Author events. This synagogue and Cultural Center is now 15 years old and its founders and staff deserve credit. [applause] they deserve credit for developing this. We are delighting to be hosting jody and megan. [applause] they are the first to your times reporters who revealed the Harvey Weinstein extensive sexual abuse and their books she said is the limiting riveting revealing account of how they develop their blockbuster story and its consequences in spurring the meeting movement. As they note in their preface in the wake of the weinstein expose which broke in october 2017 it wasnt if it was if a dam wall had come down. Many women not just in this country around the worldha spild forward to tell their own stories of mistreatment. In addition to the pivotal impact the jodyel and megans reporting has the way they went about conforming story that others before them had tried to rynail provides a terrific case study of what goes into firstrate investigatory journalism. People often say such scoops fall into the laps of reporters. In reality what is involved is a lot of painstaking reporting pursuing all sorts of leads, running into dead ends and cooking details out of reluctant sources and ferreting out documents and substantiating information in dealing with skeptical inpatient editors and all while enduring often intense efforts by the subjects of the investigation to sort and even him times to threaten the example set by jody and megan are tough and exacting journalism and the effect of this reporting can have stands as a powerful counterargument with the skepticism about an denigration of news media today. Both jody and megan brought to the task years of experience. An jody who joined the times 15 years ago spent a while as a political reporterle and spent time with brock and Michelle Obama in a book that came out in 2012. Recently she focused on the workplace specifically the treatment of women. In 2014 is a partner with writers she was a finalist for the pulitzer for investing reporting for exposing an underground network where parents give away adopted children they no longer wanted to strangers they met on the internet. Megan and jodys work on the weinstein story led to the New York Times along with the new yorker winning the pulitzer last year. [applause] susan in the review said in the New York Times remarked that the book reads a bit like a feminist all the president s men. [laughter] is particularly fitting the jody and megan will be in conversation here with bob woodward. Bob, has been observing and reporting on major developments in washington for nearly half a century. He has a shared into Pulitzer Prizes first for coverage of the watergate scandal, second in 2003 as the lead reporter for the Washington Post coverage of the 911 terrorist attacks anr the surprises alone hardly begin to reflect enormous journalistic legacy of bob woodward. Beer is a devastating look inside the Trump Presidency came out last year and was his 19th book. All have been National Bestsellers and i would not against another one coming out9t in a not too distant future. Please join me in welcoming jody and megan and bob. [applause] thank you, brad. It is great to be here. Lets get right to it. First of all, this book is a masterpiece, a landmark. [cheering and applause] of journalism and as people who are not journalists should read it because its about how you sort out information and test and decide to share it with othersre and publish it and i loved it and i have my marked up copy here so what is the origin of the collaboration between you two . We would like to start by thinking everybody. This is the launch of their book to herh. [cheering and applause] we are so great to thrilled to be here tonight. We are grateful weve got that only from the family but also forces in the audience tonight so we want to thank them for being here to. [applause]e] introduce your family. I think we when it comes to the question and answer time there may be people who want to get up and identified themselves they be happy to do that. Thats a good question. The truth is that in 2017 the New York Times more broadly the newsroom decided that it wanted to dive into reporting on Sexual Harassment so the weinstein story pointing education was one of many reporting projects that started that year and Silicon Valley in the Restaurant Industry and the comedy comedy industry and auto plants in chicago and we were moved by the work of our colleagues, emily and mike, who had done something remarkable in 2000 earlier that had broken the bill oreilly story and showed how oreilly o paid out millions of dollars to silence women who had come forward with allegations of Sexual Misconduct. Lets pretend its a movie. Is it in the newsroom of the New York Times where you did you know each other . We had been acquaintances. Megan was very new at the paper and i saw this woman in 2016 who i could tell was pretty formidable because she was doing these difficult stories and i saw her belly going like thiss like as the story got more difficult and this is what was happening to her body and ive had a few kids at the time and i knew what she was doing was not easy but we do not know each other well. We only met a couple times and megan was on Maternity Leave in the spring of 2017 when i started working on weinstein story and it was part of the question that the editors asked are there other americans or other powerful men in American Life who have, perhaps, abused women and covered it up and i was trying very hard to get people on the phone and engage them in getting these actresses phone numbers was like an investigation onto itself. Theres the question of once you have them on the phone what you actually do to earn trust and sometimes its 45 seconds you know so i called megan for advice and she was in full on Maternity Leave and adjust put the baby down for a nap but was telling me about the reporting she had done on allegations by women against the trump. Using the argument she often made to them was look, i cant change what happened to you in the past but together if we work and work arm in arm we may be able to take your pain and put it to construct a purpose. This was the standard line you used in this was the outreach line. Rights. This is the first real conversation the jody and i had while on t Maternity Leave so i have been reporting also on sex crimes with men in chicago and i found that this was what reason does a woman have to open up about this when did you know you were a team or even more important when did the editors think of you as a team . When rebecca, my editor, told me to call megan i do not think that much of it but now i realize that he works in deep ways and understands the newsroom and i s understand she was filling out a potential partnership. So you are kind of tricked into literally, when megan said that line on the phone like something in me change. I do not want to get off the phone with her and of course, i had the same sources but megan still had another couple weeks of Maternity Leave and she had choice in terms of what you would cover when she came back. Go back to covering trump or join jody in the weinstein investigation. I had to take a day to think about it. I had been covering trump up until having this baby and i have watched for four months as i saw hardhitting invested work land with a thud and not have an impact in so this was the question of whether or not as investigative journalists are not just out to write interesting stories but you want to write stories that will have an impact. Why weinstein . Lots of people have not heard of him. I myself i myself had doubts. I wondereded this is when jody started to tell me about the allegations she had heard the stories of ashleyud judd and Gwyneth Paltrow i had a hard time conceiving these famous actresses as victims and to comprehend as investigative journalists were looking to give voice to the voiceless andhe i d a hard time wrapping my head around, but but jody said listen, the fact this is happened to these women allegedly is suggest that nobody is immune and if we can i crack the storyry we might be able to help make a difference here. When was the first real breakthrough . In your book you got the chronology in so many characters and so forth when was the moment when you said this is different, this is something that has, like we say in the news business. We