Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

The women reporters who sparked the #MeToo movement are already being written out of the story

Ronan Farrow has done great reporting on Harvey Weinstein. But it began with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.

David McNew/Getty Images
Emily Stewart
Emily Stewart covered business and economics for Vox and wrote the newsletter The Big Squeeze, examining the ways ordinary people are being squeezed under capitalism. Before joining Vox, she worked for TheStreet.

Over the weekend, Britain’s Sunday Times ran a profile of Ronan Farrow — “the man who took down Weinstein.” While Farrow’s reporting certainly played a major role in exposing the Hollywood producer’s past sexual misconduct, it was two women reporters at the New York Times, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, who broke the story. And they’re already being written out of it.

On October 5, the Times published an exposé, written by Kantor and Twohey, alleging that Harvey Weinstein had been sexually harassing and abusing women for 30 years. Five days later, the New Yorker published an extensive report on Weinstein, written by Farrow.

Both pieces spurred myriad women to come forward with stories: not only about past abuse from Weinstein but also with allegations about numerous other men in powerful places. They kicked off a national conversation spanning gender dynamics, sexual harassment, and other gendered workplace ills. This sparked the #MeToo movement we’re living in right now; prominent men like Matt Lauer, Al Franken, Charlie Rose, Kevin Spacey, and Louis C.K. have lost their jobs because of past inappropriate behavior. It has been a remarkable shift.

Farrow has followed up his initial report with stories about Weinstein’s tactics in suppressing allegations and settlements he reached to keep victims quiet. Kantor and Twohey have done follow-ups as well, speaking with actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie about their experiences with Weinstein. The reporters also detailed the cover-up of Weinstein’s activities, and it was the Times that published actress Lupita Nyong’o’s firsthand account of her experiences with Weinstein.

And yet it is Farrow whose star has risen most in the wake of his reporting; the women who broke the story seem have faded into the background. Farrow was invited to appear on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in November, and his maneuvers to get his story in the New Yorker after NBC turned it down have been chronicled by multiple outlets.

Farrow’s work has, of course, been excellent. But so has Kantor and Twohey’s. Where are their profiles, or their TV appearances?

It is worth noting that on December 6, four days before the Sunday Times hit, Recode named Kantor, Twohey, and Farrow to the No. 3 spot on its Recode 100 ranking. “The post-Weinstein era exists largely because of three journalists,” Recode’s Edmund Lee wrote. Not one.

Women get erased all the time

That a woman’s role in a major event, place, or time would be diminished is not a new phenomenon. As an example, take Brigid Hughes’s career. Hughes was a former editor of the Paris Review and is the current editor of the literary magazine A Public Space.

Critic A.N. Devers noted on Twitter this week that Hughes, who became editor of the publication after longtime editor George Plimpton died in 2003, has largely been erased from her job.

The Times profiled Hughes in 2004, calling her a “gracious and tactful” figure who, then age 31, “may be the ideal editor from the writer’s point of view.” She was fired a little over a year later and replaced by Philip Gourevitch, who in 2010 was replaced by Lorin Stein. Stein this week resigned from the Paris Review amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

Since her ouster, as Devers notes, Hughes has slowly been removed from the Paris Review’s history. When the Times reported on Stein’s hiring in 2010, she wasn’t mentioned, and in a 2011 Times profile on Stein, he is referred to as “only the third” to hold the Paris Review’s editor’s title, apparently overlooking Hughes entirely.

The Times initially forgot about her again in its story on Stein’s resignation, later adding her name and issuing a correction. While it’s unlikely that Twohey and Kantor’s work will be overlooked, forgetting isn’t something most of do consciously. That’s why it’s important to get the story right now — so we don’t forget.

More in Politics

The Logoff
Trump’s DOJ wants to undo January 6 convictionsTrump’s DOJ wants to undo January 6 convictions
The Logoff

How the Trump administration is still trying to rewrite January 6 history.

By Cameron Peters
Politics
Donald Trump messed with the wrong popeDonald Trump messed with the wrong pope
Politics

Trump fought with Pope Francis before. He’s finding Pope Leo XIV to be a tougher foil.

By Christian Paz
Podcasts
A cautionary tale about tax cutsA cautionary tale about tax cuts
Podcast
Podcasts

California cut property taxes in the 1970s. It didn’t go so well.

By Miles Bryan and Noel King
Podcasts
Obama’s top Iran negotiator on Trump’s screwupsObama’s top Iran negotiator on Trump’s screwups
Podcast
Podcasts

Wendy Sherman helped Obama reach a deal with Iran. Here’s what she thinks Trump is doing wrong.

By Kelli Wessinger and Noel King
Politics
The Supreme Court could legalize moonshine, and ruin everything elseThe Supreme Court could legalize moonshine, and ruin everything else
Politics

McNutt v. DOJ could allow the justices to seize tremendous power over the US economy.

By Ian Millhiser
The Logoff
The new Hormuz blockade, briefly explainedThe new Hormuz blockade, briefly explained
The Logoff

Trump tries Iran’s playbook.

By Cameron Peters