The book details the behind-the scenes and publicly known processes the authors employed to investigate and publish stories uncovering sexual harassment and sexual abuse by recent widely known persons described as malefactors. It details new information that helped break the Weinstein story, including sources, documents, and chasing leads. The book follows the reporters "from the first exploratory phone calls, to a mounting trail of evidence, to a final face off with a belligerent" accused person. It also deals with the open questions about which behaviors and gray areas should constitute sexual harassment:
Kantor admitted that there is “a mounting sense of unfairness on both sides” about a system that no one thinks “works for the accuser, or the accused." Their job remains, as Kantor put it, to ask the three main questions surrounding any allegation: “What is the scope of the behaviors under scrutiny?;” “How do we get the facts right?;” and “What should punishment and accountability look like?”
The authors continue to investigate societal answers to these questions. To help persuade sources to talk to them, the sources were told, what happened in the past cannot be changed but "together we may be able to use your experience to help protect other people."
Gatekeepers
The book chronicles the intersection of executives, companies, lawyers, gossip columnists, tabloid publishers, talent agents, entertainment companies, and PR companies that became enmeshed in Weinstein's circle of influence which served to submerge information about his behaviors, but was an open secret. Quid pro quo took the form agreeing to buy film rights to books and stories for "high-grossing films", and promising on-screen roles The focus is on the systemic "structures of power" that enabled Weinstein for decades. The reporting, which followed "whispers and rumors" occurring over 30 years, was supported by large numbers of interviews with actresses, past and present employees, filings in court, corporate records, and "internal company communications that documented a thick web of cover-ups, bullying tactics and confidential settlements." Gwyneth Paltrow was instrumental in helping the reporter-authors behind the scenes and whose efforts are chronicled in the book. Near the end of the book, the authors discuss Christine Blasey Ford and the choices that led her to publicly confront Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court nominee at the time.
Reviews
The book has received critical acclaim. Susan Faludi, in a book review for The New York Times wrote, "Kantor and Twohey have crafted their news dispatches into a seamless and suspenseful account of their reportorial journey, a gripping blow-by-blow of how they managed, 'working in the blank spaces between the words,' to corroborate allegations that had been chased and abandoned by multiple journalists before them. She Said reads a bit like a feminist All the President’s Men.” The Times itself said, "This book was one of our most anticipated titles of September".
