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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
Nestor left after completing her temporary placement, feeling traumatized. "I actually decided not to go into entertainment because of this incident," she told me. Behind her, the sun was setting over the marina. "Is this the way the world works?" she wondered. "That men get away with this?"
Catch and Kill is a story primarily about Ronan Farrow's time working on the Harvey Weinstein story, about his sexual assaults against women and he worked the industry and the people around him to help him to cover it up. I remember reading the New Yorker article when it came out, the shock and revulsion I felt about his behavior and the sheer sadness that I felt for all the women that had to endure his behavior. I didn't expect to find that I would feel the same emotions over and over again with this read, but to also feel this incandescent rage on behalf of these women and of Farrow and his producer partner at the time, Rich McHugh, for all the pressure and bullying that they faced to drop the story.
Ronan Farrow writes a behind-the-scenes story about how he gradually became involved in writing the article for the New Yorker, how he learnt about all the previous failed attempts to get anywhere with the sources and how Weinstein bullied NBC into doing what he wanted - to cover-up, like so many others in the industry had done for him. But the story is also bigger than Farrow and McHugh - because there are links to multiple parts of the industry, to the entertainment lawyers who convinced the ladies to take the NDA and the settlement because this appeared to be the safest deal for them, to the agents and assistants who either willingly or unwillingly became complicit in Weinstein's behavior by procuring girls for him or having to play a part in the charade that Weinstein wanted a business meeting with these girls. And, of course, there are links to private espionage agencies like the Black Cube, who had agents cultivating the same sources that Farrow was talking to and who insidiously worked themselves into these ladies' inner circle.
The story is even bigger than Weinstein in fact - because Farrow also tackles the way that the media has been complicit in covering up these cases of sexual assault, not just in Weinstein's case but also that of many others. And it wasn't just about intimidating sources into not speaking up:
The relationship between AMI and Trump was an extreme example of the media's potential to slip from independent oversight to cocktail party alliances with reporting subjects. But, for AMI, it was also familiar territory. Over the years, the company had reached deals to shelve reporting around Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Tiger Woods, Mark Wahlberg and too many others to count. "We had stories and we bought them knowing full well they were never going to run," George said.
One after the other, the AMI employees used the same phrase to describe this practice of purchasing a story in order to bury it. It was an old term in the tabloid industry: "catch and kill".
This is the first book that I think I've read about investigative reporting and I think that Farrow has set a superb standard for any other investigative reporting book that I'm going to read going forward. It's a harrowing story about the personal and professional pressures that Farrow went through to tell these ladies' stories as well and I applaud him for all of it.
Alongside She Said, Catch and Kill is the definitive book about breaking the Harvey Weinstein story, perhaps the most important event in journalism this decade. The broad strokes of both books are the same: Everyone knew Weinstein was a monster, but the producer nevertheless wielded enormous influence and power to suppress the story. The book's authors — She Said's Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, and Catch and Kill's Ronan Farrow — were able to persuade numerous brave women to speak about their experience with Weinstein on the record, thus shattering the silence that had prevailed for decades.
But there's one difference between the two. While Kantor and Twohey had the full institutional backing of their publisher, The New York Times, Farrow, then employed at NBC News, did not. In the first half of Catch and Kill, Farrow recounts how NBC News executives regularly tried to convince him to halt his reporting on the story in spite of the enormous risks Farrow's sources, including actress Rose McGowan, were taking by agreeing to speak on the record. Noah Oppenheim, NBC News' chairman, was particularly obstructionist, at one point even doubting to Farrow that the Weinstein story was even newsworthy at all.
Farrow also faced another, more sinister adversary. Weinstein had retained an Israeli security firm called Black Cube to spy on the journalist, tailing Farrow as he walked around New York and sitting opposite his Upper West Side apartment in a parked car. Eventually, in a plot twist taken straight out of a movie, one of Black Cube's spooks turns on his boss and begins to help Farrow.
We know what happened next: Farrow took his story to The New Yorker, which published it. But that's not all. Soon after losing his job at NBC, Farrow learns that the network spiked his Weinstein story because it was hiding a monster of its own: Today Show host Matt Lauer, who would soon join Weinstein as among the men felled by the #metoo tsunami.
