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Ronan Farrow is standing by his reporting in his new book 'Catch and Kill,' despite being hit back with statements from both NBC executives and Matt Lauer.
Transcript
00:00I'll let the facts in the book speak for themselves, but I think that is difficult to believe
00:03when you look at the documents and records.
00:04Ronan Farrow is standing by his reporting in his new book, Catch and Kill, despite being
00:09hit back with statements from both NBC executives and Matt Lauer. Appearing on ABC's Good
00:14Morning America, Farrow refuted the statements given by top NBC executives in regards to
00:19Farrow's reporting about his investigation into Harvey Weinstein, and also fired back
00:23at Lauer's open letter in which he defended himself against a sexual assault claim from
00:27Meredith Vieira's former producer that occurred during the 2014 Winter Olympics.
00:32Farrow's new book details NBC's alleged secret payouts and attempts to cover up Lauer's alleged
00:37indiscretions, as well as Weinstein's sexual misconduct allegations. The book dives into how
00:41Lauer may have played a role in the network's decision to kill Farrow's Weinstein expose that
00:46the reporter had originally planned to take to NBC, but eventually published in The New Yorker.
00:51This expose was the catalyst that eventually kicked off the MeToo movement.
00:55Farrow spoke to GMA's George Stephanopoulos, reiterating that NBC News ordered a hard stop
01:00to reporting on Weinstein.
01:02They told me and a producer working on this that we should not take a single call. They
01:05told us to cancel interviews. The question for years has been, why? Because every journalist
01:10at that institution didn't understand why.
01:13Following these claims made about NBC's cover-up, NBC News chairman Andy Lack said in a Wednesday
01:18memo to his staff that they had only learned of Lauer's behavior on the night of November 27, 2017,
01:24after Vieira's producer Brooke Nevels filed her complaint, adding he was fired in 24 hours.
01:29Lack also noted,
01:30"...any suggestion that we knew prior to that evening or tried to cover up any aspect of
01:34Lauer's conduct is absolutely false and offensive."
01:37But Farrow doubled down on his reporting, again refuting NBC's statement, saying his book
01:42outlines a paper trail and documents that show multiple secret settlements and non-disclosures
01:47being struck with women at NBC News, including ones involving Lauer, adding that this was
01:51years before the incident with Nevels. In regards to Nevels' claims, which Lauer called in his lengthy
01:56open letter, false and salacious allegations leveled at me, Farrow told Stephanopoulos that
02:01her claims were extensively fact-checked and backed by documentation and eyewitnesses.
02:06The facts of her case, which are backed by documentation and eyewitnesses, suggest that there was an
02:11encounter here that she consistently has described as non-consensual.
02:15Farrow also discussed that there is importance and significance in his reporting, saying,
02:20"...this is a pattern in media, in law, in politics. Institutions that conceal abuse of this type
02:25let people get hurt, and that's something we should all care about."
02:28For more on this story, head to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Neha Joy.
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