NBC News President Noah Oppenheim’s Contract Renewed Ahead of Ronan Farrow Book Flap
When Ronan Farrow’s new book about his attempts to report on accusations against Harvey Weinstein for NBC News came out earlier this month, the futures of NBC News chairman Andy Lack and president Noah Oppenheim were widely questioned. However, it looks like all the speculation was for nothing.
NBCUniversal, according to the Wall Street Journal, “in recent months renewed Mr. Oppenheim’s contract, people familiar with the matter said. The contract renewal is a strong endorsement for an executive who has been at the center of such a controversy. These contracts are typically renewed for several years at a time, and Mr. Oppenheim is expected to succeed Mr. Lack after the 2020 presidential election.”
People familiar with the matter tell TheWrap, “the WSJ got this right.”
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Last week, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap that Lack and Oppenheim have the “full support of senior management.”
The WSJ report regarding Oppenheim’s contract sparked swift reaction from women’s group UltraViolet on Tuesday, with co-founder and executive director Shaunna Thomas saying in a statement: “It is deeply disturbing that Comcast CEO Brian Roberts would show such poor judgment and renew its contract with Noah Oppenheim knowing full well that he was facing allegations of enabling sexual abusers in the workplace and had a record of silencing survivors and stories of survivors in the newsroom.
“The rot at Comcast clearly goes to the top – with the media giant caring more about short-term profits than about protecting its employees and safeguarding long-term shareholder value. This is a mistake that Comcast and NBC Universal will regret,” Thomas added.
Farrow contends in his new book “Catch and Kill” that the NBC executives interfered with his Weinstein reporting, which he then took to the New Yorker — where it won a Pulitzer Prize. He also said in the book that he had evidence that the executives were aware of accusations against Matt Lauer well before the “Today” anchor was fired for misconduct.
NBC executives have denied that they interfered with Farrow’s Weinstein story.
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