Ronan Farrow spars with NBC News chief over network's decision to drop Harvey Weinstein exposé

On Monday, NBC News chairman Andy Lack sent employees a memo and 11-page internal analysis defending and explaining the network's decision to walk away from Ronan Farrow's bombshell report on sexual assault allegations against now-disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Farrow took his report to The New Yorker, which published it seven weeks later, earning Farrow a Pulitzer and helping spark the #MeToo movement. "Farrow's award-winning New Yorker article about Weinstein," Lack wrote, "bore little resemblance to the draft script he produced at NBC News."

Specifically, Lack said none of seven women who accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct on the record in the New Yorker article "was included in the reporting Farrow presented while at NBC News." He denied "baseless speculation that some interference by Harvey Weinstein played a role in our decision-making," and said "an independent group of the most experienced investigative journalists in our organization" studied Farrow's report, agreeing it wasn't ready to broadcast. So Farrow asked to take the story elsewhere, Lack wrote, adding: "Had we refused his request, NBC might have ultimately broken the story, but we wondered then, and still wonder now, whether the brave women who spoke to him in print would have also sat before TV cameras and lights."

Emily Nestor, another of Weinstein's accusers, pushed back Monday night, saying Ambra Gutierrez "had always been willing to allow Farrow to identify her by name and use the recording of her," and she herself "actually did film a spot for NBC, albeit in silhouette, and had tentatively agreed with Farrow to reshoot the interview in full-face or attach my name to the already filmed interview in silhouette." Farrow weighed in, too, to address Lack's "numerous false or misleading statements."

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Rich McHugh, Farrow's NBC News producer who last week accused the network of kowtowing to Weinstein, also found Lack's response wanting. You can read more at Variety.