Pulitzer Prizer-winners share stories and wisdom with students

HOW DOES ONE GO ABOUT CONDUCTING A GROUNDBREAKING
INVESTIGATION? LAST MONDAY, NORTHWESTERN HILLEL AND MEDILL
WELCOMED TWO PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING JOURNALISTS TO CAMPUS TO
ANSWER THIS QUESTION AND MORE. JODI KANTOR AND MEGAN TWOHEY
SPOKE ABOUT THEIR 2017 INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING ON THE SEXUAL
ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MOVIE PRODUCER HARVEY WEINSTEIN.

[Jodi Kantor] At the beginning of an investigation, you don’t really know what the truth is. And so you have the anxiety of not knowing and that cannot, you know, it can feel very unresolved, you know, are you going to
find out? What are you going to find out? Was there actually any
wrongdoing? Is there really a story there? Then when you begin to learn things, the anxiety shifts to the second stage, which is kind of a different
form, which is, I have this information, but can I put it in the paper? Can I prove it. And that was a, that was a long and difficult moment in the
Weinstein investigation. It’s the moment that brought us together. And it lasted for most of the investigation. And it mounted as we learned more and more of these women’s stories.

[MUSIC]

FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M MARY RANDOLPH.

[MUSIC]

IN CONVERSATION WITH MEDILL PROFESSOR PATTI WOLTER, KANTOR AND
TWOHEY DISCUSSED THEIR JOURNALISTIC WORK, THEIR BOOK, “SHE SAID,”
RECOUNTING THEIR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNEY, AND THE UPCOMING MOVIE
BY THE SAME NAME. THE FILM IS SCREENING AT THE WILMETTE THEATER
TONIGHT AT 7 FOR NORTHWESTERN STUDENTS. KANTOR AND TWOHEY
ARE PLAYED BY ZOE KAZAN AND CAREY MULLIGAN, REPECTIVELY. THE
MOVIE CHRONICLES THEIRS AND THEIR SOURCE’S JOURNEYS OF
BRINGING THE STORY TO LIGHT.

[JK ~36] It lives, I think, alongside the sort of real facts of the investigation as contained in this book in what we think and hope can be in like a pretty
healthy way, and then the bold, provocative thing about it is that it returns the Weinstein story to Weinstein’s medium and his native ground.

KANTOR AND TWOHEY VISITED AS PART OF THE NUREMBERG FAMILY
FOUNDATION ANNUAL SPEAKER EVENT. THE TRADITION STARTED IN 2015
AND HAS BROUGHT SPEAKERS INCLUDING HOLOCAUST SCHOLAR DEBORAH LIPSTADT AND WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT MAGGIE HABERMAN. NORTHWESTERN HILLEL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MICHAEL SIMON SAID HE
WAS EXCITED TO COLLABORATE WITH MEDILL FOR THIS EVENT AND
BROADEN HILLEL’S REACH ON CAMPUS.

[Michael Simon] Hillel is a Center for Jewish Life here at Northwestern and
the catalyst for all kinds of expressions of Jewish identity. And we, as one, we do all kinds of programming and one of the things that like I’ve been
very excited to do is to create partnerships that like, kind of amplify our impact on the broader campus.

KANTOR AND SIMON INITIALLY CONNECTED ABOUT PLANNING AN EVENT IN 2019. THOUGH JOURNALISTS FIRST PLANNED TO COME SPEAK IN APRIL OF 2020, IT WAS POSTPONED AND LATER RESCHEDULED FOR APRIL OF 2022 BEFORE BEING RESCHEDULED AGAIN FOR THIS FALL. THE COMPLICATIONS
OF GETTING KANTOR AND TWOHEY TO CAMPUS, SIMON SAID, REMINDED HIM OF “DAYENU,” A SONG SANG AT PASSOVER SEDER IN THE JEWISH TRADITION.

[MS] We say like die Dayenu and Dayenu means it would have been enough for us. And basically the song is like, if God had like, really, like taken us out
of slavery, but not brought us like out of the desert to the promised land. It would have been enough and like if, if God had brought us out and like not fed us mana in the desert, it would have been enough Diana. So like we had
a feeling of like if they just get to campus like they’re both here on campus and even if the program is flat and nobody shows up like Diane knew it would be enough. And it turns out like just like in the song. It turned out to be so much like basically it met and exceeded I think all of our expectations which was really something fulfilling for us.

SIMON SAID HE APPRECIATED THE LEVEL OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND
ATTENDANCE AT THE EVENT BECAUSE PUBLIC SPEAKING EVENTS OFTEN
DRAW AN OLDER CROWD. THEY WELCOMED AROUND ONE HUNDRED
PEOPLE IN THE MCCORMICK FOUNDATION CENTER FORUM, .

