Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators book cover

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators

by
Price
$9.96
Format
Hardcover
Pages
464
Publisher
Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0316486637
Dimensions
6.38 x 1.38 x 9.5 inches
Weight
1.5 pounds

Description

Time Must-Read Book of 2019 NPR Favorite Book of 2019 Washington Post Best Nonfiction Book of 2019 Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2019 Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2019 Fortune Best Business Book of 2019 Bloomberg Best Book of the Year Telegraph (U.K) Best Book of 2019 Kirkus Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2019 Library Journal Best Social Science Book of 2019 One of USA Today 's Best Books to Read While Stuck at Home " Meticulous and devastating ...part All the President's Men , part spy thriller."― Rasha Madkour, Associated Press "At the heart of every great noir is a conspiracy of evil that imbues the initial crime uncovered by the hero with a weightier resonance than was immediately obvious. So it goes with Catch and Kill ."― Elizabeth Bruenig, TheWashington Post "The connections between presidents, media moguls, and spies described in Catch and Kill are stranger than fiction. As a novel, it would be a page-turner. As a reported piece of nonfiction, it's terrifying ."― Eliana Dockterman, Time " The year's best spy thriller is stranger - and more horrifying - than fiction...He weaves a breathless narrative as compelling as it is disturbing ... bracingly exposes the rot that's persisted across elite American institutions for decades. "― DavidCanfield, Entertainment Weekly " Catch and Kill is an important, frightening book ...it's also a propulsive, cinematic page-turner "― Erin Keane, Salon " Darkly funny and poignant... a winning account of how it feels to be at the centre of the biggest story in the world . It is also, of course, a breathtakingly dogged piece of reporting , in the face of extraordinary opposition."― EmmaBrockes, The Guardian (U.K.) "Absorbing ...The behavior documented in Catch and Kill is obviously and profoundly distressing. ... But there are some hopeful threads, too."― Jennifer Szalai, New York Times " Must read: Catch and Kill , by Ronan Farrow . How #sexualabuse stories got suppressed, and how deep-diving, fact-gathering reporting blew the lid off, despite threats, intimidation, and cronymongering at the top. Chilling!"― Margaret Atwood " Reads like a thriller ... The reveal in Catch and Kill is not that there are corrupt people; it's that corrupt people are in control of our media, politics, and entertainment and that, in fact, many of them remain in control. "― RebeccaTraister, The Cut " Catch and Kill is exhaustively reported...and compulsively readable , with nearly every page revealing a provocative detail about a household name in media or entertainment."― EJDickson, Rolling Stone " Read this book ...Farrow's greatest success was to listen, believe and act, even at his own peril."― MariaL. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times "Part memoir, part spy thriller, the book is an engrossing account of the dark arts employed by the powerful to suppress their stockpiled bad behavior as well as the cover-up culture that pervades executive suites -many of them at Farrow's former employer, NBC News."― MarisaGuthrie, The Hollywood Reporter "Historically this book is going to have lasting importance as a vividly detailed, in-the-trenches account of the epic effort it took to try to bring down just a piece of the wall of patriarchy that has kept women exploited and oppressed in the media industry and American life forever."― David Zurawik, The Baltimore Sun " Catch and Kill is a rip-roaring account of the years spent chasing the Weinstein story and its spin-offs. It's a deep dive into the world of US media, Hollywood pay-outs, Donald Trump's eccentric ways, spies and spineless editors. And is it gripping... dripping with jaw-dropping revelations and moments of astonishing pathos ."― Harriet Alexander, The Telegraph (U.K) " Explosive ."― KateAurthur, Variety " Catch and Kill weaves together months of reporting to reveal explosive allegations that play out like a terrifying spy thriller ."― KateStorey, Esquire "A measured but damning portrait of that failure at NBC, which he ties to a pattern of harassment and abuse within the network."― Annalisa Quinn, NPR.org "Befitting a Farrow story, Catch and Kill is chocka¬block with scoops and revelations."― PaulFarhi, The Washington Post " Catch and Kill reads like a thriller, prime to be adapted for the screen."― Sophie McBain, New Statesman " The book no one can stop talking about ."― Bustle "One can only marvel at [Farrow's] courage, his resilience and moral fiber. I t's one thing to tilt at windmills, it's another to tilt at a human power saw ."― Stephen Galloway, The Hollywood Reporter " Riveting and often shocking . . . Catch and Kill h as gone off like a hand grenade in the world of New York media . . . compelling"― Sunday Times (U.K.) "The book is full of plot and drama...This is a story about a ruling class of men who protect one another - and about the courage of women who speak up."― Abraham Gutman, The Philadelphia Inquirer "This is an urgent, significant book."― Kirkus Reviews, starred "Combines the intricate reporting of All The President's Men with Kafkaesque atmosphere to reveal troubling collusion between the media and the powerful interests they cover. This is a crackerjack journalistic thriller. "― Publishers Weekly "Catch and Kill is the latest reminder of the extent to which men in power in America can protect one another, and the consequences when that protection succeeds."― Anna North, Vox " An engrossing, emotive, often drily funny binge ... a humdinger of a story... a nuanced appreciation of how women are smeared and discredited... combines righteous anger, gossip and comedy ."― The Times (U.K.) " Catch and Kill " is, in many ways, horrifyingly grim - a nightmare confirmation of the worst in human nature and the entangled upper echelons of the media and political worlds. But, as Farrow has noted in interviews, it also admits some rays of hope."― Julia M. Klein, Forward "Ronan is the kind of journalist that activists like myself rely on...His care and compassion for the stories survivors' entrusted him with shows in how diligently he investigated each claim. After all of the work he has done to carry their stories forward, I am excited for the world to read this book."― Tarana Burke "Ronan Farrow has entered the pantheon of great investigative reporters. With meticulous research and endless revelations, he exposes a system of abuses and cover ups-a system that for too long has been protected. This is an invaluable book ." ― David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killersof the Flower Moon " Catch and Kill is proof that Ronan Farrow is the best kind of reporter: thorough, honest, and compassionate...it digs deep and Farrow is never afraid to tell the truth no matter where the sparks may fly." ― James Patterson " Catch and Kill is literally jaw-dropping-a shocking, meticulous record of the vast machinery with which moral bankruptcy protects itself, and of the arsenal of weapons available to colossally powerful men whose careers depend on silencing those seeking accountability and truth...This book reveals damningly widespread corruption, complacency, and cowardice, and against it, the blazing courage of the women who spoke out-it's a blueprint of a hideous world, and a foundational building block of a new one."― JiaTolentino, author of Trick Mirror "We've been reading about sex scandals beginning with Harvey Weinstein, but only Ronan Farrow, who reported them, tells us how women's voices were discredited and suppressed for so long. Catch and Kill reads like a great detective novel, and could lead to a safer and more just future."― GloriaSteinem Ronan Farrow is a contributing writer to The New Yorker , where his investigative reporting has won the Pulitzer Prize for public service, the National Magazine Award, and the George Polk Award, among other honors. He previously worked as an anchor and investigative reporter at MSNBC and NBC News, with his print commentary and reporting appearing in publications including the Wall Street Journal , the Los Angeles Times , and the Washington Post . Before his career in journalism, he served as a State Department official in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence . xa0Farrow has been named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People and one of GQ's Men of the Year. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and a member of the New York Bar. He recently completed a Ph.D. in political science at Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He lives in New York.