had a breakthrough early on that left us in a bad position because three prominent actresses, rose mcgowan, ashley judd, Gwyneth Paltrow not medication with one another really knew each other totally separately tell us these terrible weinstein hotel room stories. At this point they were not on the record. They were so far from it and so thate that is what left us in a bad position because immediately it created substance because on oe hand wow, these are highvalue sources and the stories are convincing and the stories matcd but on the other hand none of them are ready to go on the record so what do we do . What did you do . We basically realize the story would have to be broken with evidence and not just wit with we had this theory that maybe we can persuade actresses to all hold hands and jump together and safety in numbers but because we cannot tell the actresses walls we were talking to it was hard to get them to do that and then as we did that it may have created a traditional he said she said dynamic where the story would have sparked a debate about what weinstein t hd or had not done. What made this different or making it provable because that was your goal. We realized right away we would need records and evidence and that it would be on these accounts we were hearing and so this is one of the ways in which we turn to emily steele and mike schmidt who would broken the bill oreilly story. They had done something remarkable there. They basically help teach us how to try to track down the secret settlement that had been paid. The key here is a settlement or some sort of agreement to be osilent, nda. There were women who were reluctant to tell us their experience with pointing and there were also women, at least eight, who were legally prohibited from telling us what had happened because weinstein had forcedeg fg great settlemenn them. This was something that happens not just in case pointing but in cases of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault across the country. Women are often told the best option in these cases is too accept money in exchange for silence but restrictive clauses are remarkable. What you think of that . It seems your big breakthrough is rose mcgowan where she had 100,000 settlement and that was concrete. Weinstein or the company had paid her, right . We were basically able, in the course of our reporting, to show that we were able to trace the financial trail of payoffs that have been made so the settlements that had been used to hide the truth to allow people like weinstein to cover his tracks we realized if we could basically on earth the fact the settlements have been paid over the years that would be evidenceha in itself so we we able to track down settlements that had stretched from 1990 19902015 in a variety of ways in which we are able to document. Rose mcgowan was one of many. Among the wonderful lines in the book you say im a knowing about documents is good s but having seen documents is excellent but actually having copies is a celebration right . You know what that feels like. [laughter] when was the first time you actually got or saw documents that showed women had been paid off to be quiet connect. I go to london that summer to meet with Zelda Perkins, former miramax assistant who had a settlementnt and megan is like basically emoji texting me as i leave for the plane is like you will see the papers. Go get them. I note you will see the papers because so shes the coach . Even in the scenes in the book where its one of us doing something we are both really there because we are preparing beforehand and strategizing et cetera and so when i lead have eyes on these papers the causes were so shocking, bob. They went beyond the standard settlement agreement. These very young women were, in this case, they were legally overpowered and they were essentially prohibited from talking about their owny life experiences. If they wanted to tell a therapist they needed special permission. If they wanted to talk to an accountant they needed special permission. One of these women cannot tell her future husband about what had happened to her. The women were not even allowede to retain copies of these settlement papers with Zelda Perkins had very cleverly catch some of them together but imagine being told o you have to abide by an agreement that you cannot even have your own copy of . How do you break that . Zelda was brave. We basically you know, from the beginning she was thinking of just breaking her settlement which was a courageous thing to do because it would have exposed her to potential legal and wfinancial liability. I felt that i cannot push her into that because it was such a big risk. Remember, we act not like b2 was inevitable but it was not foreordained at all that any of this played out the way it did. We thought we might be publishing a really controversial story and that our sources might be vulnerable to attack. We basically said look, zelda even if you cant go on record there are so many other people who know about the settlement and others appear next who know you disappeared and got money. There are lawyers and people we can talk to. What if we write about thiss and document everything we can thatx happened and you dont go on the record. Thats what she agreed to. Silent your enabling this . I think the truth is that for women who have experienced Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault they have already undergone so much pain in their lives that we are not trying to show we dont want to bully anybody into doing. Two coming forward thats not an effective strategy and we dont think thats the right thing to do. Its worth noting that there are women who have [applause] that there are women who have there are women who have still not got a record. Its one thing to be asking the source for those to speak about something that is painful from theet past but its another thig to be asking them to break something in which a legally binding document in which, they can come after them for serious money. Bob but now, do you thank they are liberated from that. Criminal charges, hes paying attention to other issues right now. He is busy. He seems to know by victims who are seeking financials and compensations for what theyve gone through. He is the god after anybody but i thank we would be mistaken to thank otherwise. Bob there are other women who have charges against weinstein. How many of those are public now and how many are off the record or for the next volume. I believe thats the public count. There are other women who have not comehein forward. But the really key thing to remember especially as this trial comes up, is that the accusations really vary. Some of them are accusations of rape and assault. Within the purview of the criminal Justice System or shed. But a lot of them, are charges of Sexual Harassment. Its not legal but a civil violation. The sort of restitution forme tt is that you can see for that but you cant have somebody arrested so that is part of why the question of both of weinstein will essentially see any accountability at all is fraud. Because this criminal trial is the big . In the sort of combined civil lawsuit of these women is also still big . Bob you two are experts on interviewing and going down, really explaining peoples experience in in all of your, did you find any women who actually made up allegations . Jodi weor have not come across any fabricated allegations but i can tell you, its very important. Bob we had to tweak that to donald trump. [laughter] [applause] jodi as you know our book actually starts with donald trump and the allegations that women have told. We havent came across any fabricated. Some in which we didnt report allegations not because we didnt believe the person but because we hadnt been able to obtain collaboration or cooperation. One woman, a former beauty pageant contestant who told a story about being select sexually harassed by donald trump. Oo when she was in the ms. Miss pageant. She had provided some and steer me towards some potential collaboration that did it materialize. So do mean i didnt believe her, just method wasnt. We really go to painstakingas details and Due Diligence to move forward to publishing a story like this. Bob talk about rebecca, who was your role at the sleeves, editor because theres a marvelous scene in the book where she takes you to a part of why its bar. As