Matt Lauer Calls Farrow's Book 'Shoddy Journalism'

Matt Lauer

Matt Lauer on Tuesday slammed his rape accuser Brooke Nevils for 'false' claims while labeling Ronan Farrow, the journalist who covered her story, as 'manipulative', The Daily Mail reports.

In an op-ed for Mediaite the former Today host questioned Farrow's reporting abilities, calling his work 'shoddy journalism', after the Pulitzer Prize winner spoke with Nevils about her allegations.

Lauer was abruptly fired by NBC News for sexual misconduct in 2017 after his former colleague Nevils accused him of rape in a Sochi hotel room during the Olympics in 2014.

He said Tuesday: 'From start to finish Ronan is acting as Brooke’s advocate, not as a journalist investigating her claims.'

Lauer says Farrow broke 'the cardinal rule of journalism' by 'coming to a self-serving conclusion first, and then he sees everything through the prism of that assumption'.

The piece came following a New York Times article which asked: 'Is Ronan Farrow Too Good to Be True?' Reporter Ben Smith looked into Farrow's reporting techniques during his investigations into Harvey Weinstein.

Fueled by that, Lauer wrote: 'I believe Ronan knew his work on Catch and Kill would receive little in the way of scrutiny, from the very beginning.

'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.'

Following the publication of the op-ed Farrow 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.'

Nevils tweeted 'DARVO', an acronym used by academics to describe an abuser's behavior.

'The perpetrator or offender may Deny the behavior, Attack the individual doing the confronting, and Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender such that the perpetrator assumes the victim role and turns the true victim — or the whistle-blower — into an alleged offender', the University of Oregon’s Jennifer J. Freyd says.