In the multitude of articles that have emerged over the past week detailing sexual-misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein, perhaps none is so damning and excruciating to read as Ronan Farrow’s long-form New Yorker piece published yesterday. In it, Farrow details several in-depth interviews (compiled over 10 months) with women—including Mira Sorvino, Asia Argento, and Rosanna Arquette—who tell their on-the-record stories about being harassed and assaulted by Weinstein. Farrow also includes audio of Weinstein admitting to groping Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, a former Miss Italy contestant.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that Farrow appeared on Rachel Maddow’s show yesterday to discuss the article; Maddow asked why NBC didn’t run with the story, since Farrow is a correspondent there. Farrow replied, “You would have to ask NBC and NBC executives about the details. I’m not going to comment on any news organization’s story that they did or did not run,” adding, “I will say that over many years, many news organizations have circled this story and faced a great deal of pressure in doing so.” Variety reports today that NBC was quick to deny any suggestions of a coverup, with NBC News president Noah Oppenheim telling his staff at a “town meeting” that “The notion that we would try to cover for a powerful person is deeply offensive to all of us.” Oppenheim said that even though Farrow did start working on his story at NBC, at that point “the NBCUniversal unit was unable to come up with ‘all the elements that we needed to air’ an investigation into Harvey Weinstein,” leading Farrow to take his piece elsewhere.
The “great deal of pressure” on various news organizations that Farrow refers to likely stems from Weinstein himself, who immediately threatened to sue The New York Times after its article “Decades Of Sexual Harassment Accusations Against Harvey Weinstein” came out last Thursday, where many of these accusations were first reported. Farrow told Maddow that he also was going to be at the opposing end of a Weinstein lawsuit: “In the course of this reporting, I was threatened with a lawsuit personally by Mr. Weinstein.”
This is not too surprising, but Weinstein’s new strategy appears to involve heading for the hills: He is reportedly headed to Europe to combat his “sex addiction.” Meanwhile, additional accusations against Weinstein, perhaps inspired by the brave women who have come forward already, are rapidly unfolding.