you described it. Tell us what she said to you. Jenny this was in the summer ofhi 2017, we been reported for weeks and weeks we know so many things. We have spoken to several actresses who were very convincing accounts, collaboration of those accounts, we know about a whole bunch of settlements. At that. We also talked to miramax,s employees who have sad yes this was a terrible problem. I had some knowledge of it at the time. Bob you are feeling good at the bar. We have okay. Tell what she had to say. Jenny feeling nervous because we have this responsibility and we want to know if we can land the story. And she listens to everything we have, and she said, is any of it on the record. And we said no. And she said you do not have a publishable story. Bob how did you feel. Megan we felt devastated. It was deafly one of the more memorable moments and were the one we worked so and there is so much that goes on and there was a lot of drama in the pages of the articles and one sign but there is also so much drama played out behind the scenes. As we were grateful to finally be able to show readers what its like when you are not just with working with sources but also in the newsroom and when your editor is telling you to wake up kids. So you dont have a story. Bob what is the strategy for getting out of the hole. She isto staying not publishable as we all know in the news business, thats what counts. That is the job. So how do you navigate out. So we kept calling weinstein employees in miramax and we call this guy, and we figure. Bob b talk about him because e was very important. You never know in journalism whos going to end up helping and not help. It is so hard to predict. Theres boats of surprises i thank in this book the people of help to expose the truth and also the people who helped conceal it. This is sort of surprising figure. So the writer has been essentially Harvey Weinstein his accountant for 30 years. Hes in the books on all of these famous movies, he is the relatively unassuming guy. He iss short, hes in his late 50s, kind of an outer accent, and he had been described to me as like this rough loyalist. I thought he been very unlikely to help. Finally said but he said to me, urban v writer, hates Harvey Weinstein. [laughter]. That was ourau opening. They got us back. It i talked to them. Bob doesnt that also make you nervous though. [laughter] that somebody [applause]. Im sorry. I was worried he could be a spy. As youas know, to get informati, you have to give usually at least a little bit of information at least in terms of what you know writing about. I worried that her when writer was a set up. We emailed a lot about what Harvey Weinstein was directing to doo to stop the story. But at this. They had and i are trying to imagine it. One of the things of icing. Then, as he couldve positioned the Company Insider to sort of player source but actually be a spy. Or even worse, give us fake information and plant and the story, it wouldve been devastating. So writer gets off the phone very quickly and he gives me his email address. We start g corresponding. Even just the fact that he is writing back and we are sort of, talking over email. He said he was going to take the weekend to decide s. So i kept this isnt in the book but i kept emailing with him. Since we are in a synagogue, maybe i should say that urban is the child of holocaust writers and i am the grand child of the same. It turns out that we grew up in the same places. Our families even spent summers in sort of the same modest bungalow colonies. [laughter] where holocaust didnt reallye have any money to spend summers. If anybody knows the word, transmitting it is. If we were sort of this answering over the weekend kind of waiting to see if he is wheeling to meet in person. So lo and behold, he said hes wheeling to meet. E and on a monday or tuesday night, back in september, we had our first meet. Bob those were great days in reporters. Its not money that where everybody is running around and its not the end of the week, i always have found the best time in which you did, knocking the door strategy that went out an appointment. 817 on tuesday night, is about the best. Jenny well keep that in mind. So lo and behold to answer your question, i started asking writer about all of these things that happened in the 90s and he had a little bit of information but not that much and its like he said, why arent you asking me about more recent offenses. [laughter]. And im thinking recent issue offenses. Turns out that unbeknownst to only a tinyin part of us had ben in public for two years within the weinstein company. In 2014 and 2015. There is a series of problems and become more and more visible to the company leadership. I didnt know it was writer. I was actually talking to 2 somebody who had tried to stop things internally. And failed. So if you know, that is are the best kind of whistleblower because they feel theyve already takenen action. In that it to fruition. Starting in the press becomes in a last resort. But i thank a very principled decision on their part. Bob talk about being the editor. He has a very thin bradley like the parents in about three or four scenes in the book. We were so glad that we had an opportunity to show a true team effort. Seems okay from theni beginning, the executive editor of the times has really been a set of them in the office and said his handsome exchanges with weinstein in the past and he has set us down and said watch out. This guy is going to come out you expect him to put private detectives on your tail. We didnt expect that they would be former israelis spies overpromise 300,000 they could put a stop to our investigation. They came out later but he was basically staying useful and had had experience with him ander ae to help h us spell out some serious ground rules. One to us and we being followed and be careful about how we handle ourselves. Every single step of the way. But also to make sure we didnt have any conversations with weinstein off of the record. Bob they just find out said that. No conversations. Bob he also said. Dont engage him off of the record. We need got the goods, you are ready to go to him with your findings, that has to be in on the record conversation because if he is allowed to go off of the record and come in here and do his time an important man routine and just want to share with you but the real truth is going to be smeared. Hes going to spare your sources and engage in a lot of dirty things. Every conversation is being secretly taped. Thats right, not only that. Bob did that surprise you. We and our colleagues are working on secret investigations on powerful figures and institutions all of the time. So he wants a price for that. But it was really useful to us but we shared was you have to make sure that the reporters and the editors and even all of the way up to the publisher, hes wising was trying to call the publisher of the newf york times to make his case. I am in an important man. So everybody from all of those guys, said talk to the reporter. So they really didnt give him any opportunity to come in the backdoor. To try to intimidate or bully is out of the story. Bob is now the time i can ask this question. Tell us about the biggest fight you to have had. [laughter] we never had a big fight. Bob disagreement. It wasnt so much a disagreement as a worry. Lichen august the 2017, two months before we publish a story. Megan finds out about this really a regular series of transactions. The weinstein his t had in his charity that is been very involvedha with for years. They look really questionable to her. Ill tell you some things about my partner like we do really get into something, you dont really let go. [laughter] like there was a suggestion which turned out to be true the weinstein had erimproperly used a fancy chariy auction and that the money that the owners thought they were giving to aids, was ruling going to help weinstein in a business capacity. This was waving red in front of megan. In the disagreement we had is that i certainly thought that was interesting, on the other hand these women are telling these stories about the hotel room and the settlements and you have to remember that at this. In the weinstein investigation of forgetting like a new tip a day there are so many rumors that are coming at us. We are hearing a lot of these things in internet to be true. Angelina