Through a lengthy op-ed, the disgraced 'Today' show co-host slams the journalist son of Mia Farrow for failing to properly fact-check the claims Brooke Nevils made in his best-selling book.

• May 20, 2020

AceShowbiz - Ronan Farrow is speaking out against Matt Lauer's accusation of shoddy journalism. After the disgraced "Today" show co-host took aim at his reporting via an op-ed essay, the journalist son of Mia Farrow took to social media to defend his book "Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators".

On Tuesday, May 12, the 32-year-old journalist tweeted, "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." He also released a statement to the press, "We called dozens of corroborators around the Lauer allegations described in the book, and more than a dozen around Brooke Nevils specifically."

Ronan's publisher, Little Brown, has also backed his claims. "Little, Brown and Company fully supports Ronan Farrow and his reporting in 'Catch and Kill,' " a spokesperson stated. "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."

Matt attacked Ronan in a lengthy piece published by Mediaite on Tuesday. The 62-year-old stated in part of his essay that the younger journalist "was hardly an unbiased journalist when it came to anything to do with NBC, and he was rarely challenged as he dropped salacious stories in a daily marketing effort designed to create media attention for his book."

"I believe Ronan knew his work on Catch and Kill would receive little in the way of scrutiny, from the very beginning," he continued. "It's the only way to explain why he was so willing to abandon common sense and true fact checking in favor of salacious, and deeply flawed, material. I also believe that some of Ronan's sources felt they could make outrageous claims to him, knowing he (and thus their stories) would not be doubted."

Matt further listed what he described as Ronan's way of betraying the truth in his book. "He used misleading language to manipulate readers into believing things that could easily be false, or were at least un-provable," Matt noted one of the points. "In some cases he undeniably withheld information from the reader that would call the credibility of sources into question."

In the op-ed, Matt additionally denied former NBC News employee Brooke Nevils' allegation that he raped her. "On October 9, 2019, I was falsely accused of rape," he stated. "The allegation came from Brooke Nevils, the same woman whose complaint resulted in my termination at NBC. It was made public as part of the promotional rollout for a new book by Ronan Farrow."

"At no time did Brooke Nevils ever use the words 'assault' or 'rape' in regards to any accusation against me while filing her complaint with NBC in November of 2017. That has been confirmed publicly. NBC never suggested I was being accused of such an offense when I met with their attorney on Nov. 28 of that same year," Matt continued on. "They have also confirmed that publicly."

Matt claimed to have been encouraged to "move forward with my own findings" after the New York Times' Ben Smith came out with a piece that questioned Farrow's journalistic methods. Published on Monday, the column was titled "Is Ronan Farrow Too Good To Be True?".