Ronan Farrow responds after Matt Lauer criticizes reporting

Ronan Farrow is not backing down. The scribe behind so many of the #MeToo stories (including the 2017 New York Times articles that brought down Harvey Weinstein) is all good with his fact checking and reporting from his 2019 novel Catch and Kill, thank you very much. And as far as he’s concerned former Today co-host Matt Lauer is way off in his recent op-ed that claims otherwise.“All I’ll say on this is that Matt Lauer is just wrong,” Farrow wrote on Twitter on May 19. “Catch and Kill was thoroughly reported and fact-checked, including with Matt Lauer himself.” Farrow is of course referring to the story that Lauer wrote the day before for Mediaite, which takes the author to task for his reporting. In the op-ed Lauer said that Farrow didn’t talk to anyone who may have had contradictory information to the claim by former Today show producer Brooke Nevils that Lauer raped her.

All I’ll say on this is that Matt Lauer is just wrong. Catch and Kill was thoroughly reported and fact-checked, including with Matt Lauer himself.

— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) May 19, 2020

[video_embed id='-1']RELATED: Colin Firth Refuses to Work with Woody Allen Again[/video_embed]“I believe Ronan knew his work on Catch and Kill would receive little in the way of scrutiny, from the very beginning,” Lauer wrote, timing his piece to one in the New York Times that also criticizes the book’s reporting. “It’s the only way to explain why he was so willing to abandon common sense and true fact checking in favour of salacious, and deeply flawed, material. I also believe that some of Ronan’s sources felt they could make outrageous claims to him, knowing he (and thus their stories) would not be doubted.”In Farrow’s book Nevils details an incident at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi in which Lauer reportedly raped her. Lauer was then fired from NBC in 2017 after Nevins reported the incident. At the time of Catch and Kill’s release, the former host wrote an open letter denying the claims and alleged that he and Nevins had a “mutual and completely consensual” affair instead.Farrow isn’t the only one sticking up for himself following Lauer’s claims though. The publisher also released a statement to Deadline, saying, “Little, Brown and Company fully supports Ronan Farrow and his reporting in Catch and Kill. Ronan’s dedication to a deep and thorough fact-check of his reporting, his commitment to the rights of victims and his impeccable attention to detail and nuance make us proud to be his publisher.”And as for Nevils herself? She had what many followers feel is the best comeback of all when she took to Twitter with a simple message: “DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse, Victim and Offender.”[video_embed id='-1']BEFORE YOU GO: Selfish dog refuses to share toy with baby best friend [/video_embed]