This is a gross oversimplification:

NBC News was aware of video footage of Donald Trump making lewd and disparaging remarks about women for nearly four days, a network executive said Saturday, but held onto the recording until lawyers finished reviewing the material.

The network’s caution led to an awkward result: NBC News was scooped by The Washington Post, which took just five hours to vet and post its story. A tip from an individual led to The Post breaking one of the most consequential stories of the 2016 presidential campaign.

So Access Hollywood can't violate their own journalistic integrity, as the original source of the recordings, without throwing into question every contract they've ever written for every interview they've ever done or ever aired. Because it was their crew, their interview, their segment under their contract, fuck yeah they're in an ugly place if they decide to actively and willfully violate the terms of their agreement because that demonstrates that whatever contract you've ever had with them, they might blow it up for "newsworthiness." That's the end of Access Hollywood as a soft-journalism land of puff pieces because nobody will ever talk to them again.

The Washington Post, on the other hand, can get footage from "unnamed sources" and run it with willful abandon. The 5 hours the Post waited is due to their caution. They're well within their first amendment rights.

NBC has known about the tape since the fucking Olympics. Guaranteed: they were on the ragged edge of leaking it themselves, their lawyers told them they'd be forever fucked if they did (which is appropriate) and they leaked it to the Washington Post.

There are complications with leaking audio that you recorded under the auspices of entertainment. I know several people who worked on The Apprentice who have audio. ALL of them have opted to stay the fuck out of this mess because in the end, their contributions will be minimal and the damage to their careers will be total.