The Los Angeles Times Refused To Publish Dylan Farrow’s Woody Allen Op-Ed

So I’m correct in assuming that everyone feels that Woody Allen is a scumbag supreme at Taco Bell, right? Sure Stephen King made a flub on Twitter and numerous folks have come out to defend the director in the media, but he’s losing in the court of public opinion. That’s mostly due to Dylan Farrow’s recent New York Times op-ed, a piece that wouldn’t have seen the light of day if it had stayed at the LA Times. From The Wrap:

Prior to its publication on New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s blog Saturday, the Los Angeles Times op-ed department had Dylan Farrow’s letter accusing Woody Allen of sex abuse in its possession and considered running it as an op-ed, TheWrap has learned.

“We got it, we considered it, we ultimately decided not to use it,” said LA Times op-ed editor Sue Horton.

Now I have no doubt that someone would’ve came along eventually to publish the letter, even if both the LA Times and NY Times had declined. But the idea that someone wouldn’t pounce on it from a story perspective is mind boggling.

It’s all most people will talk about these days when concerning Allen, followed closely by hot debate. And on the righteous end of things, not publishing the letter looks bad on the LA Times part. That would leave Robert B. Weide’s article as the only “official” response to the original allegations.

I’m all for not getting involved in condemning or investigate the case behind a computer screen, but for the paper to decline seems unfair to the alleged ordeal. Farrow broke her silence to the public and put everything out there for the LA Times to say, “nah.” Luckily the paper refuted The Wrap’s claims that editor-in-chief Davan Maharaj had the story killed, but does that really help matters?

Hot on the heels of this news is the possibility that Allen will reply with his own op-ed in the New York Times:

Woody Allen has asked for, and may get, a chance to respond — in an Op-Ed piece in The Times — to a recent column and blog by Nicholas Kristof in which the filmmaker’s adopted daughter detailed her memories of his sexually abusing her.

“They asked and we said, ‘Yes, send it in,’ ” Andrew Rosenthal, The Times’s editorial page editor, told me today by phone.

It’s not certain that The Times will publish the piece. “It comes down to the editing process,” he said, something that all Op-Ed pieces are subject to.

“Normally, we don’t publish a direct response” as a full Op-Ed article, Mr. Rosenthal said, but as a smaller and less prominent letter to the editor. “In this case, it was so personal, we thought that we should.” (via)

The bottom line is that this story is not about to go away. If this is what Ronan Farrow wanted when he tweeted during the Golden Globes, I’d say he was successful. As someone who enjoys some of the movies Woody Allen makes, I can only hope he goes away. He’s tainted goods.

(Lead image via gettyimages)

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