Megan Twohey () is an American journalist with The New York Times. She has written investigative reports for Reuters, the Chicago Tribune, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Twohey's investigative reports have exposed exploitative doctors, revealed untested rape kits, and uncovered a secret underground network of abandoned unwanted adopted children. Her investigative reports have led to criminal convictions and helped prompt new laws aimed at protecting vulnerable people and children.
On October 5, 2017, Twohey and fellow New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor published a report about Harvey Weinstein detailing decades of sexual abuse allegations, and more than 80 women publicly accused Weinstein of sexually abusing or assaulting them. This led to Weinstein's firing and helped to ignite the viral #MeToo movement started by the American activist Tarana Burke. That work was honored in 2018, when The New York Times was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Kantor and Twohey won the George Polk award and were named to Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people of the year. Twohey and Kantor subsequently authored a book which chronicled their report about Weinstein, titled She Said. The book was published in 2019, and adapted into a film of the same name in 2022. In addition to winning the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, Twohey was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2014.
Biography
Twohey is from Evanston, Illinois. She went to Evanston Township High School, and graduated from Georgetown University in 1998. Twohey's parents were both involved in news media; her mother Mary Jane Twohey was a television news producer and her father John Twohey was an editor for the Chicago Tribune. Twohey initially joined The New York Times in 2016 to investigate Donald Trump's tax history, possible business ties to Russia, and his past treatment of women. Twohey is currently a regular contributor for The New York Times.
Investigative reports
Untested rape kits
In 2009, Twohey reported in the Chicago Tribune that several suburban police departments around Chicago were not submitting all rape kits for testing. 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.
Predatory doctors
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. 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.
Abandoned children
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. Several segments of this story were broadcast on the Nightly News and the Today Show on NBC. She received a Sydney Award and the Michael Kelly Award for her work revealing these underground networks. Twohey was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for this work.
Donald Trump
In 2016, Twohey and Michael Barbaro published several investigative pieces to The New York Times about sexual misconduct by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. She continued to report on the incidents into 2017. Trump threatened to sue The New York Times if they did not take down the articles. The articles stayed up.