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What Hath Peter Bart Wrought? (Oy!)
By Nikki Finke | Category: Blogs | Tuesday March 24, 2009 @ 12:09pm PST
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Title Studio Gross 1 Alice In Wonderland Disney $116.1M 2 Brooklyns Finest Overture $13.4M 3 Shutter Island Paramount $13.2M 4 Cop Out Warner $9.3M 5 Avatar Fox $8.1M 6 The Crazies Overture $7.1M 7 Lightning Thief Fox $5.1M 8 Valentines Day Warner $4.2M 9 Crazy Heart Fox $3.3M 10 Dear John Sony $2.8M 11 Tooth Fairy Fox $1.7M 12 The Wolfman Universal $1.6M 13 Ghost Writer Summit $1.3M 14 The Blind Side Warner $1.3M 15 The Last Station SPC $0.7M 16 Up In The Air Paramount $0.6M 17 When In Rome Disney $0.6M 18 The Squeakquel Fox $0.5M 19 The Book Of Eli Warner $0.5M 20 The Hurt Locker Summit $0.4M SOURCE: RENTRAKBox Office Poll
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Posting a link to an article linking to your article? And captioning it as “What has Peter Bart wrought?” Nice.
Wow… this made my day. The sun is out, the birds are singing, and the trades are getting their comeuppance! Viva Nikki!
Underwhelmed was ‘whelmed’ enough to comment
This pettiness is not surprising.
Variety cannot compete for “news” because they are stuck suckling the tit of the major studios for their ad money. This leads to bitterness and incompetence amongst staffers.
I worked at Reed’s parent company many years ago and the people running and working in the “media” division are considered idiots by the rest of this huge worldwide company that services the business to business needs of literally every major industry in the world.
Variety has been on the block at Reed so many times it’s not even funny.
They even sold their internal “Variety” ShowBiz Expo trade show to another company years ago.
Why?
Because a below-the-line production oriented show was considered beneath the above-the-line minded editors of the Variety magazine.
So Variety/Reed sacrificed corporate profits and servicing the real production industry in Hollywood for corporate ego.
Par for the course.
So let me get this right. It goes back to a reporter reporting on your piece then you reporting back which was reported about by Variety which you posted about which is then being linked to by the huffington post.
i think it’s safe to say that we are definitely through the looking glass people.
You go, Nikki.
It’s really stupid of them to attack you for your blog and the credentials you have. If they can’t break a scoop before you do, then tough.
You have the credentials and your professional work is linked on the home page, so why is credibility an issue here for these studio-run magazines? Great of you to stick it to those uppity people at Variety and HR.
You should really stop making yourself the news, Nikke. My God, it’s called tact — get some.
OMG who cares. Please stop. They hate you, you hate them. Let’s get back to real stories and news already. All this snarking is just tiring and annoying.
I cancelled my HR subscription, yet they still keep sending it.
No one has stated the obvious with respect to journalistic ethics:
If Peter Bart ordered his reporters to research and write up 3 hit pieces on you because you spurned Variety’s attempt to buy your blog, or if Peter Bart did so out of spite that he had been kept out of the loop by his superiors at Reed about their contemplating the purchase of your blog –
Peter Bart should be FIRED.
Immediately.
On the spot.
He hs grossly breached his ethical duties to his profession, his readers, and the company he works for.
Period.
End of story.
Sorry to sound somewhat contrarian, but I want to support some of the reporters at the trades. Most of them are hardworking, dedicated reporters, who happen to work at trades — I currently am an editor who has worked at trades and consumer publications and find reporters at the LA Times and EW and other “mainstream” outlets to be lazier and more vengeful. It’s not easy reporting on an industry that constantly lies and it’s your job to come up with what best approximates truth. I don’t believe most of them have any bias towards studios or networks other than those are the businesses they cover day-in and day-out, so coziness is hard to avoid. The dangerous reporters are the lazy ones who use single, anonymous sources (or worse agents, publicists and managers who have agendas and use some reporters to further those agendas). Peter Bart is another matter, he is watching the world pass him by and is desperate to stay relevant. If he wasn’t so mean, I would feel sorry for him.
I’m not messing with you, Nikki. whew!
Go Nikki…
Go Nikki…
Go Nikki…
I started reading Nikki’s site during the writer’s strike. I found that I could consistently get GOOD information about the stuff I care about WAY sooner than through the trades. Sure, it’s sometimes laced with editorializations and “snark,” but that’s because it’s a blog!! As far as blogs go, Nikki is 98% of the time on target… reserving the other 2% for her hatred for what moviegoers choose to support as their number 1 film on the weekends.
SNARK!!!!
