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Writers and others have been complaining to Variety today about an AMPTP ad which doesn't identify itself as such located right above the trade's strike coverage. "Holy crap, how much are the AMPTP paying them? Oh right, tons," one WGA member emailed me. "Not to mention the ad misquotes David Young once again, but misinformation from the AMPTP is a given at this point."
The complaints prompted Variety's online editor Dana Harris to post this message on the site: "Yes, that is definitely an ad. We've received some emails complaining that the Flash banner above could be confused for a editorial content since there's no identification of its advertising status. However, it is an ad; click on it and you're redirected to the AMPTP site. Its lack of advertising identification is a technical glitch that we're currently working to resolve. In the meantime, please know that the space above the posts and below the Scribe Vibe logo goes to those who pay for it."
There's no doubt that Variety's now famous post-strike headlines blaming the writers for every sorry twist and turn in these complicated negotiations with the studios/networks have increased rather than decreased, from my estimation. As a result, I thought I'd share this email interaction between succesfull TV writer Nicole Yorkin and Variety editor Peter Bart over her decision to cancel her subscription:
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 3:33 PM
To: Bart, Peter (RBI-US)
Subject: from Nicole Yorkin
Dear Mr. Bart,
As a former journalist and long-time subscriber to Variety, I used to eagerly look forward to reading your newspaper every morning. That's before the WGA strike and your coverage of it. As a long-time Writer's Guild member, and someone who has some access to what's really going on behind the scenes, I have to say I have been shocked by your biased and inaccurate coverage of the strike and negotiations. At first, I kept expecting you to finally come around and realize the journalistic standards I hold any newspaper to. When that didn't happen, I convinced myself it was valuable to read what the other side was thinking, (as expressed in your "news articles" every day). Finally, I had to say to myself that if Variety were this far off the truth in covering the strike, what else must it be dissembling about? I concluded I couldn't really believe a thing in Variety. And for that reason, I'm asking you to cancel my subscription as of now, and return the portion of money I'm owed.
Once again, I want to express my disappointment in your newspaper's apparent lack of journalistic standards. I know my view is wide-spread amongst my peers.
Sincerely,
Nicole Yorkin
---
On Dec 17, 2007 5:00 PM, Bart, Peter (RBI-US) wrote:
Dear Nicole Yorkin,
I respectfully think you've drunk the Kool-Aid -- Variety's coverage has been objective. What motivation would we have to invoke a bias? Must every Guild (or every company) be validated for their every demand?
Peter Bart
---
Date: Dec 17, 2007 10:22 PM
Subject: Re: from Nicole Yorkin
To: "Bart, Peter (RBI-US)"
Dear Peter Bart,
What "motivation" would you have to "invoke a bias?" You can't really be seriously asking that question, so I'll assume you're joking.
Respectfully,
Nicole Yorkin
Loading ...
Hollywood Reporter and Variety
I can’t tell which is which
They’re both bent so far over
Trying to be Nick Counter’s…
the fact that bart’s response is a crass, unimaginative personal attack says it all – “you’ve drunk the kool-aid”
he is hyperdefensive and entirely lacking in any respect or reflection for another’s pov, i.e. JOURNALISM
if it wasn’t clear before, now it’s straight from the horse’s mouth – variety is in the pocket of amptp
[and for god's sake, peter bart, don't try to be hip - "drunk the kool-aid" is a clam that was put to bed a few years ago - enough with these male dinosaurs running these corporations - they are unfit anachronisms waaaay past their prime]
good for you, Nicole. Peter Bart is a pompous windbag who has been skating by on a bad attitude and a well recognized brand name for far too long. Standing up for your principles is what the strike is all about and I commend you for canceling your overpriced subscription.
If you’re a journalist reporting a politically hot issue, and not a columnist like Nikki, and only one side hates you…you’re not doing your job.
A good amount of people from both sides of the issue should hate your guts if you’re properly reporting a politically divisive issue.
