Jayme Deerwester | USA TODAY

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But former NBC News reporter Linda Vester, who made her own accusations against ex "Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw in April, says nothing has changed.

If anything, she told Variety, “The women who speak to me say the climate of fear is worse than ever, the silencing is worse than ever.”

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Vester, who worked as a reporter and anchor for NBC and MSNBC in the mid-'90s, marked the anniversary of Lauer's fall from grace by buying an ad in Thursday's New York Times that calls on the network's board of director's to end the practice of non-disclosure agreements and forced arbitration in cases involving sexual harassment.

"The reason I can speak is I’m not under an NDA, and they can’t ruin my career," she said. "I’m a stay-at-home mom. They can’t fire me."

She added, “NBC News management should not be allowed to get away with this any further."

Comcast, the company that owns NBC Universal, fired back at Vester's claims.

"Comcast NBCUniversal’s investigation was thorough, objective and conducted outside the News division. Kim Harris, NBCUniversal’s General Counsel, led this process with a team of legal and HR professionals who are independent of News," the company said in a statement to Variety.

The statement continued: "In addition, we consulted with two prominent outside law firms – Proskauer Rose and Davis Polk – both of whom validated the investigation’s methodology, findings and conclusions. NBCUniversal issued a detailed report of the findings in May and since instituted new policies and procedures to further encourage reporting of complaints and provide increased training for employees and managers on workplace conduct."

USA TODAY reached out to NBCUniversal for comment.

On Nov. 29, 2017, a visibly shaken Savannah Guthrie announced Lauer's firing to the world, quoting the email NBC News chair Andy Lack, who remains in that job, had sent to employees.

Matt Lauer has been terminated from NBC News. On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment. pic.twitter.com/1A3UAZpvPb — TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 29, 2017

"On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer. It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company’s standards. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment. While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident."

Lauer took some measure of responsibility in his apology statement one day later.

"Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed. I regret that my shame is now shared by the people I cherish dearly," he said.

After that Nov. 30 statement, Lauer retreated from the spotlight, fleeing Manhattan in favor of the family's home in the Hamptons to begin the process of repairing his relationship with his wife, Annette Roque, and three teenage children. The couple has been reported to have been in the process of divorcing for much of the ensuing year, though neither of them has ever confirmed anything on the record.

NBC vowed it would not pay him the money remaining on the contract that had paid him an estimated $25 million a year, saying he had been fired "for cause."

Hours after the firing, Variety published its own account of Lauer's conduct, based on interviews with dozens of current and former NBC staffers.

The entertainment trade magazine reported "work and sex were intertwined" for Lauer, who developed a pattern of inviting women late at night to his hotel room while covering the Olympics over the years, and to his secluded office within 30 Rockefeller Center.

In one instance, Lauer summoned a female employee to his office and exposed himself to her, before reprimanding her for declining to engage in a sexual act, the outlet reported.

On April 27, less than two weeks before NBC published the findings of its internal investigation of the scandal, he briefly resurfaced to knock down a report that he had once shut a female NBC staffer in his office using a button under his desk that locked the doors from the inside.

“I have made no public comments on the many false stories from anonymous or biased sources that have been reported about me over these past several months – including a claim that I would, or even could, lock someone in my office," he told People in his first public remark in the five months since the scandal. "I remained silent in an attempt to protect my family from further embarrassment and to restore a small degree of the privacy they have lost."

However, he explained, “But defending my family now requires me to speak up. I fully acknowledge that I acted inappropriately as a husband, father and principal at NBC. However, I want to make it perfectly clear that any allegations or reports of coercive, aggressive or abusive actions on my part, at any time, are absolutely false."

For the duration of his exile, Lauer has not given interviews.

However, shortly before her own highly publicized exit from the "Today" show in October, Megyn Kelly coyly dismissed the possibility of Lauer making a successful comeback, telling Us Weekly, “I know too much that others don’t know.”

In addition to debunking the door-locking button story, NBC's internal investigation concluded that there was "no evidence" indicating that anyone in management or human resources had received complaints of misconduct by the star of its most valuable franchise. NBC News chairman Andy Lack said the investigation took into account nearly 70 interviews with current and former staff as well as focus groups and a search of email accounts, text messages, employee records and complaint helplines.

According to the findings, "Lauer frequently engaged in sexual banter or joking in open working environments with other employees present or in a position to overhear his comments." The investigation team believes the behavior "may have contributed to an atmosphere where some employees who may have had concerns assumed nothing would be done to address them, particularly given Lauer’s perceived importance to the news division."

The report focused on the accounts of four women, two of whom said they felt managers at NBC News and "Today" had to have been aware of the problem, though investigators found no proof.

"Today" anchor Ann Curry was skeptical as well. In April, she told The Washington Post that she had personally warned two managers about Lauer's behavior.

"I told management they had a problem and they needed to keep an eye on him and how he deals with women," Curry told The Washington Post in April.

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Curry, whose friction with Lauer was often blamed for her short tenure as host, said that she had been approached by a woman who asked tearfully for help.

However, NBC told the Post it had no record of the complaint.

The Lauer case has not been the only ammunition for critics who say the network has been slow to act on sexual-harassment issues.

NBC was criticized for sitting on the 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape in which correspondent Billy Bush egged on future president Donald Trump as he bragged about sexual assault, allowing itself to be scooped by The Washington Post in October 2016.

And former MSNBC host Ronan Farrow said the news division blocked what later became his Pulitzer Prize-winning body of work on Harvey Weinstein's decades of alleged sexual misconduct.

It's all part of the reason why Vester is calling on the board of directors to intervene.

“It’s a call for the grownups in the room to take over,” Vester told Variety. “The Comcast board are directors of a publicly traded company. They need to get involved. They need to call for outside investigators to come in. It appears that somebody has been covering it up, and it’s up to them to determine who it is.”

Contributing: Gary Levin, Cara Kelly, Erin Jensen, USA TODAY

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Photos: Matt Lauer's time on 'Today'