Mediaite’s Colby Hall Predicts Heads Could Roll at NBC Over Farrow Reporting: ‘Some Careers’ Will Probably End
Mediaite founding editor Colby Hall appeared on Fox News on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing Ronan Farrow-induced fallout at NBC News, during which he predicted that “some careers” at the network could end when the scandal finally concludes.
Farrow’s Catch & Kill, which hit bookshelves on Tuesday, accused Peacock Network executives of looking the other way on ex-Today show host Matt Lauer’s sexual improprieties until they had no choice but to remove him; in response, NBC News President Noah Oppenheim released a staff memo on Monday accusing Farrow — who previously worked for NBC prior to his exit in 2017 over the outlet’s refusal to publish his bombshell report on Harvey Weinstein — of running a “smear” campaign and promoting “conspiracy” theories.
While speaking with Outnumbered Overtime host Harris Faulkner, Mediaite’s Hall noted that NBC’s troubles are far from over, as the Farrow situation “still a very fluid story.”
“Ronan Farrow deserves a ton of credit for this generation-defining story [on Weinstein], that started the #MeToo movement, But there’s clearly a lot of daylight between what he is reporting in this book … and what NBC News is claiming,” he added. “NBC News doubling down suggests that they are standing by their account that there were no settlements surrounding Matt Lauer.”
Hall continued by highlighting MSNBC host Chris Hayes‘ Monday segment in which he praised Farrow’s reporting on NBC and acknowledged his network’s history of sexual misconduct issues.
“In some regard it sort of paints NBC News in a favorable way because they’re giving journalistic independence to their reporters, their hosts, their talents on the other side,” said Hall.
After Faulkner pointed to “our troubles here at Fox News years ago — some would say we kicked off some certain things with what had gone down. We also learned a lot of lessons,” the host asked if the cuts are deep enough at NBC to inspire the kind of public-facing change that her network underwent.
“Not yet, I don’t think so, and again it’s a still fluid story, I think beyond the culture it seems like they have been very prescriptive to remedy a culture that was pretty toxic,” Hall replied, before concluding with a prediction that heads could roll at NBC over the scandal: “[Farrow’s] got a big publishing arm behind him and a staff of talented lawyers behind them. So, too, does NBC News. There is a conflict brewing and there will probably be some careers ended as a result.”
In Oppenheim’s Monday memo, the NBC News president described Farrow as leading nan “effort to defame NBC News,” adding that he “is clearly motivated not by a pursuit of truth, but an axe to grind. It is built on a series of distortions, confused timelines, and outright inaccuracies.”
Watch above, via Fox News.
