“Reporters Ultimately Don’t Stop”

This is first time I’ve focused intensely and in-depth on a male for Adea. However, I truly believe the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Ronan Farrow deserves this salute. In a nutshell, his article in The New Yorker was so sensational that it changed the course of history in America, and perhaps the world, by kicking off the incredible #MeToo movement.

As everyone knows, he is the son of Mia Farrow, an actress who has appeared in more than 50 films and is known for her humanitarian activities.  His father is Woody Allen, the award-winning writer, actor, comedian and director of stage, screen and TV. The family that Ronan Farrow comes from is HUGE: 14 children of which four are biological and 10 are adopted.

Warning: The following paragraph boggles the mind! In an informative Lunch with the FT (12/1/19) by Haratia Harrod, an associate editor at FT Life & Arts, a great deal about this remarkable 31-year-old is revealed. First of all, it’s said that he’s always been five years ahead of where he should be. His mother notes that he was reading The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka in elementary school. Then at the age of 11 he became the youngest student to enroll at Bard College in Great Barrington, Massachusetts where he graduated with a BA in philosophy. After Bard he enrolled at Yale Law School (to become a lawyer and a diplomat). He was also a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. This resulted in an 81,461-word PhD thesis on Political Representation and Strategic Reality in America’s Proxy Wars.

HIS MOST RECENT BOOK IS CALLED, CATCH AND KILL: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect. It’s a nail-biting thriller. On Friday, December 13, 2019 I picked up this book at the library and started reading the minute I got home. I was going to stop after a couple of hours because Christmas gifts/cards/errands, etc. were hanging over my head like a Damoclean sword. Instead, I read straight through until sunrise.

Ronan Farrow – Artwork courtesy of the Financial Times

There are a great number of things that REALLY surprise me about all this. In Farrow’s first breakthrough, earth-shattering piece titled, From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories, that appeared on October 10, 2017 he writes, “For more than TWENTY YEARS, Weinstein, who is now 65, has been trailed by rumors of sexual harassment and assault. His behavior has been an open secret to many in Hollywood, including The New Yorker. But publication of the story over the years never happened. Why? Simply put, it fell short of the demands of journalistic evidence. Too few people were willing to speak, much less allow a reporter to use their names, and Weinstein and his associates used nondisclosure agreements, payoffs plus legal threats to suppress their accounts.”

“ON 10/5/17, THE NEW YORK TIMES, in a powerful report by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, revealed multiple allegations of sexual harassment against Weinstein, an article that led to the resignation of four members of the Weinstein Company’s all-male board – and to Weinstein’s firing.”

In Farrow’s Catch and Kill book the details of NBC’s determination to put an end to his report on Weinstein are shocking. The consensus was “it will never air” and some of the senior executives went to great lengths to put an end to this endeavor once and for all. One said, “No one knows who Harvey Weinstein is except people in LA and NY.” Another commented about an important point, “This will never be accepted by the lawyers” and Farrow replied, “I AM A LAWYER and it will.” Another remarked that this was NOT a big story or, more directly, “so a couple of women were raped.” This went on for weeks and weeks and weeks until Farrow was told that his contract with NBC would not be renewed – in other words, he was fired. The network thought that was the end of it.

Not in a million years! Or as Farrow says, “Reporters ultimately don’t stop.” He took it to The New Yorker and they went over all of it line by line, word by word and published it on October 10, 2017 – THAT’S WHEN EVERYTHING HIT THE FAN.

UPDATE ON WEINSTEIN in the New York Post, 1/6/20:  “This is one of the highest profile trials that New York has seen in a very long time,” said a spokesman for the state. He noted that, “150 journalists from around the world have obtained credentials for the trial, not counting the New York City press corps. Media interest is from Moscow to Buenos Aires while all of Europe is well represented. There are 10 outlets just from France.” (Update in March 2020: he was sentenced to 23 years in prison.)

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