Episode 70: Farrow v. Lauer

A public battle between two former NBC employees serves as a window into the toxic mess of big media. Today, Josh pries that window open for you.

When Ronan Farrow’s book “Catch and Kill” came out, it contained explosive allegations against Matt Lauer, former host of Today (known as “The Today Show”). A woman was accusing Lauer of rape. While much of the media treated the book as gospel, a writer at a website was willing to take a critical look. Soon, working with Lauer, he helped uncover gaping holes in Farrow’s “reporting.” Finally, one person at a major newspaper wrote a story about just some of those failings.

This is a story of how victim narratives have supplanted a search for truth. It’s about a crucial rule of fact checking, particularly in cases like this. It’s about the media’s need to accept that even someone it wants to like can be wrong. And it’s about perhaps the biggest fact-checking failure of all in today’s media ecosystem: books that are supposed to be nonfiction. 
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