That means you’re being fair. And equally reporting both sides of the issue at all times.
Variety has turned into an AMPTP rag, and it’s utterly shameful.
We canceled Variety weeks ago and don’t even click on their site for free
Actually, for several weeks, we forgot Variety exists
Way to go, Peter Bart. Another old fart destroying and sullying a Hollywood institution
Well? What’s the motivation? Money under the table? Do explain.
I agree with Nicole. Variety has thrown writers under the bus since day one. I will never so much as pick up an issue while killing time waiting for a meeting to start, ever again.
Assuming there will ever be any meetings, ever again.
And by the way, why the hell is Variety accepting ads from the AMPTP, or the WGA, or anybody directly involved in this strike right now?
Ethically, they should be refusing such ads. But then again, I guess that means NO ONE would be advertising.
They know where their bread is buttered, that’s for sure.
To even think that writers are confused by a banner ad says to me that they don’t deserve to have a new media fight. Please! My three year old can tell the difference when she surfs the net.
But just to be clear, Nikki, are you endorsing the movies currently flashing on your site or are they paid ads because no where is it differentiated on your site? Please tell me that you’re not having a technical glitch.
‘Tis the season for good cheer, and defensiveness!
Today’s story by McNary was the worst yet. The anti-WGA bias was so oily, it dripped right off my screen and onto my keyboard.
In the twenty-something years I’ve worked in and around the film business, I’ve always been amazed by my own acceptance of the power of the trade papers. Time after time I’d read about projects with which I was connected. and shake my head in utter disbelief at how far wrong they were. But practically everything I read about someone else’s plight I took verbatim.
Make that “yesterday’s” story. The one on Letterman, Leno, etc returning. Bart’s in bed with so many moguls, it would put a “Caligula” orgy scene to shame.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117977951.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
The contempt the moguls seem to hold everyone that isn’t a mogul just boggles the mind.
Outside of money, and lots of it, you need three kinds of people to make a successful film.
1. Filmmakers (writers, directors, technicians)
2. Actors (to work in front of the camera)
3. The Audience (to buy tickets and DVDs)
So far the moguls are succeeding in alienating all three out of mix of greed, contempt, and stupidity about how their industry really works. They think all they need is a slicked up balance sheet to attract investors.
But without those three kinds of people, you’re not going to be able to make the films that attract or earn the kind of money needed to make more movies and TV shows.
That’s why I urge everyone to NOT buy DVDs this Xmas season until the strike is settled. We can live without DVDs, the moguls can’t.
What an odd thing it is for Peter Bart to personally write back to a subscriber canceling her subscription. I can’t imagine TIME or Newsweek’s editor personally taking the time to writing back to anyone. Nicole Yorkin must have struck a tender nerve. Perhaps the truth does hurt after all.
I find Variety’s strike blog very pro writer, frankly.
The only people drinking kool-aid, in this case, are Peter Bart and his best friend Nick Counter.
Good grief. Forget journalistic integrity, that’s just godawful customer service.
An Perfect and Eloquent Letter from an Amazing Writer. Many Thanks to Nicole!.
“Drank” the Kool Aid. And what a lying crock of shit, he is.
My subscription to VARIETY was up at Thanksgiving and since they have decided to blatantly support their advertisers in this work action (not a stupid choice on their part)I have not and will not renew my subscription. It’s the pretense of “journalistic objectivity” in this matter that is driving me away. Plus they have misspelled my name too many times in the past while retyping the press releases we sent them. Actually my favorite was a few years ago in a deal with Cruise/Wagoner and Paramount they misspelled my company’s name, the book author’s name and one of the executives at C/W’s name too. All had been spelled correctly in the info they received. That’s VARIETY- style journalism.
“What motive could we have to invoke a bias?” I can understand Ms. Yorkin’s puzzlement at the question, because how on earth does one “invoke a bias”?
“Bias, I command thee! Come, and roost in my news coverage, embed yourself in my opinion pieces, and fester in my emails!”
