Ronan Farrow on Matt Lauer Allegations in Book: I’ll ‘Let the Facts Stand on Their Own’

welcome back Ronan Farrow at this table tackling those hard subjects I really I respect the hell out I think we've all just been engulfed in this and we got a early copy so thank you for trusting us first I just want to thank you on behalf of all women in media you're making it safer for us because it has been open season on we and Bobby and I came from Fox it's been open season for a really long time and I know me and everyone when I've talked to in this industry is really really sick of it so I just want to start you're very brave it means so much and the people who are brave in this book are the sources and ultimately Whoopi's right there's a lot of dark stuff in this book but also it is again and again I hope you guys found this a hopeful story about brave people saying well we have to we have a lot to get to but let's start with the allegations about Matt Lauer it made a lot of news last week NBC claims Lauer was fired in 2017 for quote inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace but in the book you write that the alleged victim Brooke nevels allegations are much more disturbing I found them much more disturbing she says she was raped what does nevels say happened that night and for me I keep saying I've been done with Matt Lauer since the way he treated Ann Curry so and Ann Curry is incredibly brave in this book and speaks out about having actually reported another incident involving that involving another colleague years before that firing so you know this is about more than any one person any one allegation as serious as they are this is about how systems of silencing and protecting sometimes enshrined in corporate and legal practices that a company shut people up and maybe that risks other people getting hurt for Brooke nevels you're absolutely right this was described in one way initially and we talk in the book about how people were calling it an affair there's significant evidence in the book that it was actually actively characterized in the press as an affair at the behest of some people at NBC and as recently as last week they were still doing that this was not an affair of what she alleges now the book is incredibly carefully fact checked it's very fair to Matt Lauer Matt Lauer's think is all in there but what she claims is that she said no to a very brutal and violent act and was injured by it and you know it's been weaponized against her that as in so many cases of sexual violence she was then in a situation where she's working with this guy and she couldn't in her description get away from him and there were other encounters that happened afterwards but she has been clear and saying that is not an affair that was her struggling to get out of a toxic situation with someone who had previously attacked her well let me ask you this because Matt Lauer wrote a response letter and he calls the account categorically false he says that the sexual encounter with Brooke like all of his relationships was completely consensual he also says that she was an enthusiastic and willing partner he says at no time did she behave in a way that made it appear she was incapable of consent he suggests she's lying about him in an effort to sell a book and he also goes on to say that all of these women he's had affairs with have abandoned shared responsibility what is your response I will let that statement stand on its own and only say that as with everything else I report on Matt Lauer was given a very fair opportunity for fact-checking and comment and his thinking and many of the ideas you conveyed there are in the book loud and clear I'm confident in the reporting in the book I'm confident in the pact checking and I will let the facts stand on their own Brooke Neville's claims checked out NBC felt they checked out and they fired him over it and I think that it represents an ongoing cover-up culture that we see way beyond NBC that it has been so mischaracterized and she has been so silenced and in fact was paid seven figures this year to ensure that she can never speak about NBC executives and what they did or didn't know about this they say they didn't know that they didn't know about Matt Lauer's here's what they had to say well you claim that NBC had multiple secret settlements and non-disclosures with women who alleged misconduct from Lauer years before this incident but NBC they put out a statement today calling this quote false they say the agreements you seem to be referring to involve employees who made no complaint to management and whose Department agreements or departure agreements were unrelated to Lauer and completely routine they add we have no secrets we've got nothing to hide mm-hmm do you have proof there there is proof and a paper trail in this book and here's the thing the nature of secret sexual harassment settlements employed by Harvey Weinstein employed by NBC employed by a lot of the institutions in this book is that they don't say here's a payout so you don't talk about Matt Lauer and these specific things he did to you the nature is we know legally yeah its euphemistic it's a payout for silence it bans them from talking about the company and what it knew it's designed to protect executives but we did the reporting and found that just about everyone involved and all these transactions said this was explicitly designed to shut up women with allegations about sexual harassment and here again the risk there is if companies continue to silence people predators stay at companies right and more people potentially get hurt also in that email was blast out to the employees this morning at NBC I think they would rather you not be speaking anymore some of these executives they say that you have an axe to grind against NBC News you had a show that was canceled there that you are angry with them how do you respond not even slightly the book is very clear about the fact that I had friendly relationships with all these people outside of the killing of the Weinstein story thought only highly of them and the only reason that I'm not there now is because it became increasingly clear to me after all this went down that there was a much bigger story that this was more than just the killing of one story this was a pattern of concealment and source after source came to me saying they had been abused in this corporate context and that there were systems designed to cover it up again this is important in our profession in the media I did similar reporting on CBS and by the way similar claims their axe to grind smear campaign ahead of time every story I do I got this far shows were canceled at the same time they work so we can always relate to it but I think I would agree to you know I kept working for years after there there's clearly no that's a surprise yeah I think I think we're done with that but you know what I one of the big question will it always Merrick to Megan's Queen the you know there's this conversation that they're attempting to focus things on which is what did I have and when and that's my question because they're basically saying that you're reporting that they refuse to run your reporting on Harvey Weinstein because your story wasn't ready they also said that you had no accuser willing to have their name used on the record at that point but you say that they ordered you to stop the investigation so look the headline here is I took that same reporting they're talking about and took it across the street to the New Yorker and a few weeks later we did have this Pulitzer prize-winning reporting that thank God thanks to the bravery of sources really sparked a huge impact yes I think the reporting is unimpeachable and stands on its own yeah it is actually an outright lie to say that there weren't named women there were three named women during the time that the story was at NBC no draft had fewer than two women and we had a recording a police recording of him admitting to crimes so I I think the reporting stands on its own but it is misdirection to make the conversation about that the conversation is about the fact that they ordered a stop to so much as a single phone call about the story this book answers why you

Channel: The View

Views: 657,324

Keywords: Hot Topics, The View, Whoopi Goldberg, Abby Huntsman, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Meghan McCain, Ronan Farrow

Id: Mm4sbts3jgA

Length: 7min 43sec (463 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 14 2019