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Ronan Farrow Blasts Fawning Coverage Of Woody Allen: "It's Dangerous" To Ignore Sexual Abuse Allegations
By
Jen Chung
Published May 11, 2016
Modified May 11, 2016
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 11, 2016
Modified May 11, 2016
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Woody Allen's estranged son is angry at the media's apparent desire to ignore accusation that Allen sexually abused his daughter. Ronan Farrow has written an opinion piece for the Hollywood Reporter, calling them out for their May 4th "cover interview with Woody Allen, quirky auteur." Farrow points out this is "a sterling example of how not to talk about sexual assault. Dylan's allegations are never raised in the interview and receive only a parenthetical mention — an inaccurate reference to charges being 'dropped.' THR later issued a correction: 'not pursued.' The correction points to what makes Allen, [Bill] Cosby and other powerful men so difficult to cover. The allegations were never backed by a criminal conviction. This is important. It should always be noted. But it is not an excuse for the press to silence victims, to never interrogate allegations. Indeed, it makes our role more important when the legal system so often fails the vulnerable as they face off against the powerful."
Farrow regrets his own decision, as a journalist for MSNBC, not to aggressively question the author of a Bill Cosby biography about the omission of rape allegations, because at the time, a producer insisted to him, "They're accusations. They're not in the headlines. There's no obligation to mention them." It took a Hannibal Buress stand-up act to gather momentum for dozens of women to accuse Cosby of drugging and raping or sexually assaulting them.
Farrow's sister Dylan wrote a piece for the NY Times' website in 2014, describing how Allen abused her as a child, "[W]hen I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains."
Allen denied the accusations in a NY Times op-ed that appeared in both print and online. Ronan Farrow suggests that powerful news organizations and reporters are scared of mentioning his sister's accusation, or else they won't have access to Allen.
In fact, when my sister first decided to speak out, she had gone to multiple newspapers — most wouldn't touch her story. An editor at the Los Angeles Times sought to publish her letter with an accompanying, deeply fact-checked timeline of events, but his bosses killed it before it ran. The editor called me, distraught, since I'd written for them in the past. There were too many relationships at stake. It was too hot for them. He fought hard for it. (Reached by The Hollywood Reporter, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Times said the decision not to publish was made by the Opinion editors.)
When The New York Times ultimately ran my sister's story in 2014, it gave her 936 words online, embedded in an article with careful caveats. Nicholas Kristof, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and advocate for victims of sexual abuse, put it on his blog.
Soon afterward, the Times gave her alleged attacker twice the space — and prime position in the print edition, with no caveats or surrounding context. It was a stark reminder of how differently our press treats vulnerable accusers and powerful men who stand accused.
He points out that his mother, as well as the prosecutor involved in his sister's case, both decided not to pursue the case further because of the media circus and Dylan Farrow's young age; the prosecutor did say there was "probable cause" to Allen.
"Very often, women with allegations do not or cannot bring charges. Very often, those who do come forward pay dearly, facing off against a justice system and a culture designed to take them to pieces," Farrow writes. "A reporter's role isn't to carry water for those women. But it is our obligation to include the facts, and to take them seriously. Sometimes, we're the only ones who can play that role."
Today, Allen's new movie Café Society premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Master of ceremonies Laurent Lafitte said, "It’s very nice that you’ve been shooting so many movies in Europe, even if you are not being convicted for rape in the U.S."Variety reports, "The joke drew gasps from the audience, who suspected he was alluding to director Roman Polanski," but then Lafitte said, "Thank you for coming tonight, sir," to Allen.
Tagged
dylan farrow
ronan farrow
sexual abuse allegations
woody allen
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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