Ronan Farrow describes how his Harvey Weinstein reporting unfolded | Nightline

biggest scandal in Hollywood in years new outrage in the movement I can't tell you that I had a crystal ball of the consequences that spread from Hollywood to corporate America, the media and Capitol Hill and I knew there would be this incredible avalanche of people in industry after industry women and men making difficult claims Senator Al Franken announces he will resign pressure is mounting on the president from Supreme Court nominee Matt Lauer has been fired from NBC News at the center of the saga that was the movement me where the big names were Salma Hayek when it's Paltrow Ashley Judd I thought no meant no Rose McGowan a nightmare and you'll never be the same you're about to hear from the reporter who obtained that secretly recorded audio and then there was Ronan Farrow Ronan he was definitely underestimated by almost everyone I think a reporter and witness to a cultural change that would define an era thousands of people joined marches and rallies it was a movement that spread throughout the country demonstrating against the harassment of women demanding equality and change from the nation's capital to the red carpets of Hollywood, why do you think you were able to get so many women to trust you with this?

I was lucky to come across this story at a cultural moment in which brave sources were beginning to come forward and undermine the dam and where people were saying enough is enough. According to the New York Times, more than 80 women came forward with public accusations against arguably the most powerful men in Hollywood. Harvey Weinstein. I thought it was a wild boar from hell. I thought he was the ugliest person I had ever seen in my life. I was able to tell this story because the people were very brave and still are and refuse to shut up now that his new book catches and kills lies, spies and a conspiracy to protect predators, Ronan Farrow adds a new chapter to his report in the era me2 catch and kill deals with systems and patterns of abuse of power in highly anticipated book Ronan writes in graphic detail an account of an alleged rape by former Today Show host Matt Lauer that part leaked last week and immediately dominated The head lines are not accusations of an affair, there are accusations of a crime, but in them he also claims that NBC News mishandled the accusations against Lauer.

It's about what happens when media organizations enshrine in their corporate and legal practices a culture of cover-up, a set of agreements. and payments designed to hide abuses at a company just this morning, the president of NBC News sent an email to the entire staff with an opening line saying that Matt Lauer's actions were abhorrent and goes on to say that Ronin Pharaoh's book takes that undeniable fact and it is distorted by a lie that alleged that we were a company with many secrets, we have no secrets and nothing to hide, there is evidence and a paper trail in this book, almost everyone involved and all of these transactions said that this was explicitly designed to silencing women with sexual harassment allegations It was early 2017, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was still living the high life appearing on International Film Festival red carpets and award shows when a cryptic series of tweets from former actress Rose McGowan alluding to an alleged rape by Weinstein caught Ronan's attention. and his boss when I posted that tweet about why women don't report, that was my leg, okay come get me reporters let's go it's about time and that's exactly what happened.

My plan worked now. Ronan from NBC is coming to me very, very soon. story he was developing and had pitched about Hollywood casting at the time. Ronan was a young reporter working for NBC News, a child prodigy who was accepted into Yale Law School at just 15, but his resume in the air at the time was limited to a failed MSNBC show welcome to Ronan Farrow canceled daily after just one season I asked Ronan if he could be brave and he said yes when Ronan first approached Rose she wasn't even naming to Weinstein publicly, he turned to his sister for advice.

I was deeply concerned. My sister's experiences gave me an idea of ​​how important the issue was. Ronan is the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen. Her sister Dylan accused Woody Allen of abusing her when she was just seven years old. The drama first appeared in a tabloid. in the early 90's, but ultimately Woody Allen was never accused of any crime, I certainly never abused my daughter, there was never any sexual abuse, my own sister was part of the history of women who came forward and refused to keep quiet when even when people around them told them to do it, even when they did it, even when I did it, I let my sister down.

I was one of those many people in our culture who said this is an albatross, this is an inconvenience, why can't you just shut up and thank God? Didn't I love my father? He respected him and that obviously doesn't take away from what he did, but it does make the betrayal and pain much more intense. I evolved from thinking she should shut up to understanding that she was doing something important. that was finally inspiring to me in 2017 Rose McGowan was about to go public with her story and it was Ronan who urged her to name names.

