Final Assignment:
Read the book “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.” From the list of questions below, choose three to answer. Each response should be approximately 200–250 words.
Question 9 is mandatory, so in total, you will answer four questions:
→ Three of your choice (from Questions 1–8)
→ Plus Question 9 (required)
- How did Kantor and Twohey persuade reluctant sources to talk to them? To go on the record? Give specific examples. Were their efforts to do so ethical?
- How did Weinstein and his team attempt to intimidate the reporters? Give specific examples. What role did Black Cube play? Lisa Bloom?
- Why was Irwin Reiter such an important source for the authors? Why was seeing NDAs so important?
- How did NYT editors and lawyers support the authors? Give specific examples.
- What factors influenced the when the authors’ first article on the Weinstein investigation was published? What steps did the authors take to bolster and verify their story before it went to press?
- What pressures — internal and external — did Christine Blasey Ford face to tell her story? What impact did her testimony have, on her and on the country?
- What do the authors see as the impact of their reporting? What do you make of the final scene of the book, where a dozen of the authors’ sources gather at Paltrow’s house?
- If you saw the movie, how did it differ from the book and why do you think these choices were made?
- What did you learn from the book that you might apply to your own coverage of sexual assault or harassment going forward?