This is an interview with Jodi Kantor, who co-wrote the New York Times story:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2017/10/jodi_kantor_on_how_she_broke_the_harvey_weinstein_story.htmlA few interesting things in the interview.
One is that she was slightly aware that Ronan Farrow was working on a similar story. When she read his article in the New Yorker, she was impressed at how little overlap there is between their two articles. She wonders how much else is out there that their two articles didn't touch on. Could a third reporter write another article that didn't overlap on either of these two?
Both Farrow and Kantor worked on their articles for months, so it is quite remarkable that they both landed within a couple of days of each other. I think it is actually quite fortunate that they did, because it seems to have had a complimentary effect. If these articles had come out separately, maybe it wouldn't have had the same explosive effect, maybe Weinstein could have fought the PR battle in the press, maybe it wouldn't have caused the avalanche that it did. But with these twin bombshells dropping at the same time, it completely dominated the news in a way that made it impossible for Weinstein to counterattack.
Kantor also says that having a publisher who was willing to go to war for her was a huge help. During the election campaign, Trump threatened to sue the New York Times over their groping story. They said "bring it on". The statute of limitations has expired and it's now too late for Trump to sue. Could a smaller publication have taken the same risk?
Elsewhere... Bob Weinstein, Harvey's brother, spoke out this week. Bob "divorced" himself from Harvey years ago, and they only talk to discuss business. "I couldn't stand being around him." Bob says that he was well aware that Harvey was a prolific philanderer and cheated on his wife constantly, but didn't realize that Harvey used coercion and intimidation and even physical force on women.
Bob says that he spoke to Harvey this week, and says that Harvey is only concerned with finding out who at The Weinstein Company snitched on him. "I don't hear concern or contrition for the victims. And I want them to hear that. Harvey has no remorse whatsoever."
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/bob-weinstein-harvey-weinstein-has-no-remorse-whatsoever-w508973Harvey, meanwhile, says "we all make mistakes", and hopes he can get "a second chance". A pattern of behavior that spans 30 years isn't "a mistake". And he used up his "second chance" sometime in the 1980s.
Also, last week, Rose McGowan had pretty much a public meltdown. She was rumored to be the actress who asked Ronan Farrow to remove her name from his report after Weinstein's lawyers threatened to sue her for breaking the non-disclosure agreement that was part of her hush-money settlement. Now she has apparently decided that she doesn't care if Weinstein tries to sue her, because she has gone public and she flat out says he
**** her. She has talked about being
**** by a producer in the past, but never mentioned Weinstein by name before. At this point, with everything else that has happened, I think that if Weinstein does attempt to sue her for breaking their hush-money contract it would just add even more gasoline to the fire. Probably the only thing that could make people hate Weinstein even more is if he starts suing his victims.
From McGowan's comments this week, it seems like she has been living with a lot of anger and hatred for a long time, and hopefully this will help her find some peace.
-k