Did Ronan Farrow Miss Out on Taking Down NBC News?
In my post on Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill last week, I made a mistake.
The post described Mr. Farrow’s takedown of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, which, by my lights at least, went into excessive detail. It should have also delved into Mr. Farrow’s expose of NBC News’s sexualized workplace culture.
While Mr. Weinstein treated women like a criminal, numerous male network executives treated them boorishly. According to Mr. Farrow and others, for years one male network executive after another propositioned, harassed, or even assaulted (attractive) young female employees.
“I was like a hanging piece of meat,” one woman, an on-air personality, said of lewd remarks men made to her.
Former Today producer Melissa Lonner said the show’s anchor, Matt Lauer, propositioned and exposed himself to her in his network office.
In the years after 2011 and 2012, NBC brokered non-disclosure agreements with seven women at least who said they were harassed or discriminated against.
Mr. Farrow’s reporting on NBC News made a splash. Within two months of the book’s publication, in October 2019, NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke stepped down. Within seven months (May 4, to be precise), NBC News Chairman disclosed that Chairman Andy Lack would resign.
A still-born state investigation of NBC News?
As if the departures were not enough, state prosecutors indicated they were investigating NBC News. The day after NBC News announced Mr. Lack’s departure, on May 5, 2020, news outlets reported that the New York Attorney General was opening a probe into the workplace culture at NBC News.
The house of cards was precarious if not collapsing. Would this be like Fox News’ Roger Ailes? Woman after woman was talking with the New York AG. A major network’s news division was going to be held accountable! To paraphrase Midnight Oil, NBC News’ dreamworld was just about to end, baby!
Except it didn’t.
Two weeks later, three men accused Mr. Farrow of “shoddy” reporting. One was Mr. Lauer himself. The most famous was The New York Times’ Ben Smith, whose critique prompted journalists to tap on their laptops in a way they had not when NBC News was under the microscope.
A curiously timed counterattack
Before I get to the critique’s substance, the context deserves a wider hearing.
For seven months, Messrs. Lauer and Smith ignored Mr. Farrow’s book. Crickets chirped, tumbleweeds rolled through empty small towns, the sun rose and set each day. Then, in early May 2020 the news broke that NBC News is under investigation. All of a sudden two prominent journalists go public with countercharges against Mr. Farrow.
That’s a pattern. While I can find no examples of anyone mentioning the context of the counter-attack, that’s a distinct pattern.
The effect was predictable. Mr. Farrow responded to his critics. They responded to him. Instead of discussing NBC News, people discussed him.
To be sure, some of Mr. Smith’s critique had merit.
Loose talk of a conspiracy
Catch and Kill flies too close to the sun; it overreaches. Its subtitle, “Lies, Spies, and A Conspiracy to Protect Predators,” suggests that Harvey Weinstein, NBC News, or the National Enquirer’s parent company joined forces in a “conspiracy” against women. The book itself makes a more muddled claim: a conspiracy may have been at work, but less sinister forces may have been at work too.
For example, the book quotes an unnamed executive who describes Mr. Burke’s decision to quash Mr. Farrow’s reporting. Mr. Burke, it should be noted, had a background in entertainment rather than news.
“I don’t think it’s even about protecting his friends, it’s just, ‘This guy is powerful, I’m getting these calls, I don’t need this problem,” the executive said. “He doesn’t know it’s not ethical.”
The use of the word “conspiracy” in Catch and Kill was an unfair charge, an act of injustice. (I know where of I speak. I wish the subtitle in my own book had been more charitable toward social and cultural liberals). It also had an unfortunate effect. It gave ammunition to Mr. Farrow’s critics.
To be sure, the workplace culture at NBC News may have been overly “permissive,” as former Today host Katie Couric said, rather than outright exploitative. Did the seven women who signed non-disclosure agreements leave because of sexual harassment or sex discrimination? In this case, that’s a distinction with a difference. The New York AG’s office may have had good reason not to open a public investigation.
If anybody knows, they aren’t speaking with reporters or haven’t been asked.
Yet Mr. Farrow had shined a light into a dark corner of a household American institution, NBC News. If he had shown more fairness, the light of accountability might still be on it. Mr. Farrow may think there will be other days, but it’s more likely this was the only day.
What does everybody else think?
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Personally, I think what happened wasn’t likely a “planned takedown”of Mr. Farrow, but rather an example of the pre-eminent pattern of the last generation: an ability of the powerful to throw off the economic and cultural restraints that had previously kept them in check. A few people occasionally get taken down, but the structures of American life still become ever more friendly to the already advantaged. It’s not happened by conspiracy as much as simple historical forces. For me, searching for why those historical forces are at work is the real key. Not only did NBC News somehow avoid further trouble, but Mr. Farrow, of much privilege himself, will also seemingly be fine.