Katie Couric: =?ISO-8859-1?B? UluY3JlZGlibHkgU2V4aXN0 g==?= Bryant Gumbel Told Her To Give Birth ‘In_A_Field’ And Come Back To Work

Veteran news anchor Katie Couric outed former colleague Bryant Gumbel as
�incredibly sexist,� claiming that he suggested she should deliver her baby
�in a field� and come straight back to the show rather than taking some time
off for maternity leave.

Couric made the comments during her recent appearance on comedian Bill
Maher�s �Club Random� podcast, where she also said that Gumbel�s attitude was
similar to that of many of her male colleagues and the overall culture at NBC
at the time.

WATCH:

Katie Couric on Club Random with Bill Maher revealed a couple of
interesting facts about her time working on the 'Today Show' with
Bryant Gumbel and Matt Lauer:
Couric: "He [Gumbel] got mad at me because I was doing something on
maternity leave, and he was giving endless shit for�
pic.twitter.com/9KjrtZSbGY

� Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) April 14, 2024

�He was prickly, but, what a talent. He�s such a seamless broadcaster,
eloquent. I mean, when that countdown would happen � five, four, three, two,
one � he would just hit it perfect,� Couric said of Gumbel.

And while she did have a number of nice things to say about him � she called
him a �natty dresser� and noted that he was intelligent and �really talented�
� her overall assessment was that he was �complicated.�

She went on to say that things kind of came to a head when she planned to
take maternity leave when her first child was born.

�And he was giving me endless s*** for taking like a month or two off. I was
having my first baby,� she said. �He was like, �Why don�t you just drop it in
the field and come back to work right away or something?'�

Maher, who is friends with Gumbel, pressed Couric on that point and said that
it sounded like he probably meant that last remark as a joke � and while
Couric conceded that he�d been �kidding,� she said that wasn�t the only thing
he had said on the matter.

�He was goofing on me but giving me a lot of s***. But it was emblematic of
sort of an incredibly sexist attitude,� she continued.

�It was a very different environment,� she said of NBC at the time.

Maher noted that there was an �old boys club� feel to the interoffice
politics at major networks at the time, adding, �And women had to put up with
more. They just did. I mean, you know, not to get all fuzzy and Lifetime
Channel about it, but people like you and Barbara Walters or just like women
comedians of a certain age, you have to really tip your hat to them because
it was harder.�

--
Let's go Brandon!