Matt Lauer Does His "We Don't Pay For Interviews" Routine One More Time
Matt Lauer is making the press rounds to plug Sunday's Princess Diana concert, which NBC paid $2.5 million for broadcast rights. That deal, of course, did not include an arrangement to have Prince William and Harry sit down for a Dateline chat. "When the concert deal was signed they hadn't even decided they were even going to do an interview," says Lauer. "There was no 'We'll do the concert and we get the boys.'" Mmhmm. Just like when they were going to pay Paris Hilton $1 million for video rights (that they could've likely bought from Splash News) and, lucky them, the just-freed heiress wanted to sit down for an interview … just 'cause.
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Editorial Director
The saddest thing about the NBC fiasco is that it used to be a respected news organization.
It's bad enough that some flack makes a fool of herself by denying that the Princes interview and the Paris Hilton interview were being bought and paid for under the table.
But the real tragedy is when someone as talented and respected as Matt Lauer is forced into making a fool of himself in public, making statements that he must know no one believes.
NBC is really in panic mode.