Local friend, former co-worker react to Matt Lauer’s firing

By: Rebecca Turco

Email: rturco@abc6.com

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A local friend and a former co-worker were shocked to hear Matt Lauer was fired from NBC News for sexual misconduct.

Steve Evangelista tells ABC6 News he has known Lauer since the 1980’s, when he was the president of Special Olympics Rhode Island and Lauer co-anchored the news show "PM Magazine" on Channel 10.

He says Lauer was a big support of his non-profit work. Over the years, that support grew into a friendship.

"I know him on the golf course and you can always tell the character of a person on the golf course," Evangelista said. "He’s always been honest and forthright."

Evangelista said he last spoke with Lauer just a few months ago over the phone.

"We’re saddened by the news and I feel for his family and for him," he said. "But I’m sure more will come and what can you say? He’s a friend and he’ll always be a friend."

For Pat Mastors, Lauer was an approachable co-worker when she was an assistant producer at Channel 10. "He was just a regular person," she told ABC6 News. "He was very nice to me."

What came as a particular shock to her was how fact NBC News fired Lauer, after getting wind of a colleague’s complaint Monday night. "I think it wouldn’t have happened this way even a short while ago," Mastors said. "I think the climate has definitely fostered a new zero tolerance for this sort of thing."

Mastors runs the now runs the non-profit Patients’ View Institute. She hopes Lauer’s firing encourages more victims of sexual harassment and assault to come forward.

(c) WLNE-TV 2017