I have to agree with disbelief
you have been using the word “I” an awful lot lately
I sure hope the Huffington Post picks up this posting…
nikki, please show u’re bigger than that, and let it go. You won. We get it. Now just keep reporting.
I don’t get the people who are taking the time to make disparaging remarks on this comment post. If you’re a regular reader of Deadline Hollywood, then you should already know what you’re getting yourself into when YOU direct your browser to this site. We all know that Nikki, like her or not, is a mom-and-pop shop facing off against conglomerates and easily bought pretenders. So if you’re going to lambaste her for a little gloating, then you also better be writing hate mail to every studio, network and agency that takes out TV and print ads to congratulate themselves when one of their inane media products wins kudos. That or just go ahead and reveal your true identity as a shill for Variety or the studios. Or, better yet… shut the eff up. I almost barfed when I saw THREE anti-Nikki Finke posts on Variety’s site last Sunday. Disgusting. Bullies deserve to have their noses bloodied and I hope Nikki’s fists never tire. Keep rubbing their faces in it Nikki!!
For some reason, the following quote from Mark Twain comes to mind:
“The plan of the newspaper is good. If you can’t get a compliment any other way, pay yourself one. I do that often. I’ll do it right now. I can state that at this time there are two men in the world who are most remarkable. Kipling is one and I am the other. Between us we cover all knowledge. Kipling knows all that can be known and I know the rest.”
–Mark Twain
Gotta love the irony, Nikki!
I never had a HR subscription and they keep on sending it!
This feud has officially received more coverage than it warrants. Get over yourself Nikki – TOLDJA!!!!
Just hoping Nikki Finke won’t ever sell out and let any big media outlet buy DHD. That thought scares me.
Variety has revealed itself as the industry shill it is. It’s the old strategy of appropriating the new and turning it into a big-biz mouthpiece that has happened on a number of occasions (YouTube anyone?).
I have to laugh at the number of comments on the Variety blog entries, though. That about says it all.
Hey Disbelief, first of all genius, learn how to spell Nikki’s name. It’s N-I-K-K-I. Secondly, this is HER blog which consists of HER thoughts and HER comments. Do you not know how this whole blogging this works? Perhaps you should look up the definition of “tact” yourself.
As the late, great, Jean Shepherd used to say, “Just keep you’re knees loose,kid”.
JD pretty much said what I’m thinking and Nikki has every right to defend herself.
Nikki Finke and her column are the best thing that ever happened to Hollywood and show biz.
She covers all beats in depth and accurately. She has contacts and sources that the trades do not have. The trades only wish they could deliver like Nikki does.
I worked for The Hollywood Reporter for 8 years with Lynne Segall and Bob Dowling and that paper was the best int he business. When they left….it fell down completely. I was an ad account exec. Loved that stint!
Now Nikki has it all.
Her columns are required reading.
Peter Bart and others only wish they had Nikki on their team.
I have never ever seen or read anything so complete, interesting and HONEST as DeadlinehollywoodDaily.! Go Nikki!!!!!!
Carol Lynn
I betcha when Variety and HR reporters roll into work in the morning, the first site they surf is Nikki’s.
You guys are such ass kissers, I feel so embarrassed for you right now…
Tact: being diplomatic; using discretion, skill and/or judgement.
It was an entirely appropriate word. Maybe you should buy a dictionary JD.
NIKKI’s conceit and the way she brags about every correct story (TOLDJA), now going so far as to link stories about herself, is beyond any journalistic ethic. She’s breaking the cardinal journalistic rule about not making yourself the story, and it makes her look bad whether you want to admit it or not.
Her snarkiness and cynicism was bad enough, this is just over-the-top.
But i’m happy to learn that now even Nikki Finke has “fanboys” who will defend her every action. She’s a blogger though, not the Messiah. It’s possible for her to be wrong.
Bart loses this round, and will likely lose the war. The fact is that he’s reached the tipping point of where he’s pissed off too many people and now thinks he “deserves” scoops and can bully people into giving them. Sorry, no. He’s assembled a team of desperate and hungry but not all that smart reporters, and it’s easy for an All-Star (like you, Nikki) to outmaneuver them. It’s the story of our age: the quick, young mammals of the internet are outsmarting and outperforming the slow, lumbering dinosaurs. Bart and Variety will linger for a while longer, but their days of dominance are done. Good riddance!
@ wonder boy:
Second, after monster.com.
Nikki,
I love your blog, it’s the first place I turn to everyday for updates on the industry but please take yourself out of the story. You are not the news…geez, you’re getting as bad as Perez Hilton in self-promotion. ENOUGH.
And in linking to Huffpost’s link to Nikki’s original post, it pointed out another advantage of DHD: Nikki BREAKS NEWS…she rarely says, “The NYT is reporting…” “accoring to AP…” then links to the original story, which is 90% of Huffpost