February 13, 2020 9
of Weinstein’s tactics. Farrow was not
the first to look over his shoulder. The
journalist David Carr, according to his
widow, believed that while he was chas-
ing the Weinstein story he was being
followed. Ben Wallace of New York
said there was “more static and dis-
traction” in his Weinstein investigation
than in any other.
But at the time of writing Catch and
Kill, Farrow knew who had been track-
ing him and why, and yet he plays up
the intrigue. He writes of “brush[ing]
up on pistols and revolvers” at a New
Jersey shooting range. When asked in
an interview if he actually got a gun, he
demurs. In other interviews, he speaks
of being tracked by “former Mossad”
as well as “spies from the former Soviet
Union.” The Russian and Ukrainian
men who briefly surveilled him were,
as he elsewhere acknowledges, Jewish
refugees who came to the United States
in their youth and became private in-
vestigators. (The Ukrainian suddenly
counts as American when, after read-
ing Farrow’s New Yorker article on
Weinstein’s “army of spies,” he “devel-
ops a conscience” and approaches Far-
row with information.) And in his new
Catch and Kill podcast, a spinoff of the
book, Farrow frames his experience as
part of a global problem of “software...
being used to hunt, and sometimes kill,
journalists,” discussing what appears to
be a limited phishing campaign for his
cell phone’s geolocation alongside the
high-powered hacking that presaged
the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and
other reporters.
Farrow casts journalism as a blame-
less and sacrosanct profession, tinged
by the silver screen. “Stories—the big
ones, the true ones—can be caught but
never killed,” he writes, before ending
the book with the good spy delivering a
rousing speech on the virtues of a free
press. This hero’s tale does not square
the Weinstein saga with the news busi-
ness’s fundamental corruptibility in the
face of powerful interests of all kinds—
an old story, perhaps, but a big one.
Oppenheim’s calculation that Wein-
stein wasn’t of national interest may
have been insincere and, following
the dramatic expansion of the Me Too
moment, proved ruinously wrong. But
such misjudgment is just one reason
that worthy reporting gets the ax or
unworthy reporting the green light: the
free press is hampered by a bewilder-
ing combination of editorial folly, con-
flict averseness, political skittishness,
and resource limitations. Kim Masters
of The Hollywood Reporter told Far-
row that when she saw McGowan’s
tweets and proposed to her editor that
she “connect the dots” to Weinstein,
the magazine’s “lawyers were defi-
nitely not going to do it.” Wallace told
Farrow that he and his editor at New
York “decided to stand down” after
three months of reporting because “the
magazine just couldn’t afford to spend
indefinite time.” Farrow’s situation was
exceptional even at the outset: he had
NBC’s support for several months, and
when that support wavered and finally
failed, he was in an unusually strong
position to weather the possible con-
sequences of continuing to pursue the
story. He is now a household name
and media presence to an extent al-
most impossible for print journalists
to achieve today. He invites tips to his
publicly posted e-mail address, and it
will be interesting to see which stories
make the cut. QBONN
Wherever you look in this town are painted casts
of the famous statue. One at my door
like a street performer
silver mantle, silver eyes and skin.In the Town Hall Information Zone
he is lapis lazuli. Face the color of clear sky
after sunset, body scrawled with white crotchets,
a blizzard of musical snow. At the end of a streethe used to race up laughing,
leading the pack, I see the Rhine
flickering like departure. Each chestnut tree
in a skirt of fallen leaves. Six immigrants asleepin an arcade. Where the house once stood
are rows of little Beethovens, stamped on marzipan.
I see a small boy dashing through these alleys
to play for early Mass. Then sullen, dragging his feettoward some grand door to teach a rich child piano.
His brothers are useless. The new babies die.
Father drinks his salary, Mother
has a temper too. Dry bread and furysnap through the kitchen.
A boy in his bedroom, seed in the ground.
He’s strong but he’s little.
The heavy viola bangs his knees as he runs.—Ruth PadelCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
The exhibition is made possible by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation,
the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund, the Diane W. and James E. Burke Fund,
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Laura G. & James J. Ross, and
The International Council of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The catalogue is made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and
The MCS Endowment Fund.
Equestrian (detail), 19th–20th century. Bamana peoples. Mali, Ouassabo, Bougouni District.
Private collection.Through May 10 metmuseum.org Catalogue available
Sahel
ART AND EMPIRES ON THE
SHORES OF THE SAHARA