Former NBC correspondent accuses Tom Brokaw of sexual misconduct

A former NBC correspondent has accused former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, 78, of sexual misconduct.

What are the details?

According to reports by the Washington Post and Variety, a woman who formerly worked as an NBC correspondent has accused Brokaw of making unwanted advances of a sexual nature, including incidents of alleged groping and forcible kissing.

Linda Vester, the correspondent who lodged the complaint against Brokaw, formerly covered Africa and the Middle East as an NBC correspondent.

She worked for NBC from 1989 until 1999, when she left to work for Fox News. Vester remained at Fox until 2006.

According to Variety, Vester was in her 20s when veteran newsman Brokaw reportedly made the unwanted advances.

Vester alleged that on one occasion when Vester was visiting Denver to cover the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1993, Brokaw approached her from behind and acted inappropriately.

“While I was standing there in the Denver bureau with my back to the door, from behind me, out of nowhere, Tom Brokaw walked up, put his hands on my waist and tickled me all up and down my waist,” she alleged.

“It was physically unpleasant and humiliating,” Vester said of the alleged incident. “I jumped a foot [and] looked the editor of 'Nightly News' in the eye. He looked back at me and his jaw dropped.”

Vester said that “no one did a thing,” and “there was nothing I could really do or say because I was so low on the totem pole.”

Brokaw reportedly tried to kiss her in a later incident that reportedly took place in New York City.

Vester said that the news anchor allegedly visited in her in her hotel room, where he tried to kiss her twice.

“I felt trapped, because it wasn’t a request,” she described. “It was more like an order.”

“I barely knew him and I didn’t work for his broadcast,” Vester added. “But when the most powerful man at the network sends you a computer message, you answer him.”

Vester told the Post that she’s choosing to speak out now “because NBC has failed to hire outside counsel to investigate a genuine, long-standing problem of sexual misconduct in the news division.”

What else?

A second woman, who was not identified by the Post, reportedly made claims that were similar to Vester’s alleged experience.

The Post reported that the unnamed woman said Brokaw “acted inappropriately toward her in the ’90s, when she was a young production assistant and he was an anchor.”

The Post reported that “he said no such incident happened.”

Has Brokaw responded?

Through an NBC spokesperson, Brokaw responded to Vester’s allegations and said, “I met with Linda Vester on two occasions, both at her request, 23 years ago because she wanted advice with respect to her career at NBC.”

“The meetings were brief, cordial and appropriate, and despite Linda’s allegations, I made no romantic overtures towards her at that time or any other,” the statement added.

Brokaw served as anchor of "NBC Nightly News" from 1982 to 2004. During his career, he covered Watergate, the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11. Brokaw announced in February 2014 that he'd been diagnosed with multiple myeloma.