Journalist Ronan Farrow recently revealed that NBC attempted to hamper his exposé on Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuse allegations. MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow spent her Friday night calling out her own bosses after she learned of Farrow's reporting, which he further detailed in his new book, Catch and Kill. Farrow also said that NBC attempted to stifle stories related to Matt Lauer and other NBC figures accused of misconduct.
"The allegations about the behavior of Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer are gut-wrenching at baseline, no matter who you are or what your connection is to this story," Maddow said on Friday. "But accusations that people in positions of authority in this building may have been complicit in some way of shielding those guys from accountability, those accusations are very, very hard to stomach."
Former NBC News employee Brooke Nevils told Farrow that Matt Lauer allegedly raped her while they were shooting at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Lauer was initially fired in 2017 following a complaint Nevils made about the Today host. Although he has continually denied these claims, seven other women allegedly received settlements for not speaking of misconduct they were subjected to.
During her show, Maddow also said that NBC did indeed seek to "pause" the reporting Farrow was doing on Weinstein. The anchor also said her and NBCUniversal will help release any former NBC News employees from non-disclosure agreements as a result of misconduct.
"Any former NBC News employee who believes that they cannot disclose their experience with sexual harassment as a result of a confidentiality or non-disparagement provision in their separation agreement should contact NBCUniversal and we will release them from that perceived obligation," Maddow added.
Farrow later joined Maddow for an interview, praising her for speaking up.
"People speaking truth to power about their own bosses, about their own institutions, is a really important part of how we can have an honest conversation about this," he said.
