Harvey Weinstein threatened Ronan Farrow personally with a lawsuit during the reporting of a story which revealed decades of sexual assault allegations by the Hollywood titan. Farrow’s bombshell exposé, published yesterday in The New Yorker, included accounts from 13 women detailing alleged abuse, harassment, and worse at the hands of the producer. Weinstein is reportedly suing The New York Times for its similarly damning piece, which included an account by the actress Ashley Judd.
In an interview with Rachel Maddow, Farrow revealed that Weinstein threatened to sue him personally, which contributed to why the piece took so long to publish. “Over many years, many news organizations have circled this story and faced a great deal of pressure in doing so,” said Farrow. “In the course of this reporting, I was threatened with a lawsuit personally by Mr. Weinstein.”
Maddow pushed Farrow further, asking why NBC did not run the story when he initially brought it to the news organization. “NBC says the story wasn’t publishable…by the time you brought it to them. But obviously, it was ready to go by the time you brought it to The New Yorker,” said Maddow. “I walked into the door at The New Yorker with an explosively reportable piece that should have been public earlier,” said Farrow. “It is not accurate to say that it was not reportable, in fact there were multiple determinations that it was reportable at NBC.”
Watch the segment below:
Video: Smart of @Maddow to press @RonanFarrow about why NBC didn’t greenlight/support him pushing his Weinstein investigation #TTT pic.twitter.com/JApEs07xoL
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 11, 2017
On PBS’ “Newshour,” Farrow commented further on the immense pressure Weinstein’s accusers face:
“There is a vast machine set up to silence these women,” @RonanFarrow says of how allegations against Harvey Weinstein were kept quiet. pic.twitter.com/o7EvLR0KFp
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) October 10, 2017
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
