Variety Attacks Bloggers; Lies And Rants About Losing Business

May 7, 2007
Source: Variety
by Alex Billington

Variety, you've crossed the line this time. An article written by Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart appeared today that attacked the blogosphere and online medium, and was a vicious attempt at brainwashing the Hollywood industry. The funny thing is that he wrote a big opinionated rant himself as a form of self-promotion, but fashioned it to sound like it was professional and justified, when he goes on to say himself that bloggers do nothing more than "wallow in non-stop rants as a form of self-promotion". His article is not only full of lies about publication dates that they break themselves, but is a rant from one company that's losing business and the traction they had because of the increased success of blogs and websites all over.

Variety is concerned, they're losing business, and they're pulling this as a plan to persuade and convince the real people in Hollywood that blogs aren't worth it so they can get back to being as successful as they were before the blogging boom. They've been steadily declining in readership over the recent years. It's a plea for the studios and corporations to continue backing them so that they can continue making money and a plea for them to back away from us, the blogs and websites that aren't big companies. Not only is what's said in the article wrong itself, but he's attacking us and brainwashing Hollywood into believing they're "all that", when Hollywood and Variety should continue to realize the press industry is consistently changing, and change means they've got to adapt, too.

What they should be looking at is who has the most impact and the most benefit, despite being a blog or professional outlet or whomever. Just look at my article on 12 Movies That Were Ahead of Their Time in February. It was read over 150,000 times, certainly more than any article in Variety (which has a confirmed readership of their daily print edition in 2005 of 31,622) or almost as much as most individual front page articles in newspapers across the country. I know it wasn't something you'd ever see run in Variety, but that doesn't mean it's impact wasn't drastically more than an article in Variety would ever have. This business in Hollywood is partially marketing and promotion, and they've got to at least recognize that. And when it comes to the audiences in Hollywood, the blogs (so to say) are the ones who have the most beneficial impact in this industry, that is certainly undeniable.

Publicists increasingly court them, but are infuriated by the bloggers' disdain for the rules of engagement (ignoring fact-checking and review dates, for example). Movie stars smile at them at premieres, yet are angered by their incivility.

In terms of fact checking, it's such a brutal world. On one hand if you hear a rumor or something from a friend who works in the industry, how are you going to get that fact confirmed when all the publicists and studios are out to bury it with dust until they want it revealed. On the other hand, if we report something based off of a quote from an actor or filmmaker during an interview, that's legitimate. Even if a retraction must be made later, given that a statement was misunderstood, I consider it fine to do so and point out the mistake. I know at least here we do our best to not post too many rumors and make sure what we're posting is legitimate, but that doesn't mean that in this world of public relations and the internet, the early bird gets the worm and the first to put out news gets the biggest return.

And then, of course, there's the attitude of the Feds: To U.S. Attorneys, bloggers are not "true journalists" and, hence, not entitled to First Amendment protection.

This claim is insane, and the worst part is that Peter Bart believes in it. I think we could spend months arguing the idea of the First Amendment and our freedom of speech on the internet, but that can be saved for another day. It was worth pointing out yet another statement that Bart included in his article.

Clearly, the landscape is crowded and confusing, but decisions have to be made: To whom do you grant interviews and credentials? Do you reach out to individuals who consistently defy your rules of engagement, or do you scrap the rules entirely? From the Hollywood perspective, do you invite people to screenings who consistently thumb their noses at review dates?

To answer his questions, don't scrap the rules entirely, but adapt them to fit into this new world. Press has changed, and it no longer allows for months of publication time and extensive fact checking. Grant access to everyone, don't be so restrictive to only "mainstream press" (which we should fall under anyway), and come to embrace this new medium and work together with it, don't attack it. Peter Bart has overlooked what this world is all about and simply lumped too much of the online medium into the blogger.com ideal. They exist, but not all of the websites out there are little blogs that write for their friends, they're powerful forces with vastly more readership than Variety, and he must come to accept that or fight a losing fight.

Peter Sciretta from SlashFilm also has a great response to Peter Bart's article, which I suggest you read, too.

Updated Response: I've been reading some comments over at digg, and it seems they're saying my response here is just as belligerent as Peter's to begin with. If you actually go read Peter Bart's article, he is clearly saying that, although creating awareness about the blogosphere, he certainly does not appreciate or think the blogosphere should be recognized by studios or as professional media outlets. What I'm doing here is trying to create awareness of his statements and his attack on every non-mainstream media outlet, and showing that what he states in that article is unwarranted and simply a veiled plea to not forget Variety.

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