Matt Lauer Apologizes To Former 'Today' Intern Who Tweeted He Was 'Not So Nice'

Sixteen years before Mark Zinni was an anchor/reporter at Cleveland's Fox 8 News, he was just a lowly intern at NBC's "Today" show.

But Zinni became nationally known Thursday after a tweet in which he called Matt Lauer "not so nice" went completely bonkers on Twitter.

It all started when Zinni responded to a tweet inquiring about the controversial Lauer:

The tweet went viral after it was mentioned by Zinni's newscast producer:

Lauer, who's been called a "bully" in the press this week, caught wind of the tweet and offered an apology (which has since been deleted):

After a barrage of Twitter comments and press following Lauer's reply, Zinni defended his story in a post on FOX8.com, writing:

Darren Sweeney, an executive producer at FOX 8, asked about my experience with Matt Lauer. If you know me, you probably know that I don’t take myself too seriously. So, my answer was more of a joke about being young and naive during my time at Today, but I added that he wasn’t nice to me. I didn’t slam the guy, I just made an honest comment. ...

Twitter is a great resource for everyone because it’s instant and, thankfully, shorter than a phone call. Bottom line, I was shocked Matt Lauer even bothered with me and, really, he remembers me? I’m flattered.