Daily Beast: NBC Threatened Ronan Farrow to Stop Trying to Report on Harvey Weinstein

Remember, NBC had its own Matt-Lauer-sized Harvey Weinstein problem. And they knew about it.

And for some reason they didn't want Farrow to report on Weinstein.

The producer who worked alongside Ronan Farrow at NBC News on his Harvey Weinstein investigation quit in protest earlier this month.

Rich McHugh tendered his resignation on Friday, Aug. 17, a year to the day that the Weinstein story left with Farrow...

NBC News has long insisted the Weinstein expose wasn't ready to run on air or online, contrary to Farrow's claims that it was....

According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, NBC News general counsel Susan Weiner made a series of phone calls to Farrow, threatening to smear him if he continued to report on Weinstein.

NBC vigorously denies this.

Farrow presented evidence to NBC News President Noah Oppenheim, and was surprised to hear Oppenheim relaying Weinstein's objections to the story -- despite the fact that Farrow had not yet reached out to Weinstein for comment. Farrow began to suspect that Oppenheim was informing Weinstein about the investigation as it developed, possibly, he thought, because Oppenheim himself was a sometime Hollywood screenwriter.

The Huffington Post reported last year that Oppenheim had relayed concerns from Weinstein's lawyers that Farrow could not report the story because the producer had worked with his estranged father, director Woody Allen. "No, absolutely not, and Noah Oppenheim never had a conversation with Harvey Weinstein about the content of NBC News’s investigation," the network spokesperson said.

And:

According to multiple sources, Weinstein attorney Charles Harder claimed in legal threats to Farrow and others that NBC News gave them written assurances that Farrow would not use any reporting he obtained about Weinstein during his time at the network, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Harder did not respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment.

NBC's doing a lot of denying. We'll see.

posted by Ace of Spades at 05:31 PM

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