New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow responded to NBC on Monday night after it released an internally produced memo about how the network handled reporting on Harvey Weinstein.
"I’ve avoided commenting on the specifics of NBC’s role in the Weinstein story to keep the focus on the women and their allegations. But executives there have now produced a memo that contains numerous false or misleading statements," Farrow wrote. "So I’ll say briefly: their list of sources is incomplete and omits women who were either identified in the NBC story or offered to be. The suggestion to take the story to another outlet was first raised by NBC, not me. and I took them up on it only after it became clear that I was being blocked from further we reporting. The story was twice cleared and deemed 'reportable' by legal and standards only to be blocked by executives who refused to ally us to seek comment from Harvey Weinstein."
Farrow was a NBC contributor at the time he broke the news on the sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein. It was revealed that NBC refused to publish the story back in 2017 but allowed the story to be published by another news outlet. The New Yorker published Farrow's reporting and he won a Pulitzer Prize for his work.
NBC News chairman Andy Lack released a memo on Monday that defended the network's decision not to go forward with the Weinstein story.
"We spent eight months pursuing the story but at the end of that time, NBC News – like many others before us – still did not have a single victim or witness willing to go on the record. (Rose McGowan – the only woman Farrow interviewed who was willing to be identified – had refused to name Weinstein and then her lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter.)," Lack wrote. "So we had nothing yet fit to broadcast. But Farrow did not agree with that standard. That’s where we parted ways – agreeing to his request to take his reporting to a print outlet that he said was ready to move forward immediately."
Former NBC producer Rich McHugh, who worked with Farrow on the Weinstein story, responded to Lack's version of events.
"The release of an internally drafted report without a complete investigation and transparency for its participants only raises more questions than answers," McHugh said in a response posted on Twitter.
"When you have an exclusive audio recording of Harvey Weinstein admitting to sexual assault, in addition to a rape survivor scheduled for an interview in three days, what journalistic 'ethic' would cause a news outlet to cancel that interview, not air the audio tape, and let one of the most defining stories of this decade walk out the door?" he asked.
NBC recently published a memo and "fact sheet" from Andy Lack regarding their handling of the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault story that was never aired. Here is my response: pic.twitter.com/H9RbsW78jB
— Rich McHugh (@RichMcHugh) September 4, 2018