Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ronan Farrow is disputing NBC News’ claims that his story on the alleged sexual misconduct and abuse by Harvey Weinstein — which won him a Pulitzer when it published in The New Yorker — was “not ready for air” when Farrow and NBC decided to part ways.
NBC News chairman Andrew Lack outlined NBC’s decision to pass on Farrow’s Weinstein story in a memo to employees on Monday. The network’s handling of the investigation was brought back into the spotlight last week after former NBC News investigative reporter Rich McHugh — who worked on the piece with Farrow — released a statement alleging NBC purposely killed the story.
According to the memo, after eight months of working on the Weinstein piece, Farrow still did not have a “single victim or witness willing to go on the record,” which is what prompted the dispute between Farrow and the network.
“We regret the deterioration of NBC’s relationship with Ronan, and genuinely wish we had found a path to move forward together,” the memo said. “That is why, in August of 2017, when Farrow objected to his editors’ conclusion we convened an independent group of the most experienced investigative journalists in our organization to review his material with fresh eyes. We asked them — tell us what, if anything, we can broadcast. But their conclusion was unequivocal — this story is not ready for air. … It was Farrow’s decision, in the midst of this process, to pursue the story elsewhere.”
While Farrow reportedly plans to share his side of the story in more detail in the near future, he responded to the memo in a tweet on Monday, claiming Lack’s memo “contains numerous false or misleading statements.”
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) September 4, 2018
If Farrow has a story showing NBC leadership tried to protect Weinstein he should tell it, but right now this process story is way too much inside baseball for me. Two sides with points of view. Ultimately a lot of women did go public putting their futures on the line. Whether NBC should have run with the story before that point is a matter of sound news judgment.
Damn he’s good looking. Gonna wait till there’s more info out on this one, although it is NOT looking good.
Does anyone require any more proof that big media is in the pockets of the 1%
Any executive worth their stock options should be able to tell a reporter to shop a story somewhere else without leaving a paper trail.
This kind of story is easy to kill, because you have to make a commitment to publish to get the investigation past a certain point, and until the investigation is past that point you don’t have enough information to make a commitment to publish.
I’ve been following Farrow for a few years. He is an ace reporter, I believe him. There’s no “other side” to this story. NBC tried to block the Weinstein exposé.