Yeah, that’s some good writing, Mr. Bart. Keep it up.
Good for Nicole. How disingenuous of Peter Bart.
She’s right; how can we trust their box office grosses when we see first-hand what utter lies they create and perpetuate with the strike.
You can’t lie to us on this story because we’re WITNESSES.
When I called to cancel my Time Warner Cable service two weeks ago, the customer service rep asked why I was terminating my service. I explained that I didn’t want to pay the normal cable rate for reruns and reality programming during the writer’s strike.
When I returned the cable box and remote to Time Warner, I asked if the reason for my cancellation had gone on record in my account file. “Oh, no, we don’t keep a record of WHY you’re canceling.”
Great customer service there, too.
Perhaps I start sending a copy of my canceled bill to advertisers or to Carat. Maybe they will care about my $.
“please know that the space above the posts and below the Scribe Vibe logo goes to those who pay for it”
They forgot to mention that the actually reporting at Variety leans toward those who pay for it also!
Gee, Peter, I don’t know– maybe those bullshit “Hey everybody, we’re having an ass-kissing issue on Will Smith!” things you do have clouded your editorial/advertising divide?
When we come back in January, to the picket lines, I suggest we throw up a secondary line around the Variety offices, to protest their Pravda like distortions.
WGA East on the line
The best and only argument Peter Bart could have made is that he can’t be expected to be objective because he’s a former studio exec and remains a part-time film and TV producer. I mean, come on, he didn’t even recuse himself from running a review of his own movie, “Fun with Dick & Jane,” which while not entirely glowing was still much more positive than the film seems to have deserved. Make no mistake about it, the trades are nothing more than a medium through which the studios and networks tell the Hollywood public what they want them to know. They are not “journalism” in any un-ironic sense of the word.
Dave McNary’s coverage has been objective? Wow, my mistake.
Is there anyone left in the WGA who still has their subscription? Please dump this rag. It will never be anywhere near me or my show’s offices.
Why don’t you all drop your subscriptions and stop paying that godawful price at 7-11? I used to read both until it became too expensive!
“DRUNK THE KOOL-AID” only indicates the lack of erudition and class of Peter Bart. Disgusting.
I’m with DB at 1:45pm. Where is the apology? Even if it’s one of those fake/rote apologies? How hard would it have been to say I’m sorry you aren’t enjoying your subscription to Variety?
Where is the declaration that Variety has been THE trade paper since 1933 and is read around the world? Where is the touting of awards won and careers made?
“Drank the Koolaid?”
Was this guy’s assistant away from their desk, that this was even sent out with his name on it? Reading that little blurb bewilders me the same way as watching Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch. What the hell?!
I actually think a lot of the “bias” can be chalked up to laziness. These guys are used to simply fielding press releases and calls from agents and then regurgitating it. The major work they do is when they translate everything from English into their jazzed up Variety-speak from the 1940s. Variety is just not geared for investigative journalism on any meaningful level.
The real “bias” is mostly a simple (and powerful) predisposition to believe the companies are powerful and the writers are weak and therefore all news must be bad news for the WGA.
It’s enough to make a scribe want to axe his subscripsh!
No surprise that Peter Bart lacks even the most basic of English skills.
The AMPTP banner ad is now next to and much larger than the Variety logo on the homepage. The AMPTP doesn’t even have the guts to identify themselves.
Bart’s grammar is correct. “Drunk the Kool-aid” is the correct way of phrasing that part of the sentence. I find it amusing that writers are criticizing someone for incorrect grammar when they’re the ones that are actually wrong…
Likewise “invoke bias” or “invoke a bias” is correct. Just because you are not familiar with a phrase does not mean it’s being used incorrectly. I would suggest brushing up on your own grammar usage before critcizing others for theirs.
(Now one COULD take issue with the fact that it was Flavor-aid, and not Kool-aid, that was used to in the Jonestown massacre (the source of the phrase “Drunk the Kool-aid”), but that’s another matter…)
Are there any writers who still buy that AMPTP propaganda sheet? They don’t even have enough respect for the readers to TRY to APPEAR not to be kissing their advertisers’ asses.