Features & Highlights

  • Now an HBO documentary series streaming on HBO Max. In this instant
  • New York Times
  • bestselling account of violence and espionage, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Ronan Farrow exposes serial abusers and a cabal of powerful interests hell-bent on covering up the truth, at any cost.
  • In 2017, a routine network television investigation led Ronan Farrow to a story only whispered about: one of Hollywood's most powerful producers was a predator, protected by fear, wealth, and a conspiracy of silence. As Farrow drew closer to the truth, shadowy operatives, from high-priced lawyers to elite war-hardened spies, mounted a secret campaign of intimidation, threatening his career, following his every move, and weaponizing an account of abuse in his own family. All the while, Farrow and his producer faced a degree of resistance they could not explain -- until now. And a trail of clues revealed corruption and cover-ups from Hollywood to Washington and beyond. This is the untold story of the exotic tactics of surveillance and intimidation deployed by wealthy and connected men to threaten journalists, evade accountability, and silence victims of abuse. And it's the story of the women who risked everything to expose the truth and spark a global movement.Both a spy thriller and a meticulous work of investigative journalism,
  • Catch and Kill
  • breaks devastating new stories about the rampant abuse of power and sheds far-reaching light on investigations that shook our culture.
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Book Prize FinalistFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography
  • Indie Bound #1 Bestseller
  • USA Today
  • Bestseller
  • Wall Street Journal
  • Bestseller

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

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Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Intense, gripping, and eye opening look into abuses of power

Regardless of your thoughts on Ronan, he certainly knows how to write an excellent investigative journalism book. Catch and Kill delves into the scenes behind major newsrooms and networks and how they have often successfully managed cover ups of executives, producers and stars, in essence putting profits above accountability. And of course, the book goes right at the Weinstein saga of cover ups. The book is intense, in fact it can be a bit too intense for some readers (this is in no way a kids book) but is still a compelling read.

