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Dylan Farrow Calls Controversial NYT Op Ed On Alleged Woody Allen Abuses 'Insulting'

"There is much more information he can find on my case than what he cites in his piece," says Farrow.

By Eric Shorey

Dylan Farrow has gone public with various claims about the alleged abuse she faced at the hands of her adoptive father Woody Allen. A controversial New York Times OpEd titled “The Smearing of Woody Allen," by foreign and domestic policy writer Bret Stephens, has characterized Farrow's claims as erroneous and perhaps fantastical. Now, Farrow is responding to Stephens' claims on social media.

Farrow recently discussed her allegations in her first ever TV interview with Gayle King.

"Why shouldn't I want to bring [Woody Allen] down? Why shouldn't I be angry? Why shouldn't I be hurt? Why shouldn't I feel some sort of -- outrage that after all these years being ignored and disbelieved and tossed aside?" Farrow asked.

On February 9th, The New York Times ran a controversial piece that dismissed Farrow's claims as perhaps fantasmatic: "Most parents know that young children are imaginative and suggestible and innocently prone to making things up. The misuse of children’s memories by ambitious prosecutors against day-care center operators in the 1980s led to some of the worst miscarriages of justice in recent U.S. history. You don’t have to doubt Farrow’s honesty to doubt her version of events," Stephens wrote.

Stephens also used the #MeToo movement and the claims being made against Harvey Weinstein as a foil for Farrow's case: "[I]f Farrow wants an answer to her question [“Why Has the #MeToo Revolution Spared Woody Allen?”], it’s because we know that the charges #MeToo has leveled against men such as Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey are almost certainly true. The reason they have not been spared is because they are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The facts, not the allegations, prove it."

"If Allen is in fact a pedophile, he appears to have acted on his evil fantasies exactly once. Compare that to Larry Nassar’s 265 identified victims," Stephens continued.

The NYT article drew criticism from feminist critics. Jezebel's Whitney Kimball argued that Stephens strategically omitted important evidence from Farrow's narrative for the purpose of discrediting her.

On February 10th, Farrow issued her own response on Twitter:

"If @BretStephensNYT is interested, there is much more information he can find on my case than what he cites in his piece, some of which I have posted here," she wrote. "To presume I invented this story & convinced myself of it is no less insulting than calling me a liar. I’ve consistently stated the truth for 25 years, I won’t stop now. It’s Stephens’ right to doubt me if he so chooses but his incredulity doesn’t change what happened that day. What it does do is make it harder for the next victim to come forward."

Allen has described Farrow's claims against him as "untrue and disgraceful."

[Photo: Getty Images]

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