# Ronan Farrow on Weinstein, Lauer and Hillary **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 10, 2019, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ronan-farrow-on-weinstein-lauer-and-hillary/841599 "2019-10-10T18:32:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2019, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ronan-farrow-on-weinstein-lauer-and-hillary/841599/1 "2019-10-10T18:32:24Z")
His new book _Catch and Kill_ will soon be out. Some aspects of it are discussed in this [Hollywood Reporter article](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/ronan-farrow-book-how-harvey-weinstein-may-have-leveraged-matt-lauer-1246149). Among the details are an allegation that when Farrow was at NBC and working on the Harvey Weinstein story, Weinstein found out and pressured NBC to kill the story by threatening to reveal details of Matt Lauer’s sexual abuse of NBC employees. “Weinstein made it known to the network that he was aware of Lauer’s behavior and capable of revealing it” the book says. (NBC denies this happened.) And there’s this in the article, about how Weinstein called on Hillary to help him: > [@](#): > > Weinstein also attempted to leverage his long-term relationship with Hillary Clinton to pressure Farrow, he writes. In summer 2017, while Farrow was trying to lock down an interview with Clinton for his foreign policy book — while also still working on the Weinstein story — he received a call from Clinton’s publicist, Nick Merrill, who told him that the “big story” Farrow was working on was a “concern for us.” ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ronan-farrow-on-weinstein-lauer-and-hillary/841599/2 "2019-10-12T19:36:02Z")
Bump. This [NPR review of Farrow’s book](https://www.npr.org/2019/10/11/768346770/in-catch-and-kill-ronan-farrow-offers-a-damning-portrait-of-a-conflicted-nbc) adds some interesting details. The book presents evidence that NBC knew about Matt Lauer’s sexual harassment proclivities well before they took any action - probably because this sort of thing was by no means limited to Lauer. To cope, NBC’s SOP was to arrange a significant payment coupled to a non-disclosure agreement - Farrow says there were more than a few of these. (You wonder to what extent the women who agreed to these understood that in accepting money for silence, one consequence was that other women would become victims.) Harvey Weinstein appreciated the success he enjoyed getting NBC to suppress reporting his problems. They weren’t the only news organization with dirt on him, but as he noted: “If I can get a network to kill a story, how hard can a newspaper be?” ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2019, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ronan-farrow-on-weinstein-lauer-and-hillary/841599/3 "2019-10-12T23:17:21Z")
The New Yorker has printed three segments from [Catch and Kill](https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-espionage/the-black-cube-chronicles-the-private-investigators). No information on Matt Lauer, but plenty about Black Cube. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ronan-farrow-on-weinstein-lauer-and-hillary/841599/4 "2019-10-14T20:27:02Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ronan-farrow-on-weinstein-lauer-and-hillary/841599/5 "2019-10-14T20:56:37Z")
I wonder if Catch and Kill will have an appendix reprinting [Lauer’s open letter](https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6463551/Matt-Lauer-Open-Letter.pdf) about all of this. I’ve read it, and it seems convincing on its face for various reasons, but then, talented writers/persuasive people can do that. I will wait for the book before jumping to any conclusions. > [@](#): > > Today, nearly two years after I was fired by NBC, old stories are being recycled, **titillating > details are being added, and a dangerous and defamatory new allegation is being made.** All are > being spread as part of a promotional effort to sell a book. It’s outrageous. So, after not > speaking out to protect my children, it is now with their full support I say “enough.” > … > For two years, the women with whom I had extramarital relationships > have abandoned shared responsibility, and instead, shielded themselves from blame behind false > allegations. They have avoided having to look a boyfriend, husband, or a child in the eye and > say, “I cheated.” They have done enormous damage in the process. And I will no longer > provide them the shelter of my silence.