NBC is now fighting off multiple claims that they refused to air the bombshell exposé of notorious sexual predator, and Hollywood mogul, Harvey Weinstein. The reporter who broke the story reports that the network categorically refused to run his piece, and refused to offer any reason whatsoever for their actions.
Ronan Farrow, the reporter who broke the ballooning Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal, is telling the public that 3 months ago, NBC refused to publish his investigation into the sexual crimes of Harvey Weinstein. During his appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show last Tuesday, Farrow told Maddow that he had offered NBC his complete investigative report on Weinstein’s sexual scandals, however, the network chose not to publish the story.
When Maddow asked Farrow why he published his report with The New Yorker and not NBC News, despite being a NBC contributor, Farrow responded, “You would have to ask NBC and NBC executives about the details of that story. I’m not going to comment on any news organization’s story that they did or didn’t run.”
NBC tried to clear the air by arguing that they had a “non-exclusive relationship” with Ronan and rejected the story since it “didn’t meet the standard”.
The media outlet told The Daily Beast, “Ronan has had a non-exclusive relationship with NBC News for the last year. He brought NBC News early reporting [on Weinstein] that didn’t meet the standard to go forward with a story; it was nowhere close to what ultimately ran in The New York Times or The New Yorker—for example, at that time he didn’t have one accuser willing to go on the record or identify themselves.”
The dishonest media giant continued, claiming, “The story he published is radically different than what he brought to NBC News.”
However, Furrow denounced NBC’s retelling as untruthful. “I walked into the door at The New Yorker with an explosive 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,” Furrow countered.
“I will say that over many years, many news organizations have circled this story and faced a great deal of pressure in doing so. And there are now reports emerging publicly about the kinds of pressure that news organizations face in this. And that is real,” he said.
He also indicated that he had been “threatened with a lawsuit personally by Mr. Weinstein.”
“In the course of this reporting, I was threatened with a lawsuit personally by Mr. Weinstein, and we’ve already seen that the Times has been publicly threatened with a suit,” Farrow added.
An insider from the television-industry and someone who was very well familiar with Furrow’s project on Weinstein noted that “Farrow and his producer had been working this for 10 months. They had eight interviews on camera, with a mix of silhouette and not-silhouette—so eight women speaking. They had an NYPD audio tape, and they had enough for a story. “
However, the media insider acknowledges that NBC exerted every effort to kill the story. “And NBC did everything they could to delay it, complicate it, and ultimately Noah [Oppenheim] killed it. NBC shut it down.”
The source, who demanded to remain autonomous concluded, “It is what it is, and everybody can see it. It’s crazy. There’s no reason, journalistically, for the story to have been killed. Obviously, there was some other reason.”
