Ronan Farrow describes how his Harvey Weinstein reporting unfolded | Nightline

biggest scandal in Hollywood in years new outrage in the me to movement I can't tell you that I had a crystal ball the fallout spreading from Hollywood to corporate America the media and Capitol Hill and knew that there would be this incredible flood of people in industry after industry women and men coming forward with difficult claims senator Al Franken announcing he will resign pressure is growing on president from Supreme Court nominee Matt Lauer has been terminated from NBC News at the center of the saga that was the me to movement there were the big names Salma Hayek when it's Paltrow Ashley Judd I thought no meant no Rose McGowan a nightmare and you will 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 was definitely underestimated by pretty much everybody I believe a reporter and witness to a cultural shift that would define an era thousands joining marches and rallies it was a movement that swept the country demonstrating against 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 it I was fortunate to come at this story in a cultural moment where brave sources were starting to come forward and chip away at the dam and where people were saying enough more than 80 women according to the New York Times coming forward publicly with accusations against arguably the most powerful men in Hollywood Harvey Weinstein I thought he was a warthog from hell I thought he was a single most ugly person I'd ever seen in my life I was able to tell this story because people were brave as hell and they are still being brave as hell and refusing to shut up now when his new book catch and kill lies spies and a conspiracy to protect predators Ronan Farrow adds a new chapter to his reporting in the me2 era catch and kill is about systems and patterns of the abuse of power in the highly anticipated book Ronan writes in graphic detail an account of an alleged rape by former Today Show anchor Matt Lauer that portion leaked last week and immediately dominated head lines there are not allegations of an affair there are allegations of a crime but in it he also claims NBC News mishandled accusations against Lauer this is about what happens when media organizations enshrine in their corporate and legal practices a cover-up culture a set of agreements and payouts designed to conceal abuse at a company just this morning the president of NBC News fired off an email to all staff with an opening line saying Matt Lauer's actions were abhorrent he goes on to say Ronin Pharaohs book takes that undeniable fact and twists it into a lie alleging we were a company with a lot of Secrets we have no secrets and nothing to hide there is proof and a paper trail in this book just about everyone involved and all these transactions said this was explicitly designed to shut up women with allegations about sexual harassment it was early 2017 the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was still living the highlife appearing on red carpets at International Film Festival's and award shows when a cryptic series of tweets from former actress Rose McGowan alluding to an alleged rape by Weinstein caught the attention of Ronan and his boss when I released that tweet about why women don't report that was my leg okay come find me reporters let's go it was time and that's exactly what happened my plan worked now Ronan for NBC comes to me very very soon there was a story that I was developing and had pitched about the Hollywood casting couch at the time Ronan was a fresh-faced reporter working for NBC News a child prodigy who was accepted into Yale Law School at just 15 but his on-air resume at that point was limited to a failed MSNBC show welcome to Ronan Farrow daily canceled after just one season I asked Ronan if he could be brave he said yes when Ronan first reached out to Rose she wasn't even naming Weinstein publicly he turned to his sister for advice the I cared profoundly my sister's experiences gave me insight into just how important the issue was Ronan is the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen his sister Dylan has accused Woody Allen of molesting her when she was just seven years old the drama first played out on tabloid in the early 90s but ultimately Woody Allen was never charged with a crime certainly I never ever abused my daughter there was no sexual abuse that ever took place my own sister was part of the history of women who came forward and refused to shut up when even when people around them told them to even when you did even when I did I let my sister down I was one of those many people in our culture saying this is an albatross this is inconvenient why can't you just shut up and thank God she didn't I loved my father I respected him and that doesn't obviously take away from what he did but it does make the betrayal and the hurt that much more intense I evolved from thinking she should shut up to understanding she was doing something important that ultimately was inspiring to me in 2017 Rose McGowan was on the cusp of going public with her story and it was Ronan who was urging 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 bringing forward her claim early and this was a hard process it was a gradual process but by the time we were sitting down on camera in early 2017 she was telling that story in shocking painful detail over the course of his reporting Ronan had started noticing 