(CNN)Journalist Ronan Farrow, who wrote the damning New Yorker expose that detailed multiple allegations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein, said Saturday that by speaking out, the film mogul's alleged victims had caused a "seismic change in culture in real time."
"We are in this moment where women are coming forward, one after another, industry after industry, telling the hardest stories of a lifetime," Farrow told CNN's Brian Stelter during an interview on his show "Reliable Sources."
More than 40 women have now accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault, among them celebrities like Ashley Judd, Heather Graham and Gwyneth Paltrow.
The accusations against Weinstein have sparked what some have dubbed the "Weinstein effect," emboldening other alleged victims to share their own stories of abuse and to make accusations against British government officials, an NPR manager, an Amazon Studios executive and many others.
Asked by Stelter if Farrow's reporting led him to believe that journalists or media organizations were complicit in Weinstein's alleged assaults, Farrow said he didn't want to "get into the details on that," and that he wanted "to keep the focus" on victims.
"No one could have fathomed the size of this. This is a seismic change in culture in real time," he told Stelter.
"It opened up a vein that was under the surface and which was incredibly painful and we're seeing the results of that," he added.
Farrow described how, from day one of his reporting, he had realized how big the story was going to be.
"I certainly knew just as a journalist, seeing the elements of this, hearing the audio of him admitting to one of these incidents, early on in the reporting, that this was a very significant, important story, and to not run this story would have been a dereliction of my ethical duties," he said.
