Megan Twohey

In 2009, Twohey reported in the Chicago Tribune that several suburban police departments around Chicago were not submitting all rape kits for testing.[11] In the following year, Illinois became the first U.S. state to require every rape kit be tested, and many other states in the U.S. followed soon after.[12][13]

From 2010 to 2011, Twohey published a series of articles in the Chicago Tribune detailing cases of doctors who had been convicted of violent felonies or sex crimes and were still practicing and abusing patients.[14] Her reporting has been credited for leading to new legislation and policies in Illinois aimed at protecting patients, for example requiring background checks for healthcare providers.[15][16]

In 2013, Twohey published an investigative report in Reuters News that detailed how some people in the United States were using the internet to find places to abandon their adopted children.[17] Several segments of this story were broadcast on the Nightly News and the Today Show on NBC.[4] She received a Sydney Award and the Michael Kelly Award for her work revealing these underground networks.[4][18] Twohey was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for this work.[8]

In 2016, Twohey and Michael Barbaro published several investigative pieces to The New York Times about sexual misconduct by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.[19][10] She continued to report on the incidents into 2017.[20] Trump threatened to sue The New York Times if they did not take down the articles.[21] The articles stayed up.[22]

Book signing at Evanston Township High School

On October 5, 2017, Twohey and Jodi Kantor co-wrote a New York Times exposé on sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein. Twohey said they were encouraged to investigate untold stories, and that Dean Baquet, executive editor, and Rebecca Corbett, head of investigative projects, had supported them even though Weinstein had threatened to sue The New York Times.[23] Twohey and Kantor had two in-person meetings with Weinstein. Twohey, Kantor, and Corbett also had multiple conversations with Weinstein's lawyers and publicists.[24] A follow-up piece with fellow reporter Ellen Gabler added more allegations and expanded the Weinstein timeline.[25] Twohey said it was an emotional experience when she began seeing friends and family using the #MeToo on her social media feed in the aftermath of the Weinstein allegations.[26] Jezebel announced in 2018 Twohey and Kantor were publishing an international book, set to be published in Spring 2019, based on their investigation that would reveal more about what happened.[27] They received a Sidney Award for their exposé. They were also given L.A. Press Club's Inaugural Impact Award and the McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage from the Grady College of Journalism.[28][29] The New York Times won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for public service for Twohey's and Jodi Kantor's reporting, sharing the award with Ronan Farrow at The New Yorker,[30] as well as the 2018 Gerald Loeb Award for Investigative business journalism.[31]

Twohey and Kantor authored a book which chronicled their exposé into Weinstein and the structures of power that enabled him, titled She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story that Helped Ignite a Movement, which was published by Penguin Books in September 2019.[32] In 2022, the book was adapted into a film of the same name. The film is directed by Maria Schrader from a screenplay by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. Twohey is played by Carey Mulligan.[33]

In December 2021, Twohey and Gabriel Dance published an investigative report in The New York Times about an American web forum dedicated to discussing and encouraging suicide.[34] The report identified the founders of the suicide forum as Lamarcus Small and Diego Joaquín Galante and confirmed the deaths of 45 participants of the forum.[34][35] As part of the report, Twohey and Dance consulted established reporters and suicide and medical experts, to find ways to limit the potential for suicide contagion.[34] Twohey stated that the overall lack of awareness over the site pushed them to name it in their report, but that the decision was among the "biggest ethical issues that we had ever dealt with",[34] and also stated that the hope of the report was “to bring about more accountability than anything else.”[36] Twohey's report was later cited in a letter from members of the U.S. House of Representatives to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking the attorney general what action could be taken against the site.[35]

In November 2022, a piece co-written by Twohey for The New York Times [37] came under sharp criticism from medical experts and trans activists for its criticizing the use of puberty blockers to treat trans youth.[38] The World Professional Association for Transgender Health published a statement in response calling the article "misinformation about the science behind the care of trans youth",[39] and Science-Based Medicine released a piece addressing the article, saying that "the reporting ignored evidence and important context to weave a narrative portraying puberty blockers as far more risky than they actually are".[40]

Chase Strangio of the ACLU pointed to the article as an example of how media rhetoric fuels anti-trans violence.[41]

Slate magazine described the piece as "fearmongering", and noted that it "does not seem to trust the medical consensus view",[42] while many trans voices were quoted by Fox News as referring to the piece as a "moral panic piece" and "anti-trans propaganda".[43] Teen Vogue sharply criticized the authors of the article themselves, noting that "they fail to meaningfully investigate the most compelling reason why medical providers consider puberty blockers in trans and gender diverse youth: These medications save lives" and saying that the article itself "could further marginalize a population that is already medically vulnerable and politically under siege".[44]