NBC embarrassed itself this week with its defense of the network’s decision to spike journalist Ronan Farrow’s extensively reported piece on Harvey Weinstein’s admitted history of sexual harassment.

At a company townhall meeting Wednesday, according to a transcript made public by NBC, president of news Noah Oppenheim said the network “supported [Farrow] and gave him resources to report that story over many, many months. The notion that we would try to cover for a powerful person is deeply offensive to all of us.”