By Joe Flint and Benjamin Mullin
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (October 23, 2019).
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 assaulting 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 23, 2019 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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