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By Joe Flint and Benjamin Mullin 

Instead of breaking the big story, NBC News has become the big story.

The network's top brass, NBC News Chairman Andy Lack and NBC News President Noah Oppenheim, have spent weeks playing defense in the wake of fresh accusations from former contributor Ronan Farrow that NBC News sat on his reporting about alleged sexual harassment and assaults by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

However, Messrs. Lack and Oppenheim still have the confidence of parent Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal, which in recent months renewed Mr. Oppenheim's contract, people familiar with the matter said. The contract renewal is a strong endorsement for an executive who has been at the center of such a controversy. These contracts are typically renewed for several years at a time, and Mr. Oppenheim is expected to succeed Mr. Lack after the 2020 presidential election.

In a book published last week, Mr. Farrow claimed NBC got cold feet over the Weinstein story he was working on in the summer of 2017 for myriad reasons -- including an alleged threat by Mr. Weinstein that he would reveal damaging information about "Today" host Matt Lauer.

NBC News has said Mr. Farrow's story wasn't ready for air when he was given permission to take it elsewhere. He took it to the New Yorker, where it ran in October 2017 and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, the highest honor in journalism. Mr. Lauer was fired from his job a month later, after a colleague accused him of sexual misconduct in an internal complaint.

In Mr. Farrow's book, "Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators," a former NBC News employee, Brooke Nevils, alleged that Mr. Lauer anally raped her in his hotel room during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Both Messrs. Weinstein and Lauer have denied the accusations against them. Mr. Weinstein is scheduled to go on trial in January for criminal charges including rape.

The allegations in Mr. Farrow's book have many NBC employees feeling angry that the network continues to make more headlines for its internal drama than for its reporting.

"No one at NBC is happy about the fact that such a huge story wasn't reported by NBC," said one on-air correspondent, referring to the Weinstein story.

Mr. Lack said management wasn't aware of Mr. Lauer's alleged misconduct before the official complaint. "Any suggestion that we knew prior to that evening or tried to cover up any aspect of Lauer's conduct is absolutely false and offensive," Mr. Lack said in a memo to staff before Mr. Farrow's book was published.

Mr. Lack is scheduled to retire after the 2020 election, and NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke plans to have Mr. Oppenheim succeed Mr. Lack, people close to Mr. Burke said. Mr. Oppenheim, 40 years old, became president of NBC News in 2017 after two successful years at the helm of "Today." He initially joined NBC News nearly 15 years ago as a "Today" producer before leaving to pursue a Hollywood career. His screenwriting credits include the movie "Jackie."

Some staffers at NBC News say they feel a wholesale change in management is needed given the string of public missteps that the division has weathered in recent years.

Among the questionable calls: Signing former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly to a huge contract only to cancel both her shows and push her out with a $30 million check; giving "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams a second chance on MSNBC after he lied about his war-reporting experiences; and not being first to report on an NBC video of then-presidential-candidate Donald Trump bragging about sexually harassing women to entertainment reporter Billy Bush.

"Frankly, in light of all the miscues I've wondered how the leadership of that place survives," said Michael Socolow, a professor of journalism at the University of Maine.

NBC came under fire from one of its own on air last week when MSNBC host Chris Hayes questioned the network's defense that Mr. Farrow's reporting on Mr. Weinstein wasn't strong enough.

"The path of least resistance is always there, beckoning seductively with an entirely plausible cover story," Mr. Hayes said on his Oct. 14 show. "But of course, it's the very ease of that path that makes it the enemy of the very work that we as journalists are trying to do."

In an interview, Mr. Oppenheim said he wishes Mr. Farrow could "just open his mind to the possibility that all of those people, all of his colleagues who made that determination were acting in good faith...That there was not some malicious far-reaching conspiracy."

Mr. Farrow, he added, "might still disagree with some of the decisions that his editor and colleagues and myself have made but he would perhaps realize we all acted with integrity and only in the interest of upholding the editorial standards that are so important to this place."

The business performance of NBC News has been solid under Messrs. Lack and Oppenheim's leadership. While ABC's "Good Morning America" and "World News Tonight" are first in viewers, "Today" and "Nightly News with Lester Holt" remain on top in the key 25-54 demographic favored by advertisers. "Meet the Press" with Chuck Todd is the top Sunday morning news show. And although some inside NBC News grumble about Mr. Williams being allowed to rehabilitate himself, his MSNBC show "The 11th Hour" has performed well.

"Our portfolio of news shows have weathered the challenges that all broadcast TV faces better than almost any of our competitors," Mr. Oppenheim said. The NBC News unit, he added, is "healthier now than it's ever been financially, ratings wise and in terms of the journalism they showcase every day."

Mr. Oppenheim does have key backers at the network including "Today" hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb who, along with other top talent and producers, expressed their support of current leadership to Mr. Burke, people familiar with the matter said. Ms. Guthrie in particular has close ties to Mr. Oppenheim and his family. She and Mr. Oppenheim's wife, Allison, have recently co-written two children's books.

Mr. Oppenheim has been credited with putting women in charge of both "Today" and "Nightly News" although detractors note that the top echelon of management inside the news division is still white men. NBC said it has appointed women to key leadership positions and that 63% of Mr. Oppenheim's direct reports are women, compared with 43% under his predecessor.

Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com and Benjamin Mullin at Benjamin.Mullin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 22, 2019 07:29 ET (11:29 GMT)

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