Exactly - NBC got an official complaint about Lauer and obviously a heads-up on the story that
Variety was about to publish regarding Lauer's decades of harassment and assault and made a swift move to get out in front of it and fire him. Also, I'm not Pollyana enough to believe that clearing his bloated $25mm/year salary off the books wasn't a small deciding factor in this age of fiscal streamlining in the media, but NBC knew they needed to do something and they did it.
Disney has just been SO passive about this that they have given me no reason to believe they aren't covering up something - Lasseter or Pixar or SOMEONE obviously got a heads-up that
Hollywood Reporter or
Deadline was about to run with a story about his behavior and complaints from women that work for him and he tried to get ahead of it by begging for forgiveness and taking what, by all accounts, appears to be a fully paid "sabbatical" from his job. We should all BE so lucky to be able to have this option!
Even if it's just lip service (which I believe it almost always is), a simple statement of "we're disturbed by Mr. Lasseter's actions and will launch an internal ethics investigation into conduct" or whatever goes a long way ... at bare minimum, it at least affords Disney and Pixar an opportunity to acknowledge that there is/was a problem! But nope, short of "fully supporting" his sabbatical, Disney has gone total radio silence. Just gross.
It's not just Lasseter's "hugs" or that he would get White Girl Wasted at industry events and act inappropriately handsy ... it's the toxic culture that was created and fostered at Pixar - the culture that allowed for years of this behavior to continue towards women without repercussion, and the continued culture that is allowing it to be swept under the rug because "Good Boy" Lasseter got out in front of the whole thing and decided to go hide on a six-month paid vacation before the whole thing really blew up in their face.