Catch and Kill is an expertly-paced page-turner, showing that Farrow, a former child prodigy who has worked as a lawyer and diplomat as well as a journalist in his 32 years, can also write. (He's also the handsome son of a movie star, the bastard). He describes the personal toll covering the Weinstein story has on his personal life, including his relationship with his boyfriend (now fiancee) Jonathan, better known as former Obama speechwriter and current Pod Save America host Jon Lovett. Most importantly, Farrow is careful to deflect concern for his own well-being to illuminate the enormous personal courage exhibited by the women, including McGowan and Italian actress Asia Argento, who spoke out against Weinstein.
For at least 25 years, everyone in the film industry knew that Harvey Weinstein harassed and abused women. And yet the edifice of power he established — the non-disclosure agreements; the whisper network; the pressure on networks, newspapers, and magazines; the legion of influential defenders; and gobs and gobs of money — protected him from justice. Most insidious, perhaps, is a wide-spread perception that the #metoo movement has somehow gone too far and that powerful men are somehow now the victims. This backlash makes me wonder whether the Weinstein story will represent less a tidal wave of public opinion but rather a temporary blip. I hope I'm wrong.
What I do know is this: Without powerful, well-regarded journalistic institutions, the powerful will never be brought to justice. For all of their flaws, I am relieved that institutions like The New York Times and The New Yorker are alive and well in this treacherous, confusing era.
But there's one difference between the two. While Kantor and Twohey had the full institutional backing of their publisher, The New York Times, Farrow, then employed at NBC News, did not. In the first half of Catch and Kill, Farrow recounts how NBC News executives regularly tried to convince him to halt his reporting on the story in spite of the enormous risks Farrow's sources, including actress Rose McGowan, were taking by agreeing to speak on the record. Noah Oppenheim, NBC News' chairman, was particularly obstructionist, at one point even doubting to Farrow that the Weinstein story was even newsworthy at all.
Farrow also faced another, more sinister adversary. Weinstein had retained an Israeli security firm called Black Cube to spy on the journalist, tailing Farrow as he walked around New York and sitting opposite his Upper West Side apartment in a parked car. Eventually, in a plot twist taken straight out of a movie, one of Black Cube's spooks turns on his boss and begins to help Farrow.
We know what happened next: Farrow took his story to The New Yorker, which published it. But that's not all. Soon after losing his job at NBC, Farrow learns that the network spiked his Weinstein story because it was hiding a monster of its own: Today Show host Matt Lauer, who would soon join Weinstein as among the men felled by the #metoo tsunami.
Catch and Kill is an expertly-paced page-turner, showing that Farrow, a former child prodigy who has worked as a lawyer and diplomat as well as a journalist in his 32 years, can also write. (He's also the handsome son of a movie star, the bastard). He describes the personal toll covering the Weinstein story has on his personal life, including his relationship with his boyfriend (now fiancee) Jonathan, better known as former Obama speechwriter and current Pod Save America host Jon Lovett. Most importantly, Farrow is careful to deflect concern for his own well-being to illuminate the enormous personal courage exhibited by the women, including McGowan and Italian actress Asia Argento, who spoke out against Weinstein.
For at least 25 years, everyone in the film industry knew that Harvey Weinstein harassed and abused women. And yet the edifice of power he established — the non-disclosure agreements; the whisper network; the pressure on networks, newspapers, and magazines; the legion of influential defenders; and gobs and gobs of money — protected him from justice. Most insidious, perhaps, is a wide-spread perception that the #metoo movement has somehow gone too far and that powerful men are somehow now the victims. This backlash makes me wonder whether the Weinstein story will represent less a tidal wave of public opinion but rather a temporary blip. I hope I'm wrong.
What I do know is this: Without powerful, well-regarded journalistic institutions, the powerful will never be brought to justice. For all of their flaws, I am relieved that institutions like The New York Times and The New Yorker are alive and well in this treacherous, confusing era.
Must read
The story behind the story: well written, exhaustively researched and so important. The courage of these victims and those that brought their stories to light must be read.
The story behind the story: well written, exhaustively researched and so important. The courage of these victims and those that brought their stories to light must be read.
informative
informative
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Vomit, Suicide attempt
fast-paced
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced