Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow

"In the end, the courage of women can't be stamped out. And stories--the big ones, the true ones--can be caught but never killed."

Ronan Farrow's article in the New Yorker caused quite the stir when it was published in 2017. He was writing about the sexual misconduct of Harvey Weinstein, one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood. The ramifications of the allegations highlighted in his writing would go on to spur the Me Too movement, a call to arms against sexual harassment and abuse by powerful men. Of course, the road to getting that article published was far from easy. Someone like Weinstein had the motivation and means to keep his skeletons tightly packed away in his closet. In his book Catch and Kill, Farrow writes about his investigation into sexual transgressions of some of the world's most prominent men and the systems that protect them.

If I didn't know that everything Farrow writes about in this book actually happened, I'd probably have mistaken it for fiction. There's so much to Weinstein's attempts at a cover-up that seems like something directly out of an espionage thriller. As Farrow meticulously worked to vet sources, interview women, and piece together the decades of abuse and retaliation he faced roadblocks at every step. I was shocked to learn that Weinstein hired an Israeli counter-intelligence service to investigate Farrow and even follow him around New York. Would an innocent man go to such lengths to stop a story from happening?

Beyond covering Weinstein's heinous crimes, Farrow spends a good deal of the book describing the systems of power and big corporations that have prevented stories like his from surfacing. He experienced the attempts at censorship firsthand. At the time that he began investigating Weinstein, Farrow was a correspondent for NBC. He took the story to their news division and began the process of taping interviews with women. Andy Lack, head of the news division at the time, was wary of the story from the start, even claiming that there was not a story there when the evidence was overwhelming. Farrow had multiple women agree to tell their story on camera and one the record, but the higher-ups at NBC refused to bring the story to air. Eventually, he was allowed to shop the story elsewhere, and it landed at The New Yorker.

With the outing of NBC's Matt Lauer as another perpetrator of sexual misconduct in the workplace, it seems the company would have benefited from keeping the microscope of this kind of story quiet. Farrow writes a detailed account of a rape committed by Lauer that NBC was made aware of back in 2014. It is worth noting that Lauer was not fired from his role as anchor of the network's juggernaut morning program until 2017. It is easy to imagine that his tenure with the company would have continued to be protected if Farrow's article and the Me Too movement had not begun.

Catch and Kill is a thorough and riveting look into Ronan Farrow's investigation into Harvey Weinstein and the events that followed. Farrow is extremely candid about his own history with sexual misconduct (his sister Dylan has long spoken about the abuse she suffered under her adoptive father Woody Allen) and his dedication to being a voice for the countless women who have faced this all too common treatment. His book finds the perfect balance of keeping a journalistic approach to the facts of the events while interspersing a few personal anecdotes. Some of the most powerful parts are those where Farrow quotes the women and Weinstein verbatim. We see the harrowing toll that the sexual abuse has taken on the victims and the disgusting entitlement with which these powerful men felt they could keep things quiet. Three years after his initial article was published, Farrow continues to shed light on more and more stories like this one, and the number of prominent men that have perpetrated this abhorrent behavior continues to grow. Catch and Kill is a powerful look at some of the events that helped spark a movement. It is an uncomfortable but extremely necessary read.

For more information visit Amazon and Goodreads.
(2019, 42)


This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 and is filed under ,,,,,,,,,,,. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.

23 Responses to “Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow”

  1. Truth isn't just stranger than fiction, it can be scarier, too. I learned of the movement when the Weinstein story hit the news and now I want to read Farrow's account.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was so shocking to me to see the power that this man was able to have over other peoples' lives. You are so right, real live is so much crazier than anything a fiction author could have come up with.

      Delete
  2. I am more of a fiction reader, but I am glad you found this well written and impactful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I usually steer more toward fiction too, but I'm glad I read this one. It is such an important subject.

      Delete
  3. Fantastic review Ethan. These reads can be difficult but it is one we all need to acknowledge and learn more about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree, they are so important to learn from.

      Delete
  4. AHA! One I read before you, so I do not have to add it to my TBR. I loved this one so much. Farrow is top-notch. I almost feel guilty for liking it more than Kantor and Twohey's 'She Said', but I just can't get into Kantor's writing. And honestly, the book simply was not as good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This one was fantastic! I've been on the fence about following up with She Said, but I think you've helped me make my decision.

      Delete
    2. I already kind of was put off by Kantor; I did not like her book on the Obamas. And it is interesting to me that Farrow, not a print journalist at all, could put together such a great book, but Kantor and Twohey, print journalists, could not do the same. I felt like they really put themselves into the story more and it was just as much about them getting the info as it was the info itself. Even though Farrow documented his journey also, I did not get the same vibe from him.

      Delete
    3. For me, I think the difference may be that Farrow putting himself into the story wasn't intended to be "look how great I am". He is in the story because it shows how the people who benefited from these powerful men tried to stifle the story.

      Delete
    4. YES! And maybe Kantor and Twohey did not intend that either but regardless, that is how it came off. Farrow was getting so much pushback and that is just as much part of the story because these fuckwads were willing (and those who have not yet been caught still ARE) to do just about anything to not get caught.

      Delete
  5. I'm glad he wrote this book. The truth needs to be told or things will never change.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely. It is so important that something like this gets published.

      Delete
  6. This sounds like such a fascinating (and eye opening read). The breadth of Weinstein's power and reach is amazing. Kudos to Farrow for being so dogged in his determination to get the story out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is so crazy to think about how his place within society allowed him to commit these crimes for so long.

      Delete
  7. Great that he did not stop in the end, but kept on digging and writing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right? I can't imagine how much longer this abuse would have continued otherwise!

      Delete
  8. The acts are abhorrent enough but the systems that cover for, protect the abuser while punishing the victim are horrifying.

    All these exposes and revelations show that so much of what they say is lip service while behind the scenes they don't change.

    I think I'm going to do this one on audio at some point.

    Karen @ For What It's Worth

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've heard that the audio is fantastic. He includes some transcripts of recordings of Weinstein in the book that are just the actual recordings in the audiobook. Absolutely chilling.

      Delete
  9. This sounds fascinating! I'm so happy Farrow pressed on to get his story out despite all the resistance he encountered. Hopefully it'll make men like Weinstein think twice before dominating and abusing others, both women and men. I didn't know Matt Lauer raped a woman in 2014, and then the higher ups covered it over! Despicable!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was pretty shocked to read about his detailed abuse of women when that news broke around his firing from NBC. But this account showed what a monster he truly is.

      Delete
  10. My god, the way NBC worked to keep this quiet just makes me 🤯🤯 Thank goodness RF got this story out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't it wild! The lengths a company will go to continue to make money, even if they know something is wrong, is astounding!

      Delete

Powered by Blogger.