Washington Lawyer - March/April 2020 - 43

WORTH READING

The Exposé That
Launched a Movement
Review by Ronald Goldfarb

Courtesy of Penguin Press

R

eaders may pick up She Said
by New York Times Pulitzer Prizewinning authors Jodi Kantor and
Megan Twohey and wonder what
more could be said about Harvey
Weinstein (and Brett Kavanaugh).
Don't we already know these sordid
stories after years of news reports?
While that may be true, the authors
offer a gripping, step-by-step
illustration of investigative
journalism with an underlying
message that comes through.
The two journalists' stories are more than just
two examples of how male-female relations
have changed radically. They get to the pivotal
role of major media institutions - in this case,
the New York Times, which made a three-year
commitment to expend major resources supporting two of its journalists in exposing one
mogul's and one politician's use of power,
secrets, and lawyering. In a classic search for
truth, Kantor and Twohey, along with supporting
editors at the Times, exposed Weinstein's ugly
legacy of sexual harassment until it led to his
final reckoning, still underway, and unknowingly
launched a "seismic social change."
Hollywood's history of exploiting aspiring
actresses is well known, but not the similar
experiences women have endured in media,
business institutions, universities, shipyards,
construction sites, restaurants, factories, and
other workplaces. Not until recent years, when
some brave women risked embarrassment
and prejudice by speaking out against these
accepted workplace practices, has the history
of secrecy and exploitation been exposed.

The authors referred to studies by Professor
Diane Rosenfeld about, of all things, bonobo
apes that "over the course of evolution have
eliminated male sexual coercion in their communities." When females cry for help, "other
females come to her aid . . . fending off the
attacker." That is what Kantor and Twohey found
in their painstaking investigative reporting as
respondents risked much to step forward and
sound alarms about employment battles that
others later would feel safe to join.
"Patterns of predatory behavior" were revealed
despite non-disclosure agreements that
silenced survivors. Thanks to media exposés,
the public now knows their names as well as
the famous ones who led the fights and those
who joined them.
Despite the power and wherewithal the
accused possessed to fight the claims, eventually the facts would come out. And, one by
one, an NFL franchise owner, a TV personality,
a media mogul, a politician, and more fell
from grace.
Time magazine used its cover to label the
MeToo movement, and The New Yorker made
room in its pages for the story many other
media institutions had ignored. A new "sense of
accountability" evolved, and "the old rules on
sexual power had been partly swept away." The
Times and its writers and editors exhaustively
scrutinized the story, verified facts, and worked
under the highest standards of truth seeking.
The underlying message of this book that
I referred to earlier is its suggestion that what
is playing out on our national political stage
on this subject will fold to the sway of these
revelations.

Ronald Goldfarb is a Washington, D.C., attorney,
author, and literary agent. He is of counsel to
Redmon, Peyton & Braswell LLP in Alexandria,
Virginia.

MARCH/APRIL 2020

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