14 DAY TRIAL // Kathie Lee Gifford is sick and tired of reading lies upon lies about her good friend and colleague Matt Lauer, who has been getting more than a hefty dose of negative media attention since Ann Curry was fired from The Today Show last year.
So, she thought of a way of making viewers understand how wrong they were to hate Lauer for Curry’s departure and she decided that starting a campaign to raise signatures from people who work with and love Matt, which she’d then have printed as a one-page ad, would be perfect.
On Monday, she had to cancel all her plans even though she had hundreds of signatures on the list already, she tells the New York Daily News.
Lauer found out about it and specifically asked her to “keep it in the family” and not take the ad in USA Today as she planned. However, he did not forbid her from going public with the story – which is precisely what she’s doing.
“We read the same newspapers and saw all the media reports, and it was frustrating for all of us watching it day to day and feeling a little helpless,” she says.
“No one seemed to be interested in the truth, and that was really frustrating for me because I have a deep sense of injustice about things. I don’t like somebody taking credit for something they had nothing to do with and I certainly don’t like somebody taking blame for something that they’re not responsible for,” Gifford adds.
She wanted people to know that everyone who knew and worked with Matt had nothing but love and respect for him and, indirectly, that he would not scoop to something so low as to have Curry fired.
Oddly enough, the NY Daily News notes, Ann’s signature wasn’t on the list. Gifford explains that by saying that, “this wasn’t about Ann, this is about our love and support for a different member of our family.”
Even though the one-page ad will probably never see the light of day now, Gifford is ok with the idea of sharing it with the world.
“We the people of the ‘Today’ show who work side by side, day by day, year in and year out with Matt Lauer are tired of unfounded and unrelenting stories by faceless characters regarding his character and reputation,” it read.
“No one has coerced us to sign this. With our signatures we stand in support of our colleague and friend,” the ad said.