Sumith Prasad
Directed by Maria Schrader, ‘She Said’ is a film that explores the efforts of The New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor to unravel the truth behind the rapes and assaults committed by Harvey Weinstein. Jodi and Megan talk to several survivors and individuals associated with the Hollywood producer to prepare a story that shakes the nation.
In reality, as the biographical film depicts, the two reporters were guided by their editor Rebecca Corbett. Her decision to join Jodi and Megan for an investigative report against the crimes committed by Harvey Weinstein became significant when their story played an essential part in the #MeToo Movement. Intrigued by the character, we have found out more about the current whereabouts of the Editor. Here are our findings!
Who is Rebecca Corbett?
After attending Colby College, Rebecca Corbett worked in a couple of newspapers in Maine and Connecticut before eventually joining The Baltimore Sun. Rebecca was part of the newspaper’s groundbreaking journalism for more than twenty years, during which she edited two stories that went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. During her time at The Sun, she also mentored David Simon, who went on to create one of the greatest television shows of all time, ‘The Wire.’
Rebecca joined The New York Times in 2004 as enterprise editor based in the Washington D.C. bureau. Soon, she became a part of the investigation into the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping. In 2013, Rebecca was appointed to the newspaper’s masthead. In 2017, the investigation into the rapes and assaults committed by Harvey Weinstein started with reporter Jodi Kantor contacting Rose McGowan, who accused Weinstein of raping her.
Soon, Jodi garnered enough information, which became the foundation of the story, and this was when Rebecca stepped in to make a significant decision: adding Megan Twohey to the investigation. As an editor, Rebecca knew the strengths of the two reporters and her judgment that Jodi and Megan would be a great team was an integral part of the success of their story. When the investigative reporters made immense progress with the investigation, it was Rebecca’s job to turn the same into a publishable story.
In the source material of the film — the eponymous nonfiction book, Jodi and Megan wrote about their editor’s work ethic. As per the book, “She [Rebecca] never seemed to stop working—because many of her projects were secret, and it was hard to gauge how much she was really fielding—and at times appeared to survive on black tea and dark-chocolate-covered almonds.” It was also Rebecca’s vision that helped the investigation to focus on a rotten system filled with vicious perpetrators and helpless survivors than limiting the same to the actions of a single man.
“Journalists had been covering sexual harassment complaints for decades. The whole point of this exercise was not to make it just about one person and what an accuser said. It was to use the tool of investigative journalism to really make a case with evidence, with documents, with memos, with emails, with witness testimony, with private settlements,” Rebecca told the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute. “All along, I felt from the beginning that this should be about more than one man,” she added.
Rebecca Corbett is Still Thriving in the Field of Journalism Today
‘She Said’ ends with Megan, Jodi, Rebecca, and their boss Dean Baquet publishing their story against Harvey Weinstein. In reality, their story had an astounding impact on the nation, which inspired several survivors of rape and assault to come out against their perpetrators. In 2018, the story was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, making it another award-winning story edited by Rebecca. The editor still remains an integral part of the investigations team of The New York Times.
After the Harvey Weinstein story, Rebecca worked on her paper’s investigation into the 11,000+ tweets tweeted by then-President Donald Trump. When Jodi and Megan became “superstar” reporters, Rebecca preferred to stay away from the limelight. Even when the duo expanded the story into a book titled ‘She Said,’ Rebecca was ready to help them. “Rebecca Corbett, our editor at the Times, is our true north. She not only steered us through our investigation of Weinstein but also read and commented on several versions of these chapters, helping us capture and explain what we witnessed,” Jodi and Megan wrote in the book.
Since the publication of the story, Rebecca has attended several talks, discussions, and seminars to talk about the #MeToo Movement and its impact on contemporary times. In 2020, Rebecca delivered the prestigious Reuters Memorial Lecture at the University of Oxford. She had also attended various discussions conducted by Yale University, Columbia University, and several other national and international institutions. When ‘She Said’ was made, Rebecca didn’t forget to appreciate the same.
“There’s a real emotive quality to it [the film],” Rebecca told The New York Times. “What I thought was interesting in the film was how briskly efficient all the editors are. For better or worse, in real life, there is a lot more talk and strategizing around the ‘do this, get that’ directives. […] And asking: ‘Who were you just talking to? What did you hear?’” she added. Although New York is where Rebecca works, her personal residence reportedly is in Baltimore, Maryland.
Read More: Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor Now: Where Are NYT Reporters Now?
