Freelance NBC News correspondent Ronan Farrow, whose months-long investigation into reports of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct was spiked by the network but morphed into a journalistic blockbuster at The New Yorker, initiated a scuffle with the Peacock Network on Tuesday night.

Appearing on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show—which, like NBC, is a property of NBC Universal and its parent company Comcast—Farrow disputed what sources said was NBC News President Noah Oppenheim’s judgment this past summer that Farrow’s reporting on the movie mogul and the women he allegedly harassed and assaulted wasn’t ready for prime-time.

Addressing a controversy that has been percolating for the past several days in the media ecosystem since The New York Times published its own Weinstein exposé—including questions about whether NBC executives caved to the well-connected Weinstein and his formidable lawyers, Charles Harder, Lisa Bloom, and David Boies—Maddow brought it to a boiling point by telling Farrow: “NBC says that the story wasn’t publishable, that it wasn’t ready to go at the time that you brought it to them.”

Farrow fired back: “I walked into the door at The New Yorker with an explosively reportable piece that should have been public earlier. And immediately, obviously, The New Yorker recognized that. And it is not accurate to say that it was not reportable. In fact, there were multiple determinations that it was reportable at NBC.”

Farrow’s blunt claim highlighted an uncomfortable debate among NBC News insiders, and beyond, concerning the quality and status of his investigative reporting and the reasons why a respected television network would kill a sensational scoop about a famous, influential, politically wired, and undeniably newsworthy figure like Harvey Weinstein.

Rumors about the iconic producer’s alleged misconduct with women have fueled journalistic curiosity for decades. But the 65-year-old Weinstein somehow managed to keep his alleged misdeeds from public exposure—until now.

He was supremely hooked up in the worlds of media, entertainment, and politics. (Former first daughter Malia Obama recently interned at the Weinstein Co.) He had enjoyed a long business relationship with NBC Universal, and Universal Pictures produced both his seven-Oscar Shakespeare in Love in 1998 and 2009’s Inglourious Basterds, for instance, while he had co-produced the hit reality-TV show Project Runway for the NBC-owned Bravo channel.

When it came to shaping his public image, Weinstein was at once meticulous and relentless—forever calling in chits and wielding leverage like a weapon. He alternately flattered and bullied reporters (including this one), while occasionally attempting to entice journalists and gossip columnists with offers of book and movie deals.

More than a decade ago, when this reporter was doing a gossip column at the New York Daily News and politely declined Weinstein’s request to kill an item about his recent divorce, he wheedled that he was my most loyal fan and had advised the paper’s owner to give me a raise; when that didn’t work, he angrily threatened to ban me from his screenings and premieres, and finally erupted: “I’m the scariest motherfucker you’ll ever have as an enemy in this town!”

Even before Farrow’s shot across NBC’s bow, CNN anchor Jake Tapper, for one, tweeted: “Speaking of media complicity ask yourself why NBC reporter ‪@ RonanFarrow wrote this for The New Yorker.”

NBC declined to respond officially to Tapper or to Farrow, a former MSNBC anchor and NBC correspondent whose four-year contract with the network recently expired.

But an NBC source promptly contradicted Farrow’s late-night claim, telling The Daily Beast in a statement: “Ronan has had a non-exclusive relationship with NBC News for the last year. He brought NBC News early reporting [on Weinstein] that didn’t meet the standard to go forward with a story; it was nowhere close to what ultimately ran in The New York Times or The New Yorker—for example, at that time he didn’t have one accuser willing to go on the record or identify themselves.”