Anyone who has read Ronan Farrow’s meticulous reporting that helped amplify the #MeToo movement would have an idea what to expect his book to be like. “Catch and Kill” delivers. It offers a look behind the scenes and exhaustively documents how he came to report on the dozens of sexual harassment allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, despite myriad obstacles.
Farrow had been working on investigative reports for NBC, including a series about the “dark side” of Hollywood, and Weinstein’s name kept coming up. Within the first 80 pages of this 414-page tome, it becomes clear why this apparently open secret failed to gain traction in either law enforcement or among journalists who previously tried to report on it. As an example, the NYPD had worked with an accuser and obtained a taped confession that Weinstein groped her, and yet, the Manhattan district attorney’s office chose not to press charges. Farrow documents how various members of Weinstein’s legal team made significant campaign contributions to that same DA. Equally troubling, Farrow’s bosses, who began getting persistent phone calls from Weinstein, advise Farrow to “give it a rest” and work on other stories. Given the extensive detail Farrow provides about these interactions throughout the book, it is difficult to believe NBC’s blanket denial over Farrow’s version of events.
As we head into the final summer month of 2018, I have been thinking a lot about the summer season from two years ago. All eyes were turned to Orlando as we were trying to make sense of a senseless act that left 49 people dead at Pulse. It was also a time when one of my college professors, Ken Carpenter, was battling for his life after a cancer diagnoses earlier in the year.
Growing up there were a lot of things I wanted to do with my life. I remember my mom telling me stories about when I was a kid telling her I was going to be the President of the United States. Well that didn’t happen, and at this point I don’t think I would want that office.
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