jolie has a story but we cant nail itan down. You have to talk to thelma hayek his because she a h story and yu cant nail it down so the story in a sense already is is it too big for only two reporters. The megan couldnt pull herself away from looking at this aids charity. It was on investigation by the new york attorneys general his office. All of these people try to cover it up. [laughter] jodi so it worked out in a way that we never could have anticipated. Which is that megan did take some time to go ahead and do parade story. It ended up being a worry of first of all during off with weinstein in person and it wont ruin the scene in the book for you but the stuff he says in that meeting, was extremely surprising. Second of all, it became sort of a guide to his playbook that weinstein was very successful and kind of creating his own reality. And getting a lot of fancy procedures people to march behind him we need wanted to do something. And so there is that. Also megan really nails what happened in that story. In publish that before the investigation about the women was published. So it was sort of like way down on the marker of we are going to hold you down on the account. There is a sense that way if we were onto this, and lysine had come into the New York Times and engage with us about it, that we had to basically show our sources and the people in his company that we mean business. We are going to refer the frequently found it. We were going to be bullied or intimidated. Bob we spent all this time on him, you have to ask the question. You really dont address it in the book and that is why he tbehaved this way. I know you are not psychiatrist or psychologist, but share with why, what is driving him because there are so many strange things he does. Come to the new yorkth times and at one point he says, you thank im bad. Im worse. Its almost like he is waving a reds flag or there is a fatalism almost like you know going to catch me. Megan i thank we could spend days or weeks or even months trying to get to the bottom of his psychology. Im going to tell you what we thank is actually more important was the psychology the people around him. The alleged misconduct. What were they thinking. How did they respond and what you do we do get a lot of wrongdoing. Especially his brother, Bob Weinstein, who is his only sibling. This was somebody had been in business for them and they run to companies for decades during the time that he was in involved in this alleged predatory behavior. We came out of thatt firstrate really wanting to know, what did bob know, and wouldnt he know it and would he do about it. Any actually open up to us in a series ofly interviews for this book. It is very and stressing psychology that was off time and again. Bob harvey did see him. He crossed the line and so there is that long letter that Bob Weinstein said to harvey in which he really lays l out the parade of portables. Jodi in his letter that he provided to us that he is sent to his brother, this letter in 2015, two years before the kind of truth spilled out into the public. He basically said i was aware of allegations of Sexual Misconduct against my brother going back to the 90s, and two cases i provided money that. [silence] women. But i like a lot of other people, in weinstein his orbit chose to believe him we i need said that these work these attempted shakedowns and that he was only engaged in extramarital activity like i am in bad as an it and my wife but in the case of Bob Weinstein, he had actually sort of, had a rationale that was rooted in his ownis battles with abuse. They chose to believe that his brother was a addict. Bob you know artfully dodging the question. There ishi something. But tell youel what we know,s an xray into i power. And how power works. Abuse of power. That is what the evidence says. Bob it is also about, isnt it. But its not about in the romantic sense. What i would say that part of the way it is about power is that its about work. These women were actresses, or former assistance,ta [applause] bay shared up some of them on the first day of work. There are so many women in this book who were alleged harassed or assaulted really on the d fit day of work the first day they met weinstein and they still havey their aspirations and ambitions and hopes and dreams and of what you see again and again according to these allegations, is that weinstein is able to turn those against them. So i thank that is about both of these women are going to have a shot ats achieving what they wat to in the workplace and both of those hotel roomwh stories, they are kind of bait and switch were the women go in expecting one thing and then another. Bob i understand but there are some perverted sexual drive that he has. [laughter] in 1990, we realize, when we were able to sort of identify who we consider to almost be the start of what happened. This woman started to work for miramax and was sexually assaulted alleged by him on a te job. Silencer one of the sediments. And when we were able to start to report out what it happened around that, and since we found out the judgment, was a chief cnancial officer of the company, he was aware of this. This is 1990. In Harvey Weinstein went into his office andnt said, ive done something horrible. I promise it wontt happen aga. It was just remarkable for us to realize that this was not certainly somebody, their time again he would basically confronted with his behavior. Ic even 27 years before investigation has claimed to have knowledge of what he had done was wrong, and promises to change. Bob so white. Im sorry im going to pursue on this. What is drivingon him. Because not to go is it too far into. That is really important to understand at least for you in your search for what his behavior and what is likely an obviously was a compulsion. But why . If we had him here on sodium pinnacle, the truth serum, it might take a lot of the drug. We ask what is this about for you. I dont thank hes going to say much. But of these is the power. Part of what you see in this story is of the way he weapon eyes somebody every day aspects of the workplace. In pursuit of this alleges ledges. Im going to Say Something totally gross but iset an important part of our reporting which is that especially in the later years, he would have assistance, female assistance, procure supplies of this kind of penile erection drug, sort of like viagra but is injected directly into the business. His assistants were in more than one of them inn more than one country, told stories of how to keep supplies and especially with one of them who workk in nw york, hand them out to him more than once a day. This was a Prestigious Company was making movies that we all saw. What is remarkable to us is the way he was able to deploy some of the elements of this company, its contracts and is assistance, his lawyers and sometimes his offices in pursuit of whatever this thing he wanted was. Bob what was it. What is rosebud for harvey wednesday. Yeahut bob its some kind f weird foreplay. Injected this in my,. I thank is just beyond the limits of our knowledge. Investigative journalism. And reporters, that went out the Big Questions that we wanted to have in our reporting in this book, were not the sort of psychology of weinstein had clearly engaged in such a long pattern of predatory behavior. Women who worked in his companies, but we really wanted to tackle the questions of complicity. How is it that these people and so many of them would be enable him. Caught back i thank those are some of the things that we are all wrestling with. How did lisa bloom, one of the most prominent attorneys in the country crossover to the other side to work with weinstein in 2016 and 2017 to evade scrutiny. What will and i understand your dodging the question. [laughter] bob what is really important is the behavior and impact of these women time and time again. Tell me a little bit about the lawyers in this and how did the lawyers come out. I thank lisa bloom, i will pause on her for a second, that this was in there were a variety of highpowered attorneys who came into weinstein hisrn orbit and helped him conceal and spend and evade scrutiny and so this was, lisa bloom she had worked for weinstein we encounter in the course of our reporting and she said that she went to go work for him because she was had madee that he inappropriate comments towards