The press has long been considered the watchdog for the rest of the industrial world, and as movies like "Spotlight" and the Washington Post’s newly-minted slogan “democracy dies in darkness” would suggest, it doesn’t hesitate to flaunt this responsibility.
The recent news surrounding Harvey Weinstein, though, reveals that the media isn’t always timely in its investigative work, especially when the person at the center of a high-profile story is an acquaintance of those tasked with breaking it.
Ronan Farrow’s exposé of the media mogul was first reported by The New Yorker last week, but it never should have made it there. Farrow had been working on the story for 10 months at NBC News but was told repeatedly that his report was not ready for print, despite the firsthand accounts by 13 women who had been harassed or abused by Weinstein. NBC News Chief Noah Oppenheim stood by the organization’s decision to hold off on the story at an employee meeting last week, stating: “The notion that we would try to cover for a powerful person is deeply offensive for all of us.”
However, the authenticity of Oppenheim’s remarks seems questionable considering Weinstein’s attorneys had previously reached out to NBC about the allegations on at least one occasion. Coupled with the fact that last year NBC also withheld the tape of Donald Trump’s “grab 'em by the p---y” remarks during a 2005 appearance on the Billy Bush show, Oppenheim’s defense is unconvincing at best.
Farrow contradicted Oppenheim’s efforts to save face, claiming in an interview last week, “There were multiple determinations that it was reportable at NBC.”
The higher-ups of the media world aren’t the only ones guilty of sweeping the Weinstein allegations under the rug. Storied magazine editor Tina Brown wrote Tuesday that Weinstein often bartered with journalists in order to stay out of the limelight, offering up negative anecdotes about his peers in the film and media elite in exchange for scratching dangerous pieces about his behavior. Many of those writers were even employed by Miramax under the guise of a “consultancy” or “development deal.”
In fact, this isn’t even the first time allegations toward Weinstein have been publicized. Almost exactly two years before The New Yorker first published the exposé last week, Ashley Judd shared a story to Variety about being sexually harassed by a studio mogul that she declined to name but was widely understood to be Weinstein.
New York Times contributor Jim Rutenberg noted several failed attempts to persecute Weinstein by fellow columnists at the Times as well as others at The New Yorker, The Hollywood Reporter and New York magazine.
Over the weekend, Weinstein became the second individual in history to be expelled by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a distinction not even earned by Roman Polanski — another figure on the long list of writers, directors and producers that have continued their work in the film industry despite allegations and charges of sexual abuse over the years. The fact that he has remained a member of the academy along with so many others indicates the Hollywood community’s complicity in a pattern of sexual abuse is nothing new.
