influence over the victim with these people of power. These celebrities can and do wreck their victims careers and they are well supported by their fans and enabled by their superiors. Once you are our of the industry there is no coming back. So you can see a young person just starting thinking they can simply avoid getting near these people at all costs and taking what ever abuse they are given when they do come in contact with them and still maintain their careers. I wouldn't be surprised if the smallest hint of improprieties to their superiors would have been quickly shot down.
Why would someone wait so long to say something. There is no longer a sphere of influence over the victim with these people of power. These celebrities can and do wreck their victims careers and they are well supported by their fans and enabled by their superiors. Once you are our of the industry there is no coming back. So you can see a young person just starting thinking they can simply avoid getting near these people at all costs and taking what ever abuse they are given when they do come in contact with them and still maintain their careers. I wouldn't be surprised if the smallest hint of improprieties to their superiors would have been quickly shot down.
Sadly a movement or cause that could have done some real good is now to often being used to get publicity. I guess the good news is even with the false claims guys will hopefully be more professional and act like men.
For me when one woman comes forward I listen, but I don't immediately make a decision. I think her story should be heard and taken seriously, but it may not be anything. When multiple women start to come forward then we see a pattern. I didn't believe the initial complaints against Cosby, but eventually so many women came forward with such consistent stories that you couldn't ignore them any more.
So one complaint? I'll listen to it and consider. If other women start to emerge to show he had a pattern of abuse (Which is certainly possible with any powerful man from that generation) then we can see where it goes.
So one complaint? I'll listen to it and consider. If other women start to emerge to show he had a pattern of abuse (Which is certainly possible with any powerful man from that generation) then we can see where it goes.
Unfortunately, more will follow the Mike Pence strategy, which is that you don’t meet with a woman 1 on 1 without a chaperone.
I'm not totally sure that you can paint the whole movement like that. I'm not even sure that this applies in this one case.
I don't know what Brokaw did or didn't do. Nothing surprises me these days. I am a fan of his so it's disappointing to hear even the accusation.
Let's also acknowledge that this type of behavior isn't the exclusive domain of entertainers or politicians. The industry with the highest rate of incidence of sexual harassment is the food/service industry. Your local Applebee's likely makes a backlot in Hollywood, newsroom in NYC, or congressional office building in DC seem like a sancutary.
Lousy behavior is everywhere and ought to be exposed.
Interesting this is twice I recall you bringing up the food service industry in these topics. Is there a specific story here? The LR wants to know? I had a brief stent in this industry as an owner and do not recall this being an issue anywhere. Generally speaking the restaurant industry is more comprised of younger people who tend to be having consensual relations more so than harassing one another. I will say there is a surprising amount of verbal sexual harassment from customers to waitresses. What some people say to some poor girl trying to make ends meet by waiting tables is shocking. The difference between your example and some of these we read about is if a woman quits a restaurant due to being harassed by management she is more likely to be able to cross the street and work at Chili's and the manager of Applebee's has absolutely no control or power over her career choice.
I’ve always been a fan of Brokaw, but it’s not just one person accusing him of misconduct and Vester has a witness backing her up. So while I hope it’s not true I’m not gonna drag her just because I’d prefer that she was being dishonest.
I've never worked in food, however I bring it up to rebut the asinine narrative that sexual harassment is the singular domain of the wealthy, the entertainer, or the politician. While they all have proven adept at it, to find the real experts and frequent harassers, you don't need to look far from your own town.
No one is making the claim that any industry is the singular domain of these issues. Straw-man much? I was addressing those who are viewed in high regard and have the power to make or break a persons career. The evil behind those that abuse their power who are idolized, worshiped and enabled to perpetrate their acts without consequence due to celebrity. I know I would hate for my daughter to be caught in a situation where she felt powerless to stop someones advances and would be cast our of her career for speaking out. Losing a career at some corner Applebee's store is bad and should be investigated but there is simply no comparison to the women who have been threaded with losing a great job at a major network or the entire industry they love.
The power dynamic that allows abusers to get away with it is not materially different in a newsroom, congressional office or Applebee's.
Yes the salaries are different (production assistants, interns, and applebee's employees all probably start out under $50k) but the psychological scars are very likely similar.
Not it's not. I can assure you no restaurant manager could get away with what Matt Lauer or Harvey Weinstein did for such a long period of time. Hell most of Hollywood made jokes about that creeps actions.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life...ommon-sexual-misconduct-hollywood/1083964001/
Any possibility that the chicks were OK with the improper advances......until they either got their promotions or they didn’t?? Like let’s see how this plays out before I get too vocal......
Tom Brokaw's perspective, via an email to select colleagues that leaked to the press:
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.
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 Varietyto 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
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.
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 Varietyto 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
Met Brokaw in the Bahamas on a bone-fishing trip. Same lodge. Damned nice man. Could have been a doosh — like so many of those guys can be — but he was damned engaging with everyone. Linda Vester??? Weird chick, and Brokaw had way/way better options than that if he were somehow inclined to stray. Nah, I’m believing Brokaw unless or until some serious confirming proof is adduced. And, of course, that won’t happen 20+ years later.
Lol damn! Was wayyyyyy too early to be drinking when he posted that!
The Waffle House is awesome at 4-5 am after working up an appetite.
Why the hell would Tom Brokaw grope that goofy and not-very-attractive chick????
He should've known better, even then. My guess is that even if nothing actually happened, if she HAD been up for it he probably would've slept with her. You just don't put yourself in those situations.
At 2 I went home with a 10
And at 10 I woke up with a 2
I agree with this.
I understand human nature is what it is after a few drinks but certainly with a dozen years of professional experience in me, even before the era of #metoo, I would have been leary of being in a hotel room of a female coworker late at night under any pretense if it weren't an obviously consensual type thing **wink wink**
Would rather talk in an emptied out hotel lobby with desk staff to witness. Too much to lose ... and I don't even have that much.
That said, this lapse in judgement, in the 80s-90s isn't an indictment of him.
Rachel Maddox, Maria Shriver, Andrea Mitchell and 60 other of Brokaw’s former female colleagues have signed a letter vouching for his “tremendous decency and integrity.” Doesn’t prove anything vis-a-vis the Vester allegations, but it seems that Brokaw was well-liked and had a ton of positive-proper relationships with female cohorts.
It definitely seems out of character.
But by his own admission, he was having drinks in her apartment and at least tried to kiss her. Maybe it's all a big misunderstanding or they just got their signals crossed, but it's not like he can say wasn't me, she has the wrong guy. Something happened.
But by his own admission, he was having drinks in her apartment and at least tried to kiss her. Maybe it's all a big misunderstanding or they just got their signals crossed, but it's not like he can say wasn't me, she has the wrong guy. Something happened.
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