women and she wanted to help him apologize. Will the course of reporting this book we were able to obtain confidential records that show that she had much deeper knowledge of very serious allegations against him and that she played a much darker role. In the snow we reproduced in its entirety in the book, people can read for themselves what this lawyer were seeing to weinstein where she spells out all of the underhanded tactics to undermine resin a gallon one of his accusers and it really is basically like a playbook and how she isnd going to harness al of her experience working with victims to help him work against them. We also obtain her billing records which are by an hour by hour accounting that shows how she was working with the black use formerh aggressively intelligence facilities you she was working with them and david, one of the most prominent attorneys in the country. Summary with one the case of gay marriage. Will he had also been one of harveys biggest dissenters over thee g course of 15 years. Is the defender. We really thought it was important to to eliminate places that these lawyers played. Bob what you thank about this reputation man. The lawyer in town. One of my favorite lines in the book is when dean, talk to him and says, lenny i am tired. [laughter]. Jodi weinstein hired so many highpriced attorneys and spinners and pr people. It was actually as we got to the final shone down on one thing, its almost confusing to do with because it was like who is representing you. To even call if we want a straight answer. And it was clear that they didnt all agree with w each other. But i thank every d experience s the lesson for us is that all of the highpowered legal health and pr health in the world, does not really do anything wee do have three sources and we do have a lot of facts that you documented, when youve got 25 years ofio allegations and when youve got a graven institution that is wheeling to stand up for it all. [applause]. Bob it didnt help him. It was kind of the tipoff was in it. Jodi as you know the spr people are the people oft help journalist. Lanny did in theom coming is in some ways. He is pretty open from the beginning about the fact that hisro clients was really difficult. [applause]. Bob u. S. A really potent question and that is where we are now in the need to move it. Meet to movement. Has it been is it too much change or not enough and what is your answer. We really wanted to push through into the yearid followed as it took off in earnest so we were grateful enough to have the opportunity to report behind the scenes in testifying in washington which became one of the more controversial sort of moments. Bob you see the book the you interviewed her. For dozens of hours. Do you believe her . Jodi what i can tell you shes probably the most precise and diligent source subjects certainly that i have ever reported on and we and recreating for the readers, what was happening for f her, se was on way to washington and ten the dayn before, she testified when she has some of her advisors trying to coach her for going before the Senate Judiciary committee and she refused to be coached. She did the answers to the questions. She even was kind of obsessively writing and rewriting to make sure that she had the language just right. All i can tell you is in the telling of her account and her experience, i havent really encountered somebody good heres to be precise and obsessed with getting the truth right. [applause]. Bob she did have somee precise memoy on when this happened or exactly where and so forth and there has been and has been used to undermine what she testified to an said. I thank the interesting question now, if all of this is available about christine blase ford in that allegation, and kavanaugh, if they were to say a judge here in the District Of Columbia is the gave you all of the information, is it enough to publish a a story. Defined screaming okay. What if it met your standard. See that the reason your question is so interesting is is your paper the Washington Post that did publish it exactly that story. Bob but it was in the midst of the Supreme Court nomination. Im asking a different question. In other words, in terms of go through your book and i really mean this, i keep to journalism seminar and im going to assign this as a manual about going through a really difficult case. The kavanaugh case as it unfolded was very difficult. I wonder both of everything we know, the precision and there is some precision but theres imprecision and there are not the corroborating witnesses that you wanted in your y work on weinsteinte read i am asking, wt if you publish that in the New York Times. Jodi i thank thats why we wanted to write about it. In the weinstein story there was so much overwhelming proof that we felt that we hadov to sort of take on a much harder case. The first thing i would say is i dont thank the fact that christine blase ford doesnt remember everything about that night, is thes sign of lack of credibility. I would say the opposite. [applause] im going to get to the answer every question. So i thank that we generally, when 70 is wheeling to acknowledge with the dont remember, we generally see that as a strength. But i thank the reason we were so drawn to this is that they are basically three good questions about these two that are totally unresolved. And very controversial. Which are that number one, whats the scope of behavior on scrutiny. Are we only talking about Sexual Assault, is it also sort of lesser offenses like verbal abuse. Ive included in the question about soap, which is how far back are we going. It is very powerful to go back for a very long time but the further back you go, the harder it is because its harder to ascertain the truth with the passage of time. Numberer two, how we get get to the bottom of what happened especially when its sort of High School Era for many years ago. Number three what is the accountability look like. What is the punishment for this kind ofha behavior. Bob you would beid disappointed in e if i did it press you for an answer. Stjodi im getting to the answer. From the first moment, it was so newsworthy, this is the potential Supreme Court justice uso is about to be appointed. This is the woman who the research scientists, whose business is precision. Sort of the editors of the New York Times, so we wouldnt have made that final call. I will tell you that we tried very hard to speak to christine and to beat your newspaper even before this became a political storm because wer did feel that we had moreid about that story. Bob you would lead it up to the editors of the newew york timeso decide what the public would want. Megan what can tell you is that christine did not come forward when kavanaugh was a lower court judge. It was really what he was being considered for one of the most powerful jobs in the entire country, that she felt like she had a civic duty to report that. I thank that there is questions about the kind of news judgment in terms of news organizations and what we publish stories and allegations and why. In some cases you are looking in a pattern of predatory behavior. You worry that that person is still going on and he didnt report the truth about them, theyre going to keep hurting other people. Almost, to give god its a Public Safety issue. Then there are other considerations when it is somebody in a position like the Supreme Court. Bob you pose this questionhe in your book which i thank is very interesting. Would she have been better off staying part of why its. In her own live. And you pose that question, you dont answer it. Megan we know that kavanaugh after these wrenching testimonies on both sides, that he is now in the Supreme Court andnd christie is back in california. So is going to continue to be a visible public figure and will be able to trace what happens to him but i thank that it is worth people across the country continuing to ponder how she is doing. In our experience, [applause] when i in the first interview of her and how also months after that, she was still living in hiding. She had not, she did not yet feel like there were securities yet. It was not safe enough for her is that she felt. Bob you also pose the question how she was trying to retain control of her own story ander obviously she was unable to. Is that correct. Megan i thank she became t the vehicl, it was clear that this