Matt Lauer and Ronan Farrow are engaged in a feud over the latter’s book Catch and Kill, which includes a rape accusation against the former Today show host.
In the 2019 bestseller, which investigates cases of abuse, Lauer’s former colleague, Brooke Nevils, accuses him of raping her in a Sochi hotel room during the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Lauer, who was fired by NBC in 2017 for his relationship with Nevils, denies the allegation.
In an op-ed published on Mediaite, Lauer described Farrow’s investigations as “shoddy” and “hardly unbiased”, writing: “What I found when I read the book was frankly shocking, and it should concern anyone who cares about journalism.”
Farrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff reporter at the New Yorker, hit back on Twitter: “All I’ll say on this is that Matt Lauer is just wrong. Catch and Kill was thoroughly reported and fact-checked, including with Matt Lauer himself.”
Lauer’s criticism of Farrow comes one day after an investigation in The New York Times suggested that he was less than thorough in vetting his work.
Farrow’s publisher, Little, Brown and Co, released a statement in support of the writer: “Ronan’s dedication to a deep and thorough fact-check of his reporting, his commitment to the rights of victims and his impeccable attention to detail and nuance make us proud to be his publisher.”
