Investigative journalist Ronan Farrow, author of the hit 2019 book “Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators,” has come under scrutiny this week after the New York Times published a scathing critique of his Pulitzer Prize-winning methods.

On Sunday, New York Times media columnist Ben Smith pondered, “Is Ronan Farrow Too Good to Be True?,” characterizing Farrow’s renowned reporting as flawed and self-serving “resistance journalism.”.

The column focuses in part on “Catch and Kill,” which explores Farrow’s investigation into convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, as well as plots allegedly waged by Weinstein and NBC to bury Farrow’s findings.

Smith’s Sunday criticism of Farrow quickly caused a stir on social media, prompting responses from Farrow, New Yorker staffers, Weinstein accuser Ambra Battilana Gutierrez and even former “Today” show anchor Matt Lauer, who dismissed a rape allegation leveled against him in “Catch and Kill.”.

Farrow’s 2017 New Yorker piece at the center of “Catch and Kill,” titled “From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories,” helped propel the #MeToo movement forward and won Farrow the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, shared with the New York Times’ Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey for their reporting on Weinstein.

In his takedown of the “rare celebrity-journalist,” Smith also referenced Farrow’s bombshell exposé on President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and speculated that Farrow might be “the most famous investigative reporter in America.”.

Farrow’s reporting in The New Yorker and in his 2019 best seller, ‘Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators,’ you start to see some shakiness at its foundation,” Smith wrote in his May 17 column.

The piece went on to suggest that Farrow failed to corroborate key allegations of rape against both Weinstein and Lauer, who was fired from his post at NBC in 2017 after multiple women publicly accused him of sexual misconduct.

Smith also poked holes in Farrow’s “Catch and Kill” claim that NBC buried his Weinstein story after getting blackmailed by Weinstein, who allegedly threatened to expose the not-yet-public accusations against Lauer.

NBC has denied killing Farrow’s Weinstein story to protect Lauer, instead claiming that Farrow’s reporting at the time did not meet the network’s standard for publication.

(Smith’s column does include comments from a couple New Yorker staffers, including editor David Remnick, who called Farrow’s work “scrupulous, tireless, and, above all, fair,” and writer Ken Auletta, who argued that Farrow “delivered the goods.”).

“Ben claims a central theme [in ‘Catch and Kill’] was whether Weinstein threatened NBC with Lauer info,” Farrow wrote in his own thread.

In his column, Smith admits that Farrow’s original NBC investigation into Weinstein “did have one strong piece of reporting that Mr

“I am not suggesting that everything Ronan has written in his book is untrue or based on misinformation, but it is clear that over the course of nearly two years he became a magnet and a willing ear for anyone with negative stories about the network and people who worked for it,” Lauer wrote in his Mediaite column