Eleanor McManus, a former senior producer for CNN and the co-founder of Press Forward, a movement seeking to change newsroom culture by speaking up for women, in a show of solidarity with Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault while the two were in their late teens, has penned an op-ed on CNN.com urging readers to “recognize the cost women pay when they come forward”.

McManus relates the pain caused to many women who come forward to expose powerful men- the risk of retribution, backlash, and shame saying, “Reliving a traumatic event is hard and painful. Being disbelieved, disregarded, or retaliated against is hard and painful — especially if the women have partners and young children.”

You can read McManus’ full op-ed here.

NBC Chairman Andy Lack has pushed back on claims that NBC executives tried to torpedo Ronan Farrow’s reporting on the Harvey Weinstein abuse allegations in a letter to employees on Monday, September 3rd.

In the letter, which addresses claims made by Farrow’s former producer Rich McHugh, Lack states that, “We spent eight months pursuing the story but at the end of that time, NBC News — like many others before us — still did not have a single victim or witness willing to go on the record. (Rose McGowan — the only woman Farrow interviewed who was willing to be identified — had refused to name Weinstein and then her lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter.) So we had nothing yet fit to broadcast. But Farrow did not agree with that standard. That’s where we parted ways — agreeing to his request to take his reporting to a print outlet that he said was ready to move forward immediately.”

Lack continues, “We regret the deterioration of NBC’s relationship with Ronan, and genuinely wish we had found a path to move forward together. That is why, in August of 2017, when Farrow objected to his editors’ conclusion we convened an independent group of the most experienced investigative journalists in our organization to review his material with fresh eyes. We asked them — tell us what, if anything, we can broadcast. But their conclusion was unequivocal — this story is not ready for air. (Further, they found several elements in Farrow’s draft script which did not hold up to scrutiny — described in the accompanying document.) It was Farrow’s decision, in the midst of this process, to pursue the story elsewhere.”

McHugh responded to Lack’s statement in a tweet suggesting that Lack’s statement “only raises more questions than answers”.

NBC recently published a memo and “fact sheet” from Andy Lack regarding their handling of the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault story that was never aired.  Here is my response: pic.twitter.com/H9RbsW78jB

— Rich McHugh (@RichMcHughNBC) September 4, 2018

Ronan Farrow, who has been reluctant to weigh in on the drama, has put out a statement refuting certain claims in Lack’s memo while teasing that “They’ll be more to say at the right time.”

pic.twitter.com/8vBcYvsl52

— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) September 4, 2018

In a bombshell story published by The Daily Beast, Rich McHugh, a former producer for Ronan Farrow, the star reporter who wrote the landmark report detailing Harvey Weinstein’s years of sexual abuse against employees and actresses, has alleged that while Farrow was working on the story, NBC tried to prevent the story from going to print. Farrow’s series of articles on Weinstein’s abuse went on to win him a Pulitzer Prize in public service for the New Yorker, who shared the prize with The New York Times.

McHugh says the orders came from “the very highest levels of NBC.” The former producer claims that, in the days before planned to interview an alleged abuse victim, he was ordered not to follow through with the meeting and to “stand down on the story altogether.”

NBC denied that officials within the network did not try to quash the story, but rather that further reporting needed to be done before it went to print.

You can read more here.