NBC News is being criticized after the network’s former reporter, Ronan Farrow, has once again taken over the news cycle.
On Monday, Farrow co-bylined a major scoop documenting four accusations of sexual misconduct by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, which led to his resignation just hours later.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Farrow also bylined a lesser noticed, but no less substantive, story about Black Cube, the Israeli intelligence firm, which collected dirt on Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, and also attempted to find information on former Obama administration officials in an attempt to blow up the Iran nuclear deal in 2015.
With Farrow’s stories taking over the news cycle, more than a few commentators noted that NBC News passed on publishing Farrow’s Pulitzer Prize-winning piece on Harvey Weinstein, which Farrow told Rachel Maddow in October.
“I have to wonder: Every time Farrow breaks another story, do staffers at NBC wince?” asked CNN media guru Brian Stelter in his regular newsletter Monday evening.
But it wasn’t just Stelter who was chattering about the missed opportunity for the peacock network.
3. NBC executives doubting @RonanFarrow‘s ability to report out a story is one of the biggest mistakes a news organization has made in the past decade.
1. What hasn't really been talked about is how much some NBC executives doubted @RonanFarrow's skills. This goes beyond killing the Weinstein story…they never saw Ronan worthy of being treated like a top-notch reporter…(cont) https://t.co/bY6ndO9yq7
NBC's Andy Lack has blown so many key personnel issues — tolerating Matt Lauer, hiring Megyn Kelly. But his failure to keep @RonanFarrow on staff ranks near the top. Or the bottom, depending on how you look at it. https://t.co/xjhYdph7vE
9 Times New York Times Editorial Made Everyone Freak Out
Bari Weiss: We're All Fascists Now
The New York Times opinion editor set the Internet ablaze after going after college students who she said were trying to shut down free speech. Critics pointed to Weiss mistakenly linking two fake ANTIFA Twitter accounts
MSNBC
David Brooks: 'Girl I Want Your Body'
New York Times Op-Ed columnist David Brooks offered his spin on the MeToo movement in November. But his attempt to speak the language of sex and passion led him to write some lines like "girl I want your body" and "sex is a gold nugget" and the Internet went nuts.
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Bret Stephens' "A Defense, of Sorts, for Harvey Weinstein"
The October, 2017 piece was actually titled "Weinstein and Our Culture of Enablers," but Stephens couldn't resist throwing in the trollish alternative headline see above into a tweeted description of the article -- which promptly precipitated an Internet meltdown
YouTube
David Brooks Urges "Respect to Gun Owners" After Parkland, Florida Massacre
David Brooks set passions aflame after urging "respect" for gun owners after 17 children were killed at a school shooting in Parkland, Florida. "So if you want to stop school shootings it's not enough just to vent and march. It's necessary to let people from Red America lead the way, and to show respect to gun owners at all points," he wrote.
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Quinn "Been Friends with Various Neo-Nazis" Norton
The New York Times got more than they bargained for when they hired tech writer Quinn Norton. Almost immediately after the news was announced old tweets began to emerge including where Norton said she had "been friends with various neo-nazis" and used the N word. The Times cut her loose just hours after she was hired.
YouTube
Bari Weiss Attacks Aziz Ansari Accuser: 'I'll Get Crushed for This'
Weiss risked more wrath on the set of "Morning Joe" in January after blasting a woman who accused comedian Aziz Ansari of sexual misconduct. "It's called bad sex," she told Joe and Mika. "I'll get crushed for saying this."
TheWrap
Bari Weiss Quotes Hamilton: 'Immigrants: We Get the Job Done"
Anti-Weiss Internet mobs were set ablaze after she tweeted out "Immigrants: we get the job done," in response to Olympian Mirai Nagasu's triple axel. Nagasu was born in California to immigrant parents and Twitter furiously dragged her for not paying sufficient deference to the decision.
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James Bennet Diversifies the Times Opinion Pages
Editorial Page Editor James Bennet has said his mission is to broaden editorial diversity on the Times newsroom. The initiative has often been rocky and the paper has been beset by online criticism of hiring choices, and targeted leaks by Times employees unhappy with his changes.
YouTube
David Brooks Sandwich-Shames Less Educated Friend
Perhaps most egregious of all in the mind of Internet warriors was Brooks' confession in a July, 2017 column that he once took a friend "with only a high school degree" into a gourmet sandwich shop but decided to pull a quick switch for Mexican food after, so he said, she appeared overwhelmed by words like Soppressata and Capicollo.
Creative Commons
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Most of the recent fire and fury comes from the paper’s editorial pages
Bari Weiss: We're All Fascists Now
The New York Times opinion editor set the Internet ablaze after going after college students who she said were trying to shut down free speech. Critics pointed to Weiss mistakenly linking two fake ANTIFA Twitter accounts