Read This: Ronan Farrow on how the press protects his estranged father, Woody Allen

A week ago, The Hollywood Reporter ran an interview with Woody Allen that managed to be disturbing even while ducking the damning charges of child sexual abuse that have been levied against him by his now-grown daughter, Dylan Farrow. Now the publication has asked Allen’s estranged son, journalist Ronan Farrow, to pen a response to that article. Farrow uses this opportunity to discuss how the press tends to protect and close ranks around powerful men like Allen in situations like these. It’s an issue Farrow knows all too well from his own professional history. In 2014, he was scheduled to interview Mark Whitaker, author of a Bill Cosby biography entitled Cosby: His Life And Times. Whitaker’s book omitted the charges of sexual misconduct against Cosby, and Farrow was limited to asking Whitaker only one question about the topic. In so doing, Farrow felt he became part of the problem. “I’m ashamed of that interview,” he now says. He sees the same thing happening in media coverage of Allen. The famed writer-director has high-powered publicists at his disposal and has worked with many of Hollywood’s top stars, recently including Louis CK and Miley Cyrus, so media outlets are wary of bringing up these uncomfortable accusations.