“SHE SAID” - A masterpiece of investigative reporting depicts the triggers of #MeToo

Two female journalists who listened to the voices of nameless victims

Of course, the fact that Weinstein's brutality and system of organized cover-up were brought to light was the result of the courageous efforts of The Journalist and journalists, but what was most important was that it allowed victims who had been ignored when they spoke out, or who had been forced into silence because they had been denied the means to speak out, to speak up.

The number of victims was huge, including well-known Hollywood celebrities and many unknown female staff members who worked for Weinstein's film company. When Weinstein was accused, he tried to cover up the allegations with huge settlements and bound the victims with non-disclosure agreements to prevent them from speaking out publicly.

How to build trust with women who feel in danger, fear retaliation, or are struggling to rebuild their lives while suffering from trauma, and get them to talk about their painful experiences? It was a daunting, painstaking process undertaken by Kantor, Twohey, Ronan Farrow and others to bring Weinstein down.

"She Said" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

In recognition of their reporting, Kantor, Twohey, and Ronan Farrow were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in April 2018. The process of their reporting was documented in books such as "She Said" by Kantor and Twohey and " Catch and Kill " by Farrow (published by Bungeishunju).

It is often misunderstood, but "She Said" and " Catch and Kill " did not spark the #MeToo movement. These two books were published in 2019. The #MeToo movement was sparked by reports in the New York Times and New Yorker magazine in 2017, and these two books are memoirs written by three people who were at the forefront of the reports looking back on the past.

Kantor and Twohey were colleagues at the New York Times, but Ronan Farrow was a rival who competed for a scoop, and they were not working together to investigate the Weinstein case. Farrow was working at NBC, one of the four major television networks at the time, and was investigating the case with the intention of reporting it on the network's news programs. However, he was subjected to a cover-up by his own company, so he took the stories he had gathered to The New Yorker.

In other words, the two happened to be conducting investigative journalism at the same time, and the New York Times broke the story at the last minute. The Times and The New Yorker continued to publish follow-up reports, and other media followed suit, so the full extent of Weinstein's criminal activities became clear.

Two bestselling books detailing the Weinstein scandal