“You just shut up and go about doing your job,” he says of handling the negativity

Sep 11, 2013 06:54 GMT  ·  By
“The way the media treated what happened with Ann Curry was a disappointing learning experience,” says Matt Lauer
   “The way the media treated what happened with Ann Curry was a disappointing learning experience,” says Matt Lauer

When Ann Curry announced that she would be leaving The Today Show because it just wasn’t working out, people started talking about how Matt Lauer had actually “fired” her by convincing network bosses that they had no chemistry. That was never the truth, he says.

Lauer is featured in the latest edition of Esquire magazine, in a piece titled “What I’ve Learned.” As you may imagine, he’s also talking about the negative media attention he got with the Curry scandal and how hard it was for him not to speak up on the rumors.

As he sees it, the media was lazy for keeping the fire going by constantly paying attention to rumors.

In other words, he would have preferred it if no one reported on the rumor that he was the one to want Curry out.

“The way the media treated what happened with Ann Curry was a disappointing learning experience,” he says.

“I was disappointed by the laziness of the media, the willingness to read a rumor, repeat that rumor, and treat it as a fact,” Lauer adds.

Perhaps worse than having his reputation tarnished by unfounded reports was having to witness it all without being able to say anything on the record because, after all, who wants to be a modern Don Quixote and fight the windmills?

“What were my options?” Lauer asks.

“Does anyone want to see a person who’s making the money that the newspapers say I’m making complaining, ‘Woe is me, my life is terrible, and people are being unfair’? No one would’ve had any patience for that. I wouldn’t have any patience for that. So you just shut up and go about doing your job,” he continues.

In March, the New York Times ran a very lengthy piece arguing that the dwindling ratings were all Lauer’s fault because his popularity had taken a huge hit after Curry’s departure. The least he could have done was speak up in his own defense right after rumors broke that he was to blame for it, the NY Times said.

Obviously, Matt disagrees.