NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack sent employees a detailed memo and an 11-page analysis Monday addressing why the news organization did not air journalist Ronan Farrow’s 2017 investigation into harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
The memo comes in reaction to to accusations from a respected former producer at the NBC that higher ups passed on a huge story without obvious reason, reports Variety.
“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,” Lack said to staffers in the memo, according to Variety. Lack went on to say that Farrow disagreed with that standard and so the two sides parted ways.
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) September 4, 2018
The executive analysis reveals transcripts of on-camera interviews between Farrow and others, as well as a timeline of phone calls Harvey Weinstein and his attorneys made to various NBC News executives. It is a remarkable display of evidence from a sector of the media that very rarely gives details about how it reports out stories.
NBC News has come under fire for its handling of Farrow’s investigation — which was instead published by The New Yorker and went on to win a Pulitzer — since the story broke last fall. But new attention to the matter was sparked last week because of a statement from Rich McHugh, a former NBC News investigative producer who claimed that NBC News tried to kill their efforts to report out the Weinstein story.
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