CNN's Jeff Zucker on Matt Lauer: 'I didn't know this Matt'

Posted Thursday, November 30, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog

CNN president Jeff Zucker today said he knew nothing about Matt Lauer's behavior while he was the "Today" show producer in the late 1990s.

“It’s incredibly, incredibly disturbing what we’ve learned in the last 24 hours,” Zucker said Thursday morning at Business Insider’s Ignition conference. “And incredibly sad.”

“I’ve known Matt for 25 years and I didn’t know this Matt,” Zucker continued, calling what has been reported in Variety and other places as “deviant and predatory behavior.”

RELATED: Lauer's apology statement today

Lauer, host of the "Today" show since 1997, was fired Wednesday after NBC executives heard reports of sexual misconduct that appeared habitual.

“That was not something that I was ever aware of, or had even heard of, or had ever been suggested or anything like that,” Zucker said. “There was never a complaint about Matt… not even a whisper of it.”