NBC’s Megyn Kelly on Tuesday called on her own network to allow an outside firm to conduct an investigation of how it handled Ronan Farrow’s reporting on former media mogul Harvey Weinstein.
“There’s the question of the faith and confidence of the public in the reporting of NBC on matters involving itself,” Kelly said on her daytime TV show. “For me, as a lawyer, it’s always better if you just send it outside. And then people can have more faith in it.”
The call from Kelly, who jumped from Fox News to NBC in January 2017, comes as Farrow and NBC News Chairman Andy Lack engage in a public dispute regarding Farrow’s Pulitzer Prize–winning story on sexual abuse allegations against Weinstein.
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Farrow maintains he had to take his report to The New Yorker — which ultimately published it — because, he claims, NBC attempted to block the story from going to air and print.
Lack has defended NBC’s approach to the story. In a memo to staff on Monday, Lack said that the network did not obstruct Farrow’s efforts to report sexual assault and misconduct allegations against Weinstein. According to NBC, Farrow’s report was not ready for publication at the time he left the network.
“The script was never ready for air,” the memo read.
Rolling Stone editor Joe Levy, who joined Kelly’s program, also argued NBC should go outside the network to conduct an investigation.
“There was a question should there be anyone from the outside looking into this,” Levy said.
“These women were silenced and intimidated for years,” he noted. “There were specific actions taken to try to ensure their silence. Sometimes that was monetary, sometimes it was pressure, it almost amounts to blackmail.”
Farrow’s report, along with a New York Times report in October 2017, sparked the “Me Too” movement that has seen a number of prominent politicians, actors and media members lose their jobs amid sexual harassment and misconduct allegations, most notably former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), actor Kevin Spacey and NBC’s Matt Lauer.
PBS’s “In Principle” co-host Amy Holmes, who also guested on Kelly’s show, credited the host and NBC for allowing a discussion of the dispute on air.
“I have to credit you for moving the story forward,” Holmes said.
“NBC News knew that we were going to do this … and didn’t say that ‘you can’t,'” Kelly said.