Posted on 10/09/2017 11:31:19 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Though the New York Times has been widely celebrated for its article exposing decades of sexual-harassment accusations against Harvey Weinstein, one journalist claims the paper sat on an earlier article detailing the producer’s misconduct. Sharon Waxman, founder of the Wrap, writes that her own investigate reporting, which took her on an international trip to uncover rumors of Weinstein’s sexual misconduct, was cut from the Times in 2004 under pressure from several Hollywood elites. Waxman alleges in the Wrap that Matt Damon and Russell Crowe called her “directly” to dispel the reports she was following about Miramax’s Italian head Fabrizio Lombardo, who was allegedly hired “to take care of Weinstein’s women needs.” She says that because of their influence, and interference from Weinstein, whose company was a big advertiser in the Times, the article was edited to remove the more salacious details. Damon and Crowe had previously worked with Weinstein on pictures like Good Will Hunting, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and Cinderella Man.
Waxman claims that the gutted story could have exposed Weinstein much earlier. “I had people on the record telling me Lombardo knew nothing about film, and others citing evenings he organized with Russian escorts,” Waxman said. She also alleges that she tracked down an intern in London who had been paid off in a settlement with Weinstein. “I was devastated after traveling to two countries and overcoming immense challenges to confirm at least part of the story that wound up running last week, more than a decade later,” she writes.
Update: On Monday, the Times’ Executive Editor Dean Baquet replied to Sharon Waxman’s claim that the paper had “gutted” her 2004 report on Harvey Weinstein, denying that the paper would have declined to print a negative story simply because Weinstein was an advertiser. Instead, Baquet suggests, Waxman’s own description of her report reveals it consisted largely of “an off-the-record account from one woman.” You can read his full statement below:
I wasn’t here in 2004. But it is unimaginable to me that The Times killed a story because of pressure from Harvey Weinstein, who was and is an advertiser. After all, The Times is an institution that has published investigative reporting that caused our Chinese-language website to be blocked in China.
The top two editors at the time, Bill Keller and Jill Abramson, say they have no recollection of being pressured over Ms. Waxman’s story. And her direct editor, Jonathan Landman, suggested she didn’t have it nailed. The story we published last week took months of work by two experienced investigative reporters. It included the on-the-record accounts of numerous women who were harassed by Mr. Weinstein. It also included the fact that Mr. Weinstein paid settlements to keep women from talking. I’m sure Ms. Waxman believes she had a story. But if you read her own description, she did not have anything near what was revealed in our story. Mainly, she had an off-the-record account from one woman.
Vulture has reached out to representatives for Matt Damon and Russell Crowe for a comment. This post will be updated if more information becomes available.
I love it. Matt Damon getting knocked off his moral high horse onto his smarmy ass.
Is he the one with slave-owning ancestors?
No, that’s his butt-buddy Ben Afflict.
Uh oh. Russian prostitutes.
I don’t know about that, I just know he’s an arrogant condescending little p#$%k.
And the accomplices begin to emerge. . .When there's a guy like Weinstein, there's always a procurer network.
The Miramax Films division of the Walt Disney Company is seeking compensation from the former head of its short-lived Miramax Italy office, claiming the executive, a longtime friend of the company's co-chairman, Harvey Weinstein, held another full-time job simultaneously.
Miramax kept the executive, Fabrizio Lombardo, on its payroll for months after closing the Italy office in August 2003. The company continued to pay Mr. Lombardo -- with checks written by the Walt Disney Italy division -- because it was negotiating a settlement and was required to do so by Italian labor law, a company spokesman said.
According to an executive who has seen the internal payroll records, Mr. Lombardo was paid 335,895 euros, or $403,000, from Nov. 1, 2003, to July 31, 2004, based on an average exchange rate from the first half of 2004. Miramax executives disputed that account, saying the company last paid him in March 2004, seven months after the Italian division closed.
Mr. Lombardo's salary, while not high by movie industry standards, placed him in the upper ranks at Miramax, according to former company executives.
A Disney spokeswoman said the executives of the parent company were not aware of Miramax's dispute with Mr. Lombardo. . .
Anyone involved in killing that story is complicit in any sexual abuse that followed.
Disney and ESPN are really dirty in many ways. They have been since the atheists took over the corporations.
“Uh oh, Russian prostitutes”
Weinstein hired them to urinate on a bed Trump once slept in.
Almost funny... "It is unimaginable"??? The NYT 'imagines' all kinds of things about Trump, conservatives, Republicans, white people, etc. But when their bottom line is threatened they "can't imagine" that they reacted in such a way as to protect it?
What was the scandal with Russell Crow? He came back. Maybe Harvey smoothed the path for him and he owed him. Liberals stick together. Unacceptable for all these leftists to be so fake outraged at Trump’s tape comments. Their only real outrage is that he isn’t a fellow traveler.
Sounds like they aided and abetted this scumbag producer. GUILTY.
The Matt Damons of this world cause much grief.
I bet he will not be asked on any tv show he is on about this.
What was the scandal with Russell Crow? He came back. Maybe Harvey smoothed the path for him and he owed him. Liberals stick together
How do you like them apples, Matt?
Libtards have nothing on conservative politicians as hypocrites.
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