Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators

by Ronan Farrow

“We went back and looked, and, as we said in the statement, there has not been an allegation made internally in twenty years” in “any place where there would be a record of such a thing.” The qualifying language was significant: that there would be no formal HR records about a figure of Lauer’s importance was practically an assumption. Weinstein had also been adamant that there were no “formal” records of sexual misconduct allegations in his file, either. So had Bill O’Reilly at Fox News. But that wasn’t the question. McHugh hadn’t asked about formal records—he’d asked whether NBC had been “aware.” And on this, Oppenheim was less clear. “We all read the New York Post and walk past supermarket checkout stands and see the National Enquirer,” he said. “There’s not a lot you can do with that, especially when the parties involved are saying this is National Enquirer nonsense.”