A must for investigative journalism fans, and a troubling insight into the industry
402 people found this helpful
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The Story Behind the Story: Power, Corruption, and Sexual Assault

In this intense, fast-paced first person account, investigative journalist Ronan Farrow takes the reader through his 2 year effort to discover the truth about sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Farrow learns about numerous female victims with horrifying (and very graphic) experiences. To report this story, Farrow has to fight the corrupt bureaucracy at NBC News, as well as survive Weinstein's relentless campaign (both overt and covert) to intimidate him and his sources, and discredit his efforts. Shadowy private investigators spy on him and Weinstein's accusers. He is advised to buy a gun for protection. Victims who have been bought off and/or threatened are reluctant to come forward. Farrow gives credit to the ones who do talk to him as the real heroes. This book reads like a spy thriller, but the story is all too real: how a sexual predator can use his power, influence, and money to protect himself over many years while continuing to victimize women, without being held accountable. In later chapters, Farrow discusses NBC's apparent cover-up of Matt Lauer's behavior, including an allegation of rape. Both NBC and Lauer are attacking Farrow, but I find his reporting to be persuasive. Farrow had to abandon his hopes for a career at NBC, and took his story to New Yorker Magazine. This book is very detailed, well-written, and describes the courageous efforts by a journalist who later received a Pulitzer Prize.
86 people found this helpful
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Do NOT Order the Audio

Wanted to warn people about the audio version. Ronan himself narrates this and he's doing it like a bad D movie with terrible accents and quoting women using breathy voices. I was taken aback the first time it happened but it kept happening making my seriously low blood pressure rise to noticeable levels! This is a serious story. He's a serious journalist. I don't understand the demeaning of people and his own investigation by doing this. I returned it and going to get the book instead.

NOTE:
**I will come back and update on content when I'm done reading**
53 people found this helpful
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Poorly written

Poorly written, difficult to follow with little description of situations and reasons for them. The book is, unfortunately, another book just dumping on president Trump all while failing to tell the story of Weinstein. Don’t waste your money.
25 people found this helpful
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Sorry but this book is boring

I understand the importance of #metoo and I respect and admire the women who came forward with their stories of sexual harassment and abuse. But this book seems far more focused on its author, Ronan Farrow. It reads like a very long-winded pat yourself on the back. Okay, Ronan we get it. You did the right thing. You reported the story against enormous opposition, and you stuck to your convictions. you ended up getting fired over it and now you're pissed off (and probably broke) so you wrote a book.
you want everyone to know that you got screwed over by the big guys.
Welcome to the world. It happens every single day on a smaller scale in offices all over the country. The difference is we're not all the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen and we don't earn salaries in the high six figures, so nobody wants to publish our sad tale of getting treated crappy at work. Actually, nobody should have published this one. There's absolutely nothing new here that you don't already know from reading People magazine. Don't waste your cash.
24 people found this helpful
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SHAQ G SAYS: PERVERTED RICH & POWERFUL BROUGHT TO THEIR KNEES BY GRITTY… DETERMINED… TALENTED AUTHOR

Some phrases are widely overused… and thus lose any impact they originally were coined for. But the phrase “RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES!”… is dripping with timeliness and power… and was meant for this book by the talented writer Ronan Farrow. Anyone with a television… newspaper… smart phone… or computer… has heard the never ending tales in the past years… and by innuendo… for as long as there has been major entertainment in the world… the “casting couch” job interviews… and paying the ultimate price of giving up your pride through sexual favors and degradation by rich and powerful perverts… like Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer. This in depth… tightly researched… expose’… lays it all out… chapter and despicable verse. It also lays bare… the entertainment executives that continued to look the other way… and while they looked the other way… signed massive checks to “shut-up” the poor women who had been abused.

