NBC News president defends losing Weinstein abuse report to magazine

NEW YORK — NBC News defended itself Wednesday after questions were raised about whether it had fumbled an explosive story about Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual assaults that network contributor Ronan Farrow broke instead in The New Yorker magazine.

Farrow’s story, released by the magazine Tuesday, offered new details about Weinstein’s alleged behavior with women that followed an investigation published last week in the New York Times. The Times’ story led to Weinstein’s firing from the film company that bears his name.

Farrow, who had a shortlived daytime show on MSNBC, had been working on the Weinstein story for NBC News. He told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that earlier this year, he had a woman who granted an on-camera interview about Weinstein’s behavior. NBC News President Noah Oppenheim said Wednesday that the network reached a point this summer where it didn’t feel all the elements were in place to air a story.

Farrow said on MSNBC that he “walked into The New Yorker with an explosively publishable piece that should have been reported earlier and immediately. The New Yorker recognized that.” He said there were “multiple determinations” at NBC News that he had a story ready to report.

Oppenheim said that Farrow had greatly expanded the scope of his reporting after taking it to The New Yorker.

“The stunning story, the incredible story that we all read yesterday, was not the story that we were looking at when we made our judgment several months ago,” he said.

Farrow said that he had personally been threatened with a lawsuit by Weinstein. Many news organizations that cover Hollywood have faced questions about why it took so long to report on conduct that had allegedly been occurring over many years. Yet it was a difficult story that took bravery for women to come forward with details against one of the most powerful men in their industry.

Oppenheim said NBC had nothing to be ashamed of its decision.

“We are going to keep digging,” he said. “We are going to keep pursuing these stories. We are not always going to be the ones that get it to the finish line, but I think more often than not, we will be.”

For NBC News, the questions came a year after another news organization broke the story of then-candidate Trump making lewd comments during a taping of “Access Hollywood,” remarks that had been in the archives of the NBC-owned entertainment show for years.