Ronan Farrow fires back at New York Times' Ben Smith: 'I stand by my reporting'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Award-winning reporter Ronan Farrow fired back at New York Times media columnist Ben Smith with a series of tweets combating Smith's Sunday column that was critical of some of Farrow’s reporting.
"I stand by my reporting," Farrow wrote to conclude a lengthy Twitter thread.
Smith’s piece, which hit the Internet on Sunday night, asks the question in its headline, “Is Ronan Farrow Too Good to Be True?” Farrow, along with NewYorker.com editor Michael Luo, sent a series of messages defending themselves against Smith’s criticism.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NEW YORK TIMES’ BEN SMITH SHOCKS WITH RONAN FARROW CRITICISM
Farrow helped launch the #MeToo movement and won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the sexual misconduct of now-disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Farrow famously took his award-winning work to The New Yorker magazine when NBC News refused to publish it — but Smith accused him of flying “a little too close to the sun.”
New York Times media columnist Ben Smith shocked social media with a scathing attempted takedown of Ronan Farrow.
“Because if you scratch at Mr. Farrow’s reporting in The New Yorker and in his 2019 bestseller, ‘Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators,’ you start to see some shakiness at its foundation," Smith wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Smith said Farrow “delivers narratives that are irresistibly cinematic — with unmistakable heroes and villains,” but “often omits the complicating facts and inconvenient details that may make them less dramatic.” The Times’ media columnist admitted Farrow “is not a fabulist” and, while sometimes misleading, he certainty doesn’t make things up. Smith’s lengthy critique of Farrow’s reporting claimed that he frequently relies on “conspiracy” to shape his work.
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Farrow took to Twitter, explaining various points that Smith scrutinized in his column.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Luo, Farrow’s editor at NewYorker.com, also tweeted his thoughts on Smith’s column: