Ronan Farrow’s “From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories”

From The New Yorker's archive: a searing report on Harvey Weinstein's decades-long offenses against dozens of women in the film industry.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   View in browser | Update your preferences     A Reporter at Large From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein's Accusers Tell Their Stories Multiple women share harrowing accounts of sexual assault and harassment by the film executive. By Ronan Farrow The journalist Ronan Farrow is a dogged investigator and intuitive storyteller. Since 2017, he has contributed more than thirty-five pieces to The New Yorker, on topics as varied as the National Enquirer's relationship with Donald Trump, the use of private spies to discourage abuse victims from stepping forward, and the stunning details behind Britney Spears's long-contested conservatorship. The author of "War on Peace," about the militarization of U.S. foreign policy, Farrow writes vivid, engrossing nonfiction narratives that often unfold like detective novels. In 2017, he published a searing report on Harvey Weinstein's decades-long offenses against dozens of women in the film industry. (As Farrow writes in "Catch and Kill," his subsequent book on Weinstein, he brought the story to the magazine after NBC News rejected it, for reasons he investigates.) The New Yorker exposé, which won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, alongside reporting on the same topic in the Times, shook Hollywood and shattered the protective wall that had, for years, safeguarded some of the industry's worst abuses. In unsettling and precise detail, Farrow describes how dozens of actresses and Weinstein employees had been either assaulted by the movie mogul or enlisted as reluctant accessories. A former member of Weinstein's staff who had been used as a "honeypot" told Farrow that she "often thinks of something Weinstein whispered—to himself, as far as she could tell—after one of his many shouting sprees at the office. It so unnerved her that she pulled out her phone and tapped it into a memo, word for word: 'There are things I've done that nobody knows.' " Farrow's skill as a reporter enables him to capture not only the urgency of the moment but the abiding structures that created it. As a chronicler of some of the most devastating junctures in his subjects' lives, he meticulously lays out the case for heeding victims' testimony and steadily, unwaveringly exposing the machinery of corruption. When you encourage women to tell their stories, he points out, a floodgate can open. It's probably the reason that some people work so hard to deter victims from speaking out. Farrow's gripping work emblematizes one of the most profound truths about investigative reporting—that a single voice, once emboldened, can quickly metamorphose into a thousand.   —Erin Overbey, archive editor More from the Archive     Annals of Espionage The Black Cube Chronicles: The Private Investigators From 2019: How two operatives tasked with surveilling reporters became embroiled in an international plot to suppress sexual-assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein. By Ronan Farrow     American Chronicles Britney Spears's Conservatorship Nightmare From 2021: The pop star's father and a team of lawyers seized control of her life—and have held on to it for thirteen years. By Ronan Farrow and Jia Tolentino You're receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the New Yorker Classics newsletter. Was this e-mail forwarded to you? Sign up.   Unsubscribe | Manage your e-mail preferences | Send newsletter feedback | View our privacy policy    The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products and services that are purchased through links in our newsletters as part of our affiliate partnerships with retailers.    Copyright © Condé Nast 2022. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.