By Natalie Wade
New York Times’ Pulitzer Winning Megan Twohey discusses the role of anonymity in fair and accurate journalism and the balancing act of investigative reporting.
Across the country, hushed conversations are surfacing and non-disclosure agreements seem less effective at silencing grievances. Now, widely known are the secrets that protected Harvey Weinstein, thanks to the publishing of the article, Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades. New York Times’ Megan Twohey, after months of reporting alongside Jodi Kantor, was able to expose Weinstein’s abuse of power.
Unraveling this story meant combating the idea that journalistic media is riddled with rumors and “fake news.” She had to separate her emotions from her reporting and was not always sure what the end result of the exposé would be.
Tackling an investigation into an issue hidden behind the Hollywood façade, Twohey credits her previous work experience at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Chicago Tribune, with giving her the focus and emotional bandwidth that this would require.
“There’s no substitute for experience,” Twohey says. “It can take time to kind of cultivate the skills and build the experience that sort of ensures that when you do find yourself in the midst of a big story, that you’ve got the tools to execute.”
There were plenty of things – beyond the former Israeli intelligence officials who were paid $300,000 to stop the investigation – that made the Weinstein story difficult to report. Another hurdle was working to get the many allegations of sexual assault on the record, but for Twohey, that was the only way to move forward: “… the people who made allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault against Weinstein did so on the record in our stories.”
Though Twohey agrees that anonymous sources may prove useful in an investigation, transparency was key in this story, especially given the sensitivity of the alleged crimes. “We felt like in this type of reporting, in the name of not just accuracy but fairness, it’s important for people making these allegations to go on the record.”
This ethical standard embedded in the Weinstein story is what makes the allegations difficult to contest or be dismissed as rumors. “Even in this fractured time in which the very notion of truth can seem illusive … there wasn’t any debate over whether or not he had engaged in this bad behavior,” says Twohey.
Editor-in-chief at the New York Times, Dean Baquet gave her strict instruction not to speak to Weinstein off the record, Twohey says “… because what we’ve seen in the course of our reporting was that [Weinstein] was sort of a master in manipulation and bullying and if we had allowed him to go off the record it would have only, sort of, empowered him and his underhanded tactics.”
Weinstein’s threats of legal action and intimidation tactics didn’t work on Twohey. “To me the more we saw those attempts at intimidation and threats, the more motivated we were to make sure we were able to publish the truth.”
Attempting to uncover that truth has led to many uncomfortable situations for Twohey, including Weinstein barging into The New York Times office, but that is how she knows her investigative work is important. She remembers being given the best journalistic advice as a college intern at Nightline, where executive producer Tom Bettag said to her, “If you’re not scared of your job, get a new job.”
“That pit in my stomach is actually a sign that I’m taking on the type of challenges that are going to force me to grow,” Twohey says.
Journalism can be a difficult balancing act. When you’ve invested so much time and energy into one story, it’s not always easy to be objective. Twohey believes that, “As an investigative reporter you have to be emotionally invested to sort of spend months pursuing stories.”
However, she explains that this is different from opinion. “It’s not our job to offer our opinions, in fact, we feel like if we wear our opinions on our sleeves that, that can actually interfere with the reporting that we do.”
“We often feel like the best way to help, is often to do our jobs and do it as professionally as possible and that means, you know, doing the due diligence of reporting, the corroboration and ultimately following a process that is not about emotion.”
Almost two years later, Twohey has seen her work reignite the #MeToo movement and many men – who are accused of abusing their power – have come under fire. “I think that this story did help fuel that movement and help serve as a solvent for secrecy, and I think one of the reasons that this particular story had such an impact is because it was really an x-ray into abuse of power.”