was not somebody who had any interest in catapulting herself into the center of a national scandal. Or to become a major figure in the me to limit and yet another reason we want to write about her is that she did become this vehicle. Some people came to see her as a figueroa another people came to see her as a villain in a vehicle for the backlash. We want readers to see this is the very real person. That behind the scenes story is so much more complicated. Bob the last chapter is the gathering. Youve got a dozen of your sources and actresses, and a judge, and so forth together. I thank it is fascinating discussion and i would ask from that, because you were there and you did all this work and you wrote the book, what did you learn about yourselves . [applause] that is definitely the hardest question you have asked us. Megan you know going to tell me that are not answering your question but i really am. [applause] i believe in the journalistic process bob, it is so not about megan or me or you. I really believe that that we dyve been fortunate to do these gigantic stories. The tools that we describe in this book are the tools that journalists across the country and across the world, use every single day. And if you follow the process, and if you use good judgment, they really do work. And thats what made this, megan and i certainly are happy about certain decisions we made. But if you like an fundamentally that is what we did. Bob is the brilliant answer because the answer is the pick the right profession. [laughter] [applause] what did you learn about yourself. Jodi ive been a reporter for 20 years and i have been a variety of stores stories. I thank for me, one of the things that i learned the course of the recording. Jody and i from that first phone call, some Maternity Leave and i didnt even know jody to the moment we started working together. My first day back from Maternity Leave come to you and half years ago. For me, i thank it one of the things thats been an additional harbor alcoholism. That there has been an incredible partnership that formed. So i thank that for mers learnig to work so closely with a fellow journalist that has been probably one of the most unexpected and fantastic treats about doing this work. D [applause]. Bob we go to a questionnaire, borden, has provided microfilm. [laughter] if you are old enough to remember who he is. Jodi i thank we would be remiss bob if we did not ask you a question or two. Given whats going on. In washington. [laughter] [applause] hypothetical for you year the investigativeap assignment journalist of the universe. What is it as an investigative journalist that you most want to know. To know about how trim used his office to the ukrainian leadership and other foreign leadership, what do you thank most needs to be investigated. What do you thank we do not understand. Bob i thank you are so much and weve got to remember that the ukrainians story which there is been a lot of attention given to and rightly so. Just looking through the keyhole. At the trump administration, there is much more to look at. I am going to send a copy and i hope you will sign it to ed and who is running the investigation. Because this is how to run an investigation. Screaming [applause] you cant do it in two weeks. You cant do it in two months. You cant say wale well we found the three women who were assaulted or harassed. You have to look at the whole, the total universe and that is the obligation. That is what you did in this case and hopefully in this internet age, of the speed that there is a way to slow down for everyone including trump and the people who work for him, they are entitled to a full investigation of listening, of what you did, y knocking on doos and crosschecking the ups and downs. You two went on one of the most wonderful toboggan rides that anyone ever has. Thank you are answering my question. [laughter]er [applause] what do you most want to know about what trump did and didnt do. Bob i thank proud of the question is why. Why did you do this. I thank one of the big issues it with trump is, ive written books on nine president s from nixon to trump and that is 20 percent of the president s weve had and i once went to a Junior High School for a friend and one of the students raise their hand and said what was Calvin Coolidge like . [laughter]dg. I miss cal. All president s are isolated. Trump may be the most isolated president. He had because he had no political office, because he had no government experience, he is experienced a self validation, that none of us no one here does. He made it to the top, to the presidency. He did it on his own. And you see this confidence that he shows publicly and in private. We need meets in the oval office with advisors, people can say, they give advice and indict ideas. And he is like a i am here and you know here because of me. I did this. All by myself. So, as far as he is concerned, he is in control. And what happens in this is unfortunate for him, in the country. It is what george, the father of containment gotou from all the treacherous carton of death. It just comes down and oh yes mr. President inoue agree with you, and he or the reality that is out there, doesnt get in enough. That is why the Washington Post and the New York Times so much is because we are bringing reality into theh bubble that he is constructed. See you want to know what he did acting out of all of that selfconfidence, that was not stopped due to the difference of other people. Bob i want to know what we are facing a governing crisis. The major issues in the middle east, i have all kinds of information in my book about the terrace in china. Ninetynine out of a hundred economists will say this makes no sense at all. The north korean policy, and he almost got us into a war with north korea. Are all of the basic economic and foreignpolicy issues, how did we get there. What is the impact and what might be thee outcome of some of this. There is no, my wife and i were in south korea last week. He talked to people in south korea, and they are next to kim john goes Nuclear Weapons and they went to south korea with a certain amount of trepidation quite frankly. They are worried. What is going on. What is the strategy. How do we and not to over dwell on this, the issue in one of these meetings trumpe has, which i recount from National Security council notes. We need is on this geon about why are we spending all of this money on allies. With nato and we are suckers. We would be so rich if we didnt do this. The secretary of defense says to the president. Mr. President , we are doing all of this to prevent world war three. The president has to be told that this is why we have these alliances and this is what wehe have this defense system. That is one of my chilling moments is the reporter first learning about that. I look forward to finding out what else you find about about this. [applause]. Bob if i finish this book, all come here and you you and megan can interview me. [applause]rv i really appreciate your journalism and thank you for what you contributed and i take what happens in the justices and the other people studying anita hill. I wanted to know we saw it happen with anita hill. We saw what happened with christine. Do you think three times as a charm. What will happen if we face this again. I think that one of the things that was most or worse was pointing to was when christine, did come forward. When her allegation was made public and there was a determination that there would be a a hearing. That anita hill actually wrote this pretty an incredible opinion piece about that moment in time when they were trying to negotiate what the rules of that would be. Le she noted that so many years after her experience of coming forward, and having to testify, this committee had still not come up with the protocol and how to handle and had a field and an allegation of Sexual Assault allegations. What it does say, natalie 70 years after she ca forward but into me is it too. And so it is clear is these cases you know chucking cases and cultural attitudes. There is no question that anita hill, while Clarence Thomas was ultimately confirmed and there on the Supreme Court that she did play a huge role in helping shift cultural attitudes toward Sexual Harassment. I think that we are going to be watching to see the impact of christine was a 40. Meanwhile, how about