Variety (and the Reporter) have been worthless for years. Save your money folks.
Why would anybody want to know what Bart, some glorified driver for Bob Evans half a century ago, has to say about anything anyway?
My jaw dropped at Bart’s response. What happened to polite and respectful email communication? No small business owner would ever talk to a customer like that – what makes him think he can get away with it?
Yeah, the trades are accepting the money of the majors. They also accept all the b.s. ads from agents and managers trying to get their clients noticed. The ad market has been down so much after consolidation (the same consolidation you’re all bitching about) that the trades had to diversify and take on real estate, airlines, hotels, cars, etc.
Nikki’s own site here, assume the ads are sold by LA Weekly, carries ads by the studios yet they’re not calling and canceling their ads anymore than they’re threatening Nikki to pull them for her WGA-slanted coverage. If either were the case, there’d be a big headline complete with an URGENT and TOLDJA.
Peter Bart is Peter Bart. He’s got a lot of people at that paper who would run him out of town if they felt the coverage was unbalanced. Very friendly reporters who do take care of the creative types. This is a tired angle. Please move on.
I sort of want to subscribe now, just to see if I can goad Bart into a flame war with me.
McNary’s completely false article about the Young and the Restless writers writers crossing picket lines was picked up in its entirety by Entertaiment Weekly the second week of the strike.
Variety buried its retraction, admitting that no Y&R writers were crossing the lines. Entertainment Weekly never printed a retraction or correction for McNary’s inaccurate story. Perhaps we should bring this to EW’s attention??
“Dear Nicole Yorkin”–
Was that supposed to sound dismissive? It comes off like an insult from a drag queen.
Bart is taking notes from the AMTPT’s PR department.
“please know that the space above the posts and below the Scribe Vibe logo goes to those who pay for it”
They forgot to mention that the actually reporting at Variety leans toward those who pay for it also!
I’d been giving serious thought to canceling my own Variety subscription, but always been too damn lazy. “When it expires, I won’t renew,” I decided.
No more. Thanks to Nikki for reporting this story, to Nicole Yorkin for succintly expressing why it’s important that I cancel now … and most of all, to Peter Bart, for making clear the regard Variety holds for its subscribers.
Pass the Kool-Aid. I’m thirsty for some real journalism.
I have completely stopped paying for Variety magazine for a *variety* of reasons. Reading Variety is a little like watching porn — after the first minute or two you start to feel dirty. Writing aside, some of their ads are pure oral action. (Remember the ‘Showpersons of the Year’ orgy back in September?)
When I do read it now, I just glance through an issue at the library occasionally and filter everything from the standpoint that it’s all fiction. Tabloid fun; nothing more.
What’s the surprise here? Anyone who’s watched an episode of “Sunday Morning Shootout” knows Bart has trouble speaking as well.
I’m 34 years old and have never seen someone worse on camera.
Hey Vincent,
You sure about your grammar there, buddy? What book did you use to check the rules?
Go ahead and check ‘em all ya want. We’ll just claim “artistic license” and give you a raspberry… then go on to something more interesting.
Also, does anyone really care what that old fart Bart has to say? Seriously? Anyone UNDER the age of 50? Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller? Bueller?
seriously? it’s come to complaining about an ad? So is Juno part of the content that Nikki wrote? It’s up there in the corner and there is nothing that says ‘ad’ on it. C’mon! stay focused on getting a deal done folks. (both sides)
Lulubrooks (and others): ‘drank’ is the past simple form of ‘drink’ ‘drunk’ is the past participle form and is the correct usage because of the inclusion of an operative word (’have’) in his e-mail. German is my first language and I know this.
It’s a good thing grammar knowledge isn’t part of the WGA deal. 
lulubrooks, d’drunk’ is the past participle of ‘drink.’ If you’re using the word ‘have,’ thereby implying a past action, you follow it with ‘drunk,’ not ‘drank.’ If you think otherwise, you’re simply incorrect.
