The fact the reader must always be conscious
it is a work of fact and truth and not a novel for entertainment is surely
evidence of superb writing making it easy and comfortable to consume, if not
impossible to put down.
I am referring to Ronan Farrow’s latest
work titled “Catch and Kill where he details the efforts of major news networks
to Catch and then Kill the story about the long term behaviours of a one time Hollywood
icon and the efforts to protect to protect him from accountability, exposure
and prosecution.
Many words come to mind when seeking to
describe this book and many, quite correctly are emotive.
It is scary and confronting but not a
horror story, or is it?
It is an intriguing tale of spying and
espionage but is not a work of fiction.
It contains heroism and cowardice where
no character emerges undamaged. There is no real winner.
It includes graphic depiction of sexual
encounters but it is not a work of romance or erotica.
It has examples of great courage where
those displaying such courage do so after a life where their career was
destroyed, character assassinated, self confidence diminished and personality
altered.
It includes one story of corporate
integrity but many others of perhaps the most concerning corporate governance
failures imaginable.
There is intrigue, deception, lies,
smear campaigns, corruption, former Massad operatives, bribery, paying off
victims and witnesses, missing investigative files, determination, patience and
relentless pursuit of the truth in the face of career, family and personal
danger.
There is a satisfying conclusion but not
an ending to be happy about.
Catch and Kill outlines the depths of
behaviour a powerful person can inflict on others and the protection money can
provide them to continue doing so.
The book illustrates how being party to
the assets of power, wealth and status can cause people of fundamentally high
morale fibre to sell out and compromise themselves to protect the provider of
such assets often sacrificing their own beliefs and conscience.
The book brings to life the relentless
pursuit of the facts, the truth of the perpetrators of poor behaviour and the
efforts to protect the offender but as important as this is, there is an even
greater lesson in the Catch and Kill story.
Catch and Kill personifies the
importance of the profession of investigative Journalism. It illustrates that journalism
is a key pillar in upholding the integrity and accountability of our free world
systems. It illustrates the importance of an independent media prepared to
publish fully researched and fact checked investigative pieces irrespective of
who or what they are about. Our democracy depends upon it as does our freedom
Thank you Ronan Farrow and The New
Yorker Magazine.
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