What is simply amazing in the preparation and research for this book… is that the author’s manifesto is based “only” on two years of reporting… (it takes place between 2016 and early 2019) “it draws on more than two hundred sources, as well as hundreds of pages of contracts, emails, and texts, and dozens of hours of audio.” (“It was subjected to the same standard of fact-checking as the NEW YORKER stories on which it is based.) To accomplish this in two years… is a mighty testament to the doggedness of the reporter… who not only dared to go… where a few others had attempted to… but he refused to give up… like the others did… when he hit every roadblock… both in the executive offices… but also the sad roadblocks of the offended women… who had either been beaten down by the then despicable system… or had already been bought off and signed seemingly unbreakable NON-DISCLOSURE-AGREEMENTS (NDE’s). In fact the individuals who still shared the NDE”s… and copies of payoff checks… and even audio tapes… left me scratching my “non-lawyer” head on how that was allowed and will hold up.

Also amazingly covered… is the very tight relationship between Hillary Clinton and Harvey Weinstein. Not just the money donated… and galas arranged… but the strategic advice given by Weinstein AND ACCEPTED by Clinton. You’d think a much bigger stink would be publicly floating above Hillary on a daily and eternal basis from that. The author also peers into the Trump relationship with a publisher regarding buying negative stories and “killing” them. This page turner also emits quite a putrid stench regarding the big name lawyers running herd on these perverts… such as Lanny Davis and Rudy Giuliani… among others. The names covered in the executive chains among the world’s largest entertainment giants that refused to do the right thing over and over… are almost household names.

When Farrow started to dig in… and really start his quest to uncover this festering sexual Hollywood cesspool… one writer advised him… “Lots of people have been trying to get this story,” “and wished me luck, like she was encouraging Don Quixote about a windmill.” And Quixote-like… he was… and I think he got his windmill.

I have saved for last my mentioning that Ronan Farrow is Woody Allen and Mia Farrow’s son (though to me his facial shape… looks kind of like Sinatra)… and his families personal life regarding his sister’s alleged rape by Woody Allen… and other transgressions within the family are brought into the story. The reason I saved it for last… is that I want to make clear… that Ronan Farrow’s… talent… as a reporter… investigator… writer… are simply AND entirely top notch… and stands high up above… on his own shoulders. A few more books like this…. And people will be saying… “Oh Woody Allen and Mia Farrow… they’re the parents of that great writer-reporter Ronan Farrow!
22 people found this helpful
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Dull, extensive padding

This would have made a good article for a Sunday magazine supplement or something similar. But to expand it into a book, Farrow added tons of unnecessary detail: conversations in bars, coffee shops, offices, on the phone; descriptions of what people wore or physical appearances, etc. The result is pretty dull reading for many pages to get to a few crucial pieces of information providing the big picture. Moreover, the book contains grammatical and usage errors, pretty amazing for such a publisher. (Where, oh where did people learn that "alright" is a word?? Well, actually, misuse is so common that it probable has become a word.) Anyway, save your time--just listen to the podcast of his interview with Terri Gross and you don't need to read the book.
15 people found this helpful
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Dreadful

Dreadful. I couldn't make it to page 100. Someone should have edited this book. Short chapters reading the same stuff over and o er again. This was an impulsive buy. Lesson learned.
15 people found this helpful
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Not as much #metoo as Farrow's meanspiritedness

The book is about powerful men using their positions to have sex with women who need that man's help to forward their career(s). It was presented as "investigative journalism" and "unbiased". I found it to be anything but. After all, the women were complacent in these affairs but a situation where one party has power over the other, it does need to be addressed. While I realize this was the catalyst for the #metoo movement, Farrow came across as extremely biased. It was far from investigative journalism, after the first two chapters, little new information is presented and after a while it was simply beating a dead horse. It was more about Farrow's anger at not being able to get the story on NBS as it is about justice for the victims. The book simply comes across as Mr. Farrow's scorched earth approach to bringing these 'straight' men to their downfalls. He revels in it. What I learned from this book is less about the #metoo and more about Ronan Farrow's personality of being mean and vindictive.

Actually, he fails.
11 people found this helpful
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Reporting in the Spirit of Woodward and Bernstein

For the past several days I have been reading Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, the inside story of an investigative reporter who along with several colleagues put their lives and careers at risk while doggedly pursuing a story that ultimately torpedoed one of the biggest names in the film industry as well as several prominent individuals in television news. The book's author was Ronan Farrow, and he was also the central figure in the investigative process that brought down movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, Today Host Matt Lauer, and some other well known names in the news and entertainment industry.

