NBC punted on Weinstein scandal story, reporter says
Results of journalist’s investigation instead ran in New Yorker.
Ronan Farrow is at odds with NBC News over why the network did not break his explosive investigation on alleged sexual assault and harassment by disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein that ran in the New Yorker.
Farrow, who has a nonexclusive arrangement with NBC News, wrote the results of his 10-month investigation into Weinstein’s behavior for the New Yorker because the network did not believe it met the reporting standard necessary to put it on the air. But during a Tuesday appearance on NBC’s cable news channel MSNBC, he said he believed the story could have been broadcast.
NBC News has maintained that the final result of Farrow’s reporting, which included three women on the record describing alleged sexual assaults by Weinstein, is “radically different” from the early version he brought to the network. Farrow did not have any subjects speaking on the record when he first presented the story, according to an executive familiar with the discussions speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The executive said Farrow asked if he could bring the story to a print outlet, presumably because sources might be more willing to cooperate if they did not have to go on camera. NBC News agreed, with the understanding that if Farrow got the story published he would come back and talk about it on the air.
But Farrow appeared to contradict that account when asked about it on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Tuesday.
Maddow had said to Farrow: “NBC says that the story wasn’t publishable, that it wasn’t ready to go at the time that you brought it to them.”
Farrow replied: “I walked into the door at the New Yorker with an explosively reportable piece that should have been public earlier. And immediately, obviously, the New Yorker recognized that. And it is not accurate to say that it was not reportable. In fact, there were multiple determinations that it was reportable at NBC.”
Farrow had a daily program on MSNBC from 2014 to 2015. He has continued to report for NBC News but is no longer under contract.
An NBC News spokesperson did not comment Wednesday on Farrow’s remarks on Maddow’s show.
The contradiction has raised questions as to whether NBC was pressured by Weinstein to suppress the reporting. Weinstein made a number of movies for the network’s sister company Universal Pictures, and had co-produced the reality series “Project Runway” for the NBC Universal-owned cable network Bravo before it moved to Lifetime.
Weinstein is said to have been aggressive in using his connections to shut down journalistic inquiries into his behavior with women, which was widely rumored and even openly joked about in show business circles.
“I’m not going to comment on any news organization about any story that they did or didn’t run,” Farrow told Maddow. “I will say that over many years, many news organizations circled this story and faced a great deal of pressure in doing so.”
Farrow’s reporting on the coast-to-coast sex scandal included a New York Police Department audio surveillance tape of Weinstein attempting to coax model Ambra Gutierrez into the bathroom of a hotel room. The sting was set up after Gutierrez told police that Weinstein had groped her. The Manhattan district attorney decided against charging the executive, and Gutierrez reached a settlement with Weinstein, according to reports.
Weinstein, who previously apologized for some of his behavior, denied the rape allegations in the New Yorker. “Any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein,” a representative said in a statement, adding that “Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual.”