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 I'm really being followed you start to see the same people behind you on the street you're looking over your shoulder a lot you're seeing a car parked outside of your apartment at all hours and people are starting to tell you you have to get a gun Ronan would eventually find out that Weinstein had hired black cube a firm largely run by former Mossad agents in an attempt to stop the publication of the allegations against him this is the kind of stranger than fiction spy tactic that was not at all fiction it was really happening despite all the money and power that Weinstein wielded it was the actions taken by some of his alleged victims like Umbra Gutierrez that would ultimately help take him down she had been shamed and people underestimated her they thought she's a lingerie model and she had signed a million dollar settlement that Harvey Weinstein and his attorneys felt confident would shut her up forever in a move that ultimately helped blow the story wide open Ambra had preserved a secret copy of a police recording of her in Weinstein Weinstein was unaware Ambra was wearing a police wire there being a taped confession of Harvey Weinstein saying this is a pattern of behavior I'm used to that was a game changer even though no criminal charges from this were filed the recording was crucial for his reporting what was your reaction as you heard it I knew that this was a story that had to be reported urgently having the tape kept me up at night it meant that I had a moral obligation to get this evidence out before someone else got hurt I'll never forget it it was chilling rich McHugh Ronan's NBC producer at the time also heard the tape we played it for the head of the investigative unit and his reaction confirmed our reactions it was like man if this thing airs he's toast with so much at stake Ronan got a safety deposit box at the bank of America right across from NBC's headquarters I put all of my reporting material in there including this precious recording and I put that in that vault and wrote a note saying if anything happens to me you need 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 her story on the record began to have second thoughts but ultimately I knew it was an NBC it wasn't the right place they wanted to put it on morning TV I spiked that interview it was me my rape wasn't gonna go as your serial I sent them a cease and desist still seven months into their reporting Ronan rich were confident that they had enough to show the head of the news division Noah Oppenheim armed with a draft script and a plan for more reporting they played him that recording from Umbra his reaction was was incredibly jarring to me it was almost like a deadpan reaction it was other kind of people I've worked with in the news business who would have been practically ripping that audio tape out of my hands or our hands to air it that night in the book Oppenheim is quoted saying I don't know what that proves he's trying to get rid of her people say a lot of things when they're trying to get rid of a girl like that I'm not saying it's not gross but I'm still not sure it's news when we left the meeting I went running I were in the elevator and I turned him and I was like something's up that's not right by August 2017 in addition to Ambra Ronan says they had an accuser in shadow Anonymous 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 they issued a hard stop to reporting they told me and a producer working with me that we could not take a single call with sources in a later memorandum to staff NBC News chairman Andy lack said after seven months without one victim or witness on the record he simply didn't have a story that met our standard for broadcast nor that of any major news organization with NBC's permission Ronan would take his work to The New Yorker where he got more accusers to agree to be named on the record then he had it NBC News his article was published on October 10th 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 now feeling empowered to break their silence Harvey Weinstein was arrested in 2018 and now awaits a January trial on charges of sexual assault and rape related to two women he has pled not guilty to those charges and has consistently denied any allegations of non-consensual sex with anyone Harvey Weinstein told ABC News what Ronan Farrow insinuates as factual accounts are actually an amalgamation of unrelated pieces of information that he formed together to tell what is little more than a dramatic fictional tale it was a huge story and an important one in a way that was bigger than Harvey Weinstein that was about vast systems that we are still struggling to expose bat Lauer the longtime host of The Today Show has been fired coming up new details about Matt Lauer's firing and questions about NBC's reason for passing on Ronan's Weinstein story isn't your belief today that their explanation for wanting you to put a pause on the story was because they were concerned that Weinstein had information about Matt Lauer stay with us hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News youtube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 1,682,092

Rating: 4.8500195 out of 5

Keywords: Ronan, Farrow, Harvey, Weinstein, Matt, Lauer, Ambra, Gutierrez, Rich, McHugh, Brooke, Nevils, NBC, Today, show, anchor, me, too, movement, rape, allegations, abc, abcnews

Id: fmchXgAYYu8

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 15 2019