the Senate Judiciary committee get some protocols in place. If this does happen next time. [applause]. Bob over here. Thank you for all of the work youve done and mr. Whitford, you are one of the legends of the profession. We repeatedly interrupt these women all night has been one of the mars frustrating experiences of my live. Its often been days, i feel like on your assumptions of what they were about toum say, with some discretion, and you assume she was going to Say Something about what is happened with together then we on you wouldnt let her finish. So that was frustrating. In any if it, im really interested in hearing and your experiences as women, doing this work, what, have you emotionally dealt with information youve been receiving it. Ive kinda live through the cabala hearings, i couldnt weeks. For threeee statistically we know that either one or both of you have been victims of Sexual Assault h and harassment. You certainly know first personally that many people have had, so its it been like for you as women living through this . Megan and i have ah firm rule is that we never discuss what has happened happened to us personally. That is because it is all about our sources. We want to be frankly, for the women. En we want to be doing our jobs. We talk to them which is the very unique relationship. Were not difference, we are not there sara gets rid we are journalists who are trying to bring these stories to light. And so when we are doing that work, you to be very steady because it is our belief that victims want to feele compassi. But they also want to feel that they are in very firm steady hands. If i were in that situation, would not want to speak to a reporter who was an emotional mess. It was falling apart. So what ever and believe me weve had a lot of feelings obviously in reaction to doing this work. But we to hold them in reserve. It is also what is so valuable about having each other as partners because we can be very professional and interviews. Then we could turn around and call each other and say oh my god. And so we tried to trade off the emotions. Like one day, i am doing wale and jodi is struggling. And so we are lucky enough to be able to tour sort of tradeoff emotions and be able to help hold each other up behind the scenes. I think my final answer to your question is that doing this reporting, has ultimately been empowering. There is material during the weinstein investigation that was very d difficult. You can feel it that you know standing in a river of pain. But i think that we felt such responsibility in such sort of force and desire to hear the stories that always felt like it was sort of moving in the right direction. Like somebody recently asked me if it was fun. I would say fun would not be the right word. Given the loophole of pain we are dealing with. But what was galvanizing and that has helped. Bob im a journalist from india. I was part of the team and nine new art. We were reporting about s it. The change that happened, with editors. [inaudible conversation] later we saw your reporting and stories about this. We were discussing a large of what was happening tone us. We do are reporting about Sexual Harassment. Secondly, now you open the door and there was so much reporting, where do you see the future of reporting about Sexual Health what is the future of this look like. First off, congratulations to you. [applause] your reporting and we would love to heal maybe some chants at some. About specific reporting that you did in india. I think that what i can tell you is we at the New York Times after we broke the weinstein story, our email accounts and our phones started, they were just flooded with tips. Women coming forward with their accounts of what had happened tw them and we really started to kind of come up with a triage system. To figure out how to field all of these tips and stories they were coming to us. It really became like a brook project across the newsroom, this forced department was involved and the business was involved, thert culture and we were even doing brownbag sessions with some of the reporters to explain atep least the techniques that we had used in the course of doing that. It was one thing to sort of watch it spread across her newsroom but to watch it spread across the country, and around the world hashe been so excitin. We cant be sure of where everything is headed in whats going to happen next is journalists, we are not, you cant enact policy reforms we cant change Hr Department or the laws. But to know that there are news organizations, not only for us to know that, before companies and bad guys, that there is now this kind of Group Project across journalism tackling this issue. It makes me sleep better at night. It just is really been thrilling to watch. [applause] i would like to thank you for all of yourr years and decades f surfing for the truth. R [applause] and knew i was comg here, ive pulled out from my baseman, my favorite front page of the Washington Post. [background sounds] i think history repeats itself. [applause]. Bob do you have a question for them. Nope, but i want to thank you. [applause] ive a question for you. I want to say thank you except you kept getting interrupted. So i was waiting for the punch lines. But i am looking forward to reading the book. Im differently putting both of you on the list of gutsy women. But i wanted to talk about the gutsy women who are the sources to you brooke. And i readti it really interestg article which after you read, rebecca, in the crossroads of how to be all of the women, hyperbole case. They had protections but a number of women that she talks about in this article who have lost theirir jobs, not a lot of heney and they are separated from the children. Im just wondering why we are igniting a movement. To encounter these cases and i am hoping that there is some of started the moment that also protects. These are witnesses to a big trial and i think is that something, its hard to sleep on everything that had to be filled that into the movement. When i think you are putting your finger on his whats been a little bit frustrating about this whole discussion about both of some of these accused men will come back or not. What we see these guys come back. You know putting your finger ina the more interesting question on what is going to happen to these women. Some of them suffered to that severe consequences. For the workplace or psychological. This happening in the first place. And i can tell you that the women we wrote about in this book did not do anything to get harassed or get assaulted. [applause] why is it that the women have to undergo thiss messy, painful woprocess of being tortured whether to go on the record and on the one hand can be highimpact and the other you can never know what the cost will be and it is something that you think about a lot. Megan is in the book about how when there were women in 2016 who had allegations against President Trump she convinced some of them to go on record and have written and they seemed pretty willing but this is what we do for a living. We tell people that telling the truth is a public service. Make the argument that it will help other people p in some way and then megan has to watch a some of the women were attacked, really severely from friends that threatened to sue them and us and its a talk conversation. At the end of the day we cant go into court on their behalf and there are things outside of our control and part of the really tough calculations that women make. We found the last chapter in the book bob said is gathering of women who have all come forward and their experiences of coming forward are varied and were treated like heroes. Then some paid a significant price. The thing that was so torturous is that you never really know what the effects will be until you do itha. Im sorry to say we are over on time and we can take two more questions. Hello. I wrote my question on my phone so please excuse me. Im a survivor of College Campus advocate and huge fan of everybody up on stagee four yeas and thank you for everything. Im sure that sentiment is echoed throughout this room. This book and this article changed my life and as well as obviously everybody else. I went to a small liberal arts school in the middle of the cornfield in kentucky and now that school is very different because of the whole Metoo Movement and the Harvey Weinstein