I would agree with you, though, that talking about Bart’s grammar is silly. That was why I pointed out the writers’ own incorrect grammar in this thread. Lashing out at Bart because they THINK his grammar is incorrect is childish and petty–especially when they’re the ones who are wrong.
Nicole Yorkin? Any relation to Bud Yorkin?
(Just watched the 2nd disc ‘making-of’ Blade Runner..)
Peter Bart.
Douche-sucker.
#
Nicole Yorkin? Any relation to Bud Yorkin?
(Just watched the 2nd disc ‘making-of’ Blade Runner..)
Comment by Dr. Kenneth Noisewater — December 20, 2007 @ 6:08 am
Nicole Yorkin is Bud Yorkin’s daughter.
What Nick Said, Bart has always acted @ Variety as a Former Suit…and he really has shown over the years he doesn’t like writers. One of the annoying digs he does is always refer to a screenwriter, Oscar-winning or not, by the most demeaning survival gig he can dig up on them, as in “a former shoe salesman”, “onetime video-store clerk”, “the poolboy he once was”…I’ve only notice him do it to writers, never producers, actors or directors.
Peter Bart seems to get his Depends all in a twist every time someone suggests that he is biased in his coverage of the strike. He is too out of touch to realize that it is indeed biased. Their coverage of David Letterman’s negotiations with the WGA vis a vis Leno and Conan’s return to the air is simple proof of how slanted Variety has become (perhaps alway was). I just feel sorry for Peter Bart because he reminds me of my grandfather who would swear up and down that he wasn’t racist but then tell me how “black people were great dancers”. Variety isn’t biased: my grandfather wasn’t a racist: they both were just too old and out of touch to know what they actually had become.
Isn’t this rather the pot calling the kettle black? I mean, I’d hate to say it like this, but just reading DHD has kinda given the impression that the studio execs are a bunch of pompous, acid-spewing monsters who would rather eat our young than pay the writers.
And, yes, DHD is a blog, but given the prominence of the site that’s not exactly a great excuse. A lot of people are getting a ton of info from here, and Nikki hasn’t exactly been fair and balanced. (I’m a liberal, it’s a joke. Sarcasm is so hard to do online)
I mean, the WGA has kinda been acting like bullies, with how they’re treating the award shows. You gotta know that they should love how the actors would probably go up there and give their support, not to mention all the writing awards, but they’re kinda taking their ball and going home, and yet DHD has hardly done anything but paint the WGA as the holiest of saints.
How can anybody think Variety is not biased? Seriously? Look at today (Friday). The subhead screams 74% of Americans unaffected by the strike. Later, we see this:
USA Today/Gallup poll showing that 60% of Americans support the guild, while 14% favor the studios. The results were based on a phone survey of 1,011 adults taken Dec. 14 through Sunday.
USA Today/Gallup. Pretty respectable. Overwhelming support of the writers.
But the subhead comes from an internet poll by TNS. Who? What kind of internet poll is it? Where was it? How many responded? When was the poll taken?
Why is it that the USA/Today Gallup poll indicating overwhelming support is not the subhead but framed as something the WGA declared. While some mystery poll from some mystery pollsters with some mystery method at some mystery time is stated as fact in the subhead.
This isn’t about whether the senile Peter Bart supports “every demand” of the guild. This is about Variety’s being the internal organ of AMPTP and passing itself off as some kind of newspaper. This is about distortions and contortions of the facts with the intention of sewing fear and frustration to the benefit of the conglomerates.
Can anybody disagree?
hey, vincent
there are many commenters on this blog who are not writers, so your disparaging remarks against writers is presumptuous.
you are also erroneous – the idiom “drink the kool-aid” did not originate with jonestown, it originated with ken kesey and the merry pranksters and their acid adventures
so you are annoying and wrong and presumptuous