Catch and Kill

Read this in conjunction with [b:She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement 44767249 She Said Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement Jodi Kantor https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1573830483l/44767249.SY75.jpg 69397793], and you'll really see how much of a difference a supportive editorial structure makes when reporting a major story (I say like I have any special insight into journalism). The fact that Noah Oppenheim and Andy Lack still have their jobs after this book's publication is just staggering and an incredibly clear illustration of why the Weinstein story would never have seen the light of day at NBC. This book is almost as much about the fight to fully report the Weinstein story and the efforts to keep it hidden as it is about the story itself - it reminded me in that way of [b:Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup 37976541 Bad Blood Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup John Carreyrou https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556268702l/37976541.SX50.jpg 59699437]. I also very much enjoyed the spy-novel aspects, the shade regarding the movie Jackie, and the Jon Lovett cameos (“I'm interesting! I've been to an escape room!”). Highly recommended.

I already knew a fair bit about Weinstein's story before reading this, but the thing that is emphasized here over and over again is just how many people were willing to actively defend and support the behaviour of this terrible human being (and others like him). Some of these people felt they had no other choice due to the power dynamics at play (including many of the victims), but there were also many others also in positions of power who acted purely to maintain the status quo. Very disheartening.

The author is the main character of the story here, it's told from his perspective and shows the journalistic process behind exposing a story like this, which is very fascinating to me. It isn't as simple as just printing what people tell you. I need to find more books about this type of work, but it reminds me of movies like Spotlight or All The President's Men.

I listened to this via audiobook from the library's Libby app through a neat program that I didn't know existed called “Skip The Line”. This is a popular book with a long waitlist, but it has at least one copy that when available is presented to people in the hold queue to take out immediately as long as they act quickly, and the loan is for a shorter period with no option to renew.

The audiobook itself was narrated by the author himself and for the most part well done and engaging... however he does voices/accents any time someone else is speaking and it is incredibly weird and cringey, I don't understand why he felt the need to do that.