Let's talk about how difficult it was to get Rose McGowan to name Harvey Weinstein. Rose McGowan deserves a tremendous amount of credit for coming forward with her claim early and this was a difficult process, it was a gradual process, but when we sat on camera in early 2017, she was telling that story in shocking and painful detail to throughout his report on Ronan. She had begun to notice strange things like a mysterious car that seemed to be following him. At what point did you say wow? This is not just in my head. They are really following me.

You start seeing the same people behind you on the street. Looking over your shoulder a lot, you see a car parked outside your apartment at all hours and people start telling you that you need to get a gun. Ronan would eventually discover that Weinstein had hired Black Cube, a company largely run by the ex. Mossad agents in an attempt to stop the publication of the accusations against him. This is the kind of stranger-than-fiction spy tactic that wasn't fiction at all. It was really happening despite all the money and power Weinstein wielded. They were the actions taken by some. of his alleged victims like Umbra Gutiérrez who would ultimately help take him down, she had felt ashamed and people underestimated her, they thought she was a lingerie model and she had signed a million dollar settlement in which Harvey Weinstein and his lawyers They trusted that he would lock her up forever. a move that ultimately helped reveal the story.

Ambra had kept a secret copy of a police recording of her on Weinstein. Weinstein did not know that Ambra was wearing a police wire and that there was a recorded confession from Harvey Weinstein saying that this is a pattern of behavior. I'm used to that being a game changer even though no criminal charges were filed for this, the recording was crucial for him to report what her reaction was when he heard it. He knew this was a story that had to be reported urgently, as the tape held me back. Being awake at night meant that he had a moral obligation to get this evidence out before someone else got hurt.

I will never forget. It was chilling. Rich McHugh Ronan's NBC producer at the time also heard the tape that we played to the head of the investigative unit and his reaction confirmed our reactions, it was as if this were to air, he would be toast with so much at stake. . Ronan got a safe deposit box at the Bank of America right across from NBC headquarters. I put all my journalistic material there, including this. beautiful recording and I put it in that vault and wrote a note saying if anything happens to me you have to get this out and here are people you can contact to do it, but then a setback, one of Ronan's strongest sources, Rose McGowan , who had shared it.

The story of the album started to have doubts, but in the end I knew that it was an NBC and that it was not the right place they wanted to put it on morning television. I added that interview, it was me, my rape was not going to appear as your series. sent them a cease and desist even seven months after they started

reporting

Ronan Rich was confident they had enough to show news division chief Noah Oppenheim, armed with a draft script and a plan for more

reporting

, they showed him that recording from Umbra of his reaction.

It was incredibly jarring to me, it was almost like a deadpan reaction, it was another type of people I've worked with in the news business who would have practically ripped that audio tape out of my hands or our hands to broadcast it that night on Se quotes Oppenheim's book saying I don't know what that proves that he's trying to get rid of her. People say a lot of things when they try to get rid of a girl like that. I'm not saying it's not disgusting but I'm still not sure it's news when we left the meeting I ran out I was in the elevator and I turned it and I thought like something is happening that's not right for August 2017 plus Ambra Ronan says that They had an Anonymous shadow accuser corroborating witnesses and they believed they could convince some accusers to agree to be named, but they say NBC executives told them to stand down completely, issued a strong cease reporting, told me and In a later memo to staff, NBC News President Andy Falt said that after seven months without a single victim or witness on record, he simply didn't have a story that fit the bill. with our broadcast standard or that of any major news organization with the permission of NBC.

He took his work to The New Yorker, where he got more accusers to agree to be named in the file and then he had it. NBC News. Her article was published on October 10, 2017, just days after New York Times reporters Jodi Kanter and Megan Tui broke the story about other Weinstein allegations. It was a watershed moment for the me2 movement, with even more alleged victims than Now they feel empowered to break their silence Harvey Weinstein was arrested in 2018 and now awaits trial in January on sexual assault and rape charges related to two women he pleaded guilty to.

Harvey Weinstein told ABC News that what Ronan Farrow implies are factual accounts are actually an amalgamation of unrelated pieces of information that he put together to tell what is little more than a dramatic fiction story, was a huge and important story in a sense that was bigger than Harvey Weinstein and that dealt with vast systems that we are still struggling to expose. bat Lauer, the longtime host of The Today Show, has been fired over new details. about Matt Lauer's firing and questions about NBC's reason for airing Ronan's Weinstein story, don't you think today that their explanation for wanting you to pause the story was because they were concerned that Weinstein had information about Matt Lauer , stay with us, hello?

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