[MS] The Nurembergs when they first provided funding for this. They really said we want to fill the audience with students like the point is it’s a campus
where we want students to be exposed to these great voices. And that is exactly in line with what what I wanted for it.

ONE SUCH STUDENT, MEDILL THIRD YEAR HENRY ROACH, HAD BEEN AWAITING THIS EVENT SINCE HE READ AND LOVED “SHE SAID” LAST SPRING.

[Henry] I thought it was a very impressive feat of reporting. I thought it was a very instructive book as well, for investigative journalism to get such an inside look from not a biography or an external story, but from the two
journalists who broke such a big story to have their internal perspective on every step they took to get it to happen.

HENRY HAD A CHANCE TO POSE A QUESTION TO THEM ABOUT HOW
JOURNALISM BECOMES CANONIZED INTO HISTORY. HE ALSO ASKED ABOUT
THE CHAPTER IN THEIR BOOK ABOUT DR CHRISTINE BLASEY FORD, WHO
ACCUSED NOW-SUPREME COURT JUSTICE BRETT KAVANAUGH OF SEXUAL
ASSAULT.

[HR ~1:06] So, my question for you is, as, not only regarding Weinstein’s story but the story of “She Said” and the story of how you told this story and
how it ignited the Me Too movement, as it becomes part of journalism history and part of our global history and as it’s talked about, what are your
hopes but perhaps also your fears for what might happen?

TWOHEY AND KANTOR RESPONDED WITH AN ENTHUSIASM FOR HIS
THOUGHTFUL UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR WORK—

[Megan Twohey] Can you come up here? Can we give you a hug?

—AND SAID NOW, THE STORY IS IN THE HANDS OF ITS AUDIENCE, NOT JUST
THEM.

[Jodi Kantor] We can’t control everything about how this is remembered in the future. Right? We could spend the rest of our lives trying and probably
not succeed. I think it’s our goal to tell it as straight as possible, to let the women, the sources, speak for themselves, to leave really good records of what happened so that even though we may be the primary narrators, we’re
not the sole narrators of what happened, and then hope that the right themes come to the fore.

AS FOR KANTOR AND TWOHEY’S LEGACY IN THE NORTHWESTERN
COMMUNITY, MEDILL FIRST YEAR LENNA PETERSON SAID SHE FELT EMPOWERED

[Lenna] I think just the power of all of our collective voices and the way that you can use your work to either uplift marginalized voices or to sort of take
down or challenge systemic failures, such as letting a man like Harvey Weinstein, take advantage of so many women throughout his entire career
and like still have such a powerful role. In Hollywood. I think it says a lot about how important investigative journalism is to either like, uplift those voices or to like, tear down those systemic systemic norms in society.

MEDILL FIRST YEAR LENNA PETERSON SAID THE EVENT REMINDED HER OF
THE POWER OF OUR COLLECTIVE VOICES. BECAUSE LENNA IDENTIFIES AS JEWISH AND IS INVOLVED WITH HILLEL ON CAMPUS, SHE SAID KANTOR, AS
A POWERFUL JEWISH WOMAN, WAS ESPECIALLY INSPIRING TO HER.
[LP] I just think it's inspiring like to be like a Jewish woman and to see another Jewish woman in the same field that you want to go into, like,
really be able to use her voice in such a powerful way. It just like, adds a little bit to, I guess, my connection to her and her experiences and then also
just to how she was able to use her voice.

PROFESSOR WOLTER, WHO MODERATED THE EVENT, SAID SHE ALSO HOPES
STUDENTS TOOK FROM THE EVENT THE IDEA OF PASSION FOR ONE’S WORK.

[Patti Wolter] There’s a lot of conversation on the culture right now about how hard we have to work and our jobs and work life balance and quiet quitting and all this kind of stuff. And we’re rethinking work, post pandemic and how much we need to be in offices. And then there’s this
book and this movie that both talk about and show how much good investigative reporting is a 24/7 kind of job. And I think that I hope rather than rather than scared people, that there’s a recognition that jobs you’re
passionate about fulfill your life.

TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE FOR THE SCREENING AT 7 PM TONIGHT AT WILLMETTE THEATER. SHUTTLES ARE RUNNING FROM 625 UNIVERSITY
PLACE. HILLEL AND MEDILL CONTINUE TO HOLD PROGRAMMING AND
EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, WITH HILLEL’S CELEBRITY SPEAKER EVENT
A WEEK FROM TODAY ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9.