Ronan Farrow on exposing Harvey Weinstein

he's the reporter who helped bring to light some of the charges of sexual harassment and abuse we seem to be hearing about in ever-increasing numbers aaron Moriarity of 48 hours has questions for Ronan Farrow parental discretion is advised they anger us offend us sometimes they even make us sad actors politicians journalists producers accused of behavior that ranges from simply creepy to criminal in the case of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein the accusations go back years but his accusers have only come forward in the past two months why now this was the first point in history when women could look at the allegations against Bill Cosby the allegations against Roger Ailes the allegations against Bill O'Reilly and see for the first time okay as scary as this is there's a precedent I can come forward and all be heard but this young reporter also played a part in what many describe as a moment of reckoning his name is Ronan Farrow at twenty nine he wasn't even born when Weinstein is alleged to have begun sexually harassing and assaulting women yet Farrow was able to stand up to the movie producers powerful legal MPR machine when Harvey Weinstein threatened to sue me it was like the scene in Harry Potter where an invitation to Hogwarts is coming in through every window and fireplace and every opening in the house Farrell was working for NBC News when he was assigned the story he had obtained an incriminating police recording of Harvey Weinstein with actress ombres Gutierrez Barrow says he also had other accusers on the record but NBC executives said the story still needed work and decided not to proceed with it there wasn't a thought like I should just give up on this in terms of the gravity of the evidence it would have been impossible for me to live with myself or answer to any of the many women I had already interviewed if I had stopped so Ronan Farrow went to the New Yorker magazine so from the moment he walked in the doors here you were determined to get this imprint damn right David Remnick editor of The New Yorker says he knew all about the claims against Weinstein 15 years ago one of his writers Canaletto working on a profile of the movie producer couldn't convince accusers to go public it was a letter who brought Farrow to The New Yorker and much like aletta Farrow had a battle on his hands as what once was said of Ben Bradley exhibited the guts of a jewel thief not that he did any thieving he did the work I give him enormous credit this is not somebody who's been doing this for 20 years the stakes are high whether it's to the institution of The New Yorker or to his personal reputation to say nothing of mine Feroz first story about Weinstein detailing allegations of sexual assault may buy a dozen actresses including Mira Sorvino and Rosanna Arquette appeared online in early October the same week a similar story appeared in the New York Times how much did that help you the fact that The Times came out that same week was their strength in numbers for sure for sure I mean for months I was working on this alone the impact was immediate when something this major happens when you have the fallout 50 women coming forward that it's a watershed moment Pharaoh's follow-up report was equally explosive revealing the lengths that Weinstein would allegedly go to quash negative stories including using private investigators and former Israeli spies to dig up dirt to discredit his accusers as well as the journalists who told their stories I don't think most people are aware of the exotic and extreme tools at the disposal of the most powerful and wealthy men in America when they are bent at silencing accusations against them do you think that there was an investigation to see if there was anything in your background or anything that could make you back off from this side I know that that's the case but anyone looking into Pharaoh's background would quickly discover that he is not easily rattled he is a lawyer was chosen a Rhodes Scholar and maybe most important he grew up under a media microscope as the son of actress and activist Mia Farrow it was perhaps an unexpected advantage in one sense that any dirt that could be uncovered on me had already lived in the tabloids for my entire life which is a painful and unpleasant thing but in this case it meant that there were really no surprises to uncover when there were any efforts to discredit me Farrow was born in 1987 during his mother's long-term relationship with Woody Allen he was four when in the middle of his parents custody battle his seven-year-old sister Dylan accused Allen of sexually abusing her after two different state investigations Allen was never criminally charged those are painful family experiences that I for many years tried to outrun and avoid Woody Allen has always denied it and has denied it powerfully has has always denied it has gone very directly after any woman proximate to it huge huge public relations apparatus designed to do that in 2014 pharaoh's sister then an adult decided to repeat her accusation against her father publicly and you tried to talk her out of it I tried to talk her out of it vigorously saying stay quiet you've already lived through this trauma why bring it up again why hurt your career why hurt the rest of our careers why did she decide that go forward you know the logic that she articulated to me had a lot in common with the logic raised by women speaking out against Harvey Weinstein she wanted to make sure that other women were protected in a statement to CBS News a representative for Woody Allen said the sexual abuse allegations have been investigated thoroughly and repeatedly and have consistently been found to lack any basis in fact but Ronan Farrow says he now believes his sister did the right thing by speaking out and as he interviewed women making accusations against Weinstein he says Dylan was on his mind she made a very brave choice to go public because she thought it could help others and that is the same choice that each and every one of these women accusing Harvey Weinstein had to make this was all downside for these women coming forward there was nothing to gain and everything to lose but while some women say they were too terrified to speak about Harvey Weinstein others simply couldn't Weinstein who denies all claims of non-consensual sex had been paying for their silence as much as a million dollars in the case of Umbra Gutierrez as Farrow reported this past week the non-disclosure agreements what part did those play over 20 years he signed secret settlement after secret settlement binding women to silence Mimi Hawaii has come forward in order to support others who have been brave enough to break the silence about what they alleged that they suffered as a result of meeting Harvey Weinstein same lawyer Gloria Allred represents a number of women like Mimi Haleh a former movie production assistant who have gone public with accusations against Harvey Weinstein I've known about allegations against him for some time more than a year years for a significant period of time don't you feel we're so much closer to each other now I know but already mitts that she's also had clients she's advised in the past to remain silent in exchange for money isn't that exactly why we didn't hear about any of these cases till now there is a legitimate concern well what about public safety if this victim cannot speak might he do it again and again and again on the other hand my duty as an attorney is to my client I will not sacrifice my client for any cause even a cause that I believe in but the days of silencing victims may be over Harvey Weinstein not long ago among the most powerful men in Hollywood has lost his job and so have more than two dozen other men accused of inappropriate workplace behavior all because of a few dogged reporters and the women who trusted them Harvey Weinstein himself and the allegations against him are extreme it's important to say that but he's hardly alone and if this moment leads to a greater awareness to men particularly men who are in positions of power and influence to behave like human beings then something will have happened here important

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 1,125,349

Keywords: ronan farrow, harvey weinstein, sexual harassment, sexual assault, movie producer, expose, scandal, crime, legal, public relation, new yorker, journalist, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, On The Road

Id: 2yxyk2eiEW0

Length: 9min 54sec (594 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 29 2017