scandal and everything. The question is do you have anything to say to the future, i guess, to the young survivors into the advocates and activists and to those setting out into maledominated fields facing harassment do you have words of advice or incurred thank you for coming to the microphone. Good for you it sounds like me you are someone who is turned your private pain intone working into a collective strength and your advocacy work so hats off to you for that. [applause] one of the things that we were had a talk last week and there was an 11 yearold girl who got up and asked what things would be like for her generationan moving forward. We obviously cant look into a crystal ball and we dont have predictions. If you had told us when we were striding home from the New York Times we wouldve turned to each other at 1 00 oclock in the morning and had been so immersed in the reporting trying to get to the finish line to make sure the story was airtight that we werent even thinking about what the impact might be returned and said do you think anyone will read the story . [laughter] it was assigned we had no idea about the impact of the story and others like it would have in the year that followed and beyond. Th while we cant predict but all we can say is theres been a lot of people we encountered with the sources in our investigation and reporting to have the motivated to act as they want to help protect younger generations. That was something that had come out interviews with Christine Ford that when she came away from testifying she said listen, i did not come to washington to try to derail a nomination but my hope was that if i could get up there and tell my story with integrity and might make it easier for younger generations to come forward. I just want to add that one of the people who worked that case closely is here, lisa ban banks. One of her attorneys. [applause] i think lisas quotes in the book and so much of what that was almost one year ago today to the date that everybody in this room was living through that. So much of what lisa and her partner were talking about at the time even as they dealt with this very stressful set of hearings was that hope that it was part of me being annoying and asking questions as a tie to go about the work but from that moment everyone was so conscious of what that legacy would leave for people like you. Last question. First of all, thank you all, truly. Im asking for a nervous friend but who do you hope, be it individual or group, read your book and what do you hope they learn from it . I hope men read it. [applause] i should say that every word, every word, every reader means the world to us because if anybody in this room t iod has d our information economy in this country is not healthy right now. The idea of readers committing to a book with nearly 100,000 words of this very committed material means so much to us so thank you to anybody who comes on the journey with us. [applause] thank you. Did you want to introduce fami family . Sure. I would love to. My parents, wendy and harry cant or are here. I have one more, my brotherinlaw, david lieber, is here. I got some of my nearest and dearest and oldest friends. Im excited to see them after words. [applause] final questions. Alternative titles what else might you have called this because as i read it a couple of times you refer to the reckoning that there has been a reckoning in this and indeed there has in any way. Title. Once she said it was on the table there was no other there were no other horses in title. Ning for this it just felt like such you quote i guess is ashley judd saying its a nice quote is the only tackle you when you are carrying the ball. Gwyneth paltrow said that to Christine Ford. Oh okay. Just from the sidelines you two have carried the ballju and over the finish line and i think we owe you oh my goodness. [cheering and applause] thank you, bob. Thank you everyone. Thank you. [applause] thank you for joining us. If you would like to have your book signed please stay seated for just a few moments and if youre looking for an exita you can use the main lobby or corner lobby to my right. [inaudible conversations] you are watching the tv of these into the top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Tv, television for serious readers. Hears programs to watch out for this. Book tv attended the black book matters book party hosted by mahogany books in washington dc. Publisher and entrepreneur and White House Correspondent discuss their latest books. A covered four president s, four United States president s. It came from baltimore and never expecting to be at the highest level in the land calling on for american president s to answer my questions would three i know the names they call me but this one i dont know what he calls me so much but its okay. Thats where this story comes. In my unique walk in the white house and the strange perch i sit in race is always on the table. You may not hear about it but its always on the table. Everything deals with matters of race. Particularly today we see the president going to baltimore what is the issue what he said about being a predominantly black town is roach infested. Thats my template i grew up there. My story is a story about trying to survive in a white house that did not view me as family and did not view me as a person, let alone a reporter. And white house that tried to take me out of there in any way they could calling me names, telling me to shop shaking my head and going after me lying on me, lying on me and there is proof. It has not been easy but think about this. Think about this. You are a kid from baltimore did not go up with a silver spoon in her mouth and did not raise a Million Dollars and you didnt have the pedigree like many others at education places like harvard and i go into the highest office in the land by myself with small News Networks and the president of the United States targets me and im still standing. Thats the story that needs to be told. It doesnt need to be a story that we are telling each other by whispers but we need to put this on paper so our children can understand the struggle we still have in 2019. This is not 1950 but 2019 and we are still dealing with these issues of being told to sit down, dont you ask that question. It needs to be told. I believe that in the midst of my walk it has helped people because i found out that a lot of people have gone through micro aggression on the job and look at you all not in your head. I did not know that. I have women come to be crying only god, i did not know and its amazing. We need to tell our stories and even if it comes from the white house it reads like a novel. But its real life. Its Reality Tv Show stars and its me screaming out to the president of the United States, mr. President are you a racist . And one of his friends, a minister whose name is in the book who i name tries to he wants to throw water at me. Oh, yes. Yes, close your mouth. Its all right. These are stories you would not normally hear and this is why im telling it because we need to know whats happening and we have to take the veil off of our house, the peoples house and its a story that tries to help to inspire you to understand that your Voice Matters and even though i meet reporter telling you what is happening day today at the white house and still a part of that we the people who are still forming a more perfect union. I found fathers who had slaves im a descendent of a slave both sold in the Auction Block in North Carolina but at the end of the day those Founding Fathers never realized they were being [inaudible] to question bill clinton, george w. Bush, barack obama and they never imagined donald trump would be there either. I stand on those pillars that our Founding Fathers cannot break. My story is your story. You will see yourself in it but its a story for all of us not just to say well, but its a story our children need to know. This is what happened and i stand on the shorter of [inaudible], ethel payne, those trailblazers in the white house. What happened to them in the 50s and 60s, 70 years ago, happened today. I encourage you to read my story. Everybodys got a story. Watch the rest of this book party visit our website booktv. Org and search for black books matter using the search box at the top of the page. Our moderator today is colonel andy heard air force retired