After dozens of women came forward with allegations ranging from rape to harassment by movie producer Harvey Weinstein, on October 5, 2017, The New York Times published a detailed investigation into these allegations against Weinstein.
New York Times investigative reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, along with The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow, put the face of the serial predator out to the public, which inspired other people to speak out and go public about the harassment in the workplace.
“Our colleagues Emily Steel and Mike Schmidt broke the Bill O’Reilly story, and our colleague Katie Benner wrote about female entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley who are pressured by venture capitalists for sexual favors. I know it seems like those were many sexual harassment stories ago, but at the time, they were really a light-bulb moment for the paper because they made us realize there may be a lot more buried truths here,” Kantor said.
Weinstein was known for his behavior, and many reporters tried to speak out. In 2016, reporter Ronan Farrow brought the story to NBC News but was turned away; he eventually managed to run it in The New Yorker five days after the Times ran its investigation.
The list of Weinstein’s accusers kept growing, and Weinstein was immediately fired and expelled from the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In May 2018, Weinstein was arrested in New York. Then in February 2020, he was found guilty and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
“We’ve devoted our lives basically to fact and our version of feminism, which is not the kind of activist feminism; it’s the feminism of putting women’s stories into the paper, making sure that these voices are represented, that these secrets that need to be exposed are exposed and of holding powerful men who mistreat women in one way or another to account,” Kantor said.
New York’s highest court then overturned the conviction in 2024, saying that Weinstein didn’t get a fair trial.
But again in 2025, Weinstein was convicted of one count of assault in the retrial. He was sentenced to 16 more years after being convicted in Los Angeles of other cases, which he also appealed.
In 2026, Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years after being convicted of assaulting former TV production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 at his Manhattan apartment.
In his statement, Weinstein said he regrets what he did. “I live with many regrets and sincerely apologize for my actions,” he said.
His defense had said that Weinstein is too sick to serve a long sentence after he was diagnosed with several health conditions, including blood cancer and heart disease.
Weinstein is currently imprisoned in New York until he is transferred to a state prison after serving his 15-year sentence, which began on September 23, 2026.
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