While still a young person by almost anyone's standards (he will be 32 next week), Ronan Farrow has already built a formidable reputation as an investigative journalist and author. The New Yorker magazine shared a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with The New York Times newspaper - an award that was based largely on reporting that Farrow did for The New Yorker which ultimately ended the career of Harvey Weinstein and became a pillar of the "Me Too" movement.

Catch and Kill is an overview of some of the prominent cases involving sexual predators to have hit the press over the past few years, several of which were tied to the efforts of Ronan Farrow, his production partner Rich McHugh, and their news crews. But the primary thrust of the book is the extensive and complex investigation of Weinstein.

The title comes from an old journalistic practice that has only recently begun to be recognized and understood by the general public. Under the practice of "catch and kill" a publication or a particular publisher would buy up certain exposes and stories about prominent individuals and then put those stories aside so that they could do no harm. One notorious example that Farrow touches on is David Pecker, the CEO of American Media, Inc, which publishes the National Enquirer as well as other tabloids. Pecker bought all stories about Donald Trump over several years and then kept them out of print. As a part of the purchase, the people who knew and wrote the stories had to sign agreements to never sell those stories to other news sources. The story had been "caught" and "killed."

But that was just the tip of an iceberg about how rich and powerful men use their positions and money to commit sex crimes against vulnerable individuals. The men commit their crimes with impunity, and because of their power, the victims are often made to feel responsible for the incidents and powerless to retaliate.

One of the mainstays in Ronan Farrow's reporting on Harvey Weinstein was a Hollywood actress named Rose McGowan. McGowan told Farrow of being raped by Weinstein at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997. In her discussion with the reporter she talked about the complicity of the underlings who propped up their boss in his lecherous attacks. Her remarks are indicative of how hard it is to strike back at a powerful adversary.

"McGowan described a system - of assistants and managers and industry power brokers - that she furiously accused f complicity. She said staffers averted their eyes as she walked into the meeting, and out of it. (The meeting where she said Weinstein sexually attacked her.). 'They wouldn't look at me,' she said. 'They looked down, these men. They wouldn't look at me in the eye.' And she remembered her costar in 'Phantoms,' Ben Affleck, seeing her visibly distraught immediately after the incident, and hearing where she'd just come from, and replying, 'God damn it I told him to stop doing this!'"
After the bravery of McGowan and a few others in stepping forward, the dam eventually burst, and now more than eighty women have come forward to tell of their own assaults by Weinstein.

And that is the core of this story. The rich and powerful have the means and ability to get away with almost anything. Farrow describes nearly two years of following leads on Weinstein when he was confronted by powerful people whom Weinstein had contacted in an effort to have Farrow's story killed. The reporting was originally being done under the auspices of NBC, but as the piece was nearing completion the news management at the network suddenly pulled the plug on the story. Farrow then took his material to The New Yorker which published it and took in a Pulitzer in the process.

Farrow, who graduated from Bard College with a degree in philosophy at the age of fifteen - and is now an attorney licensed in New York, placed himself at great personal risk in pursuing this story. Weinstein not only attacked him through personal contacts that he had with his employers, he also brought in an elite Israeli spy team to follow Farrow and report on his contacts regarding the story. Once Weinstein knew who was talking to the reporter, he could then turn his attention to threatening the witnesses into silence. After NBC decided to quit pursuing the story, Weinstein took credit among his friends for getting the project killed.

Weinstein also used Ronan Farrow's personal family story of sexual abuse to attack the motives and credibility of the reporter. Farrow, the biological son of actress Mia Farrow and director Woody Allen, survived a very public family explosion as a child when his sister reported that she had been a sexual victim of Woody Allen. As the family was torn apart in the press, Woody Allen moved out and married his step-daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, Ronan Farrow's adoptive sister. Weinstein bellowed loudly that Farrow, with that particular background, was using his reporting as personal therapy and could not be objective.

Fortunately for responsible journalism, The New Yorker magazine thought otherwise.

Catch and Kill is an exceptionally fine piece of investigative journalism, on par with Woodward and Bernstein's All the President's Men. It is an alarming look into the ways that sexual predators operate, often with impunity and absolutely no remorse. They are monsters with power who have no qualms at all about using it.

This book is highly engaging and engrossing. May the author's zeal for justice continue to burn brightly and never be diminished! His work is what Pulitzer Prize winning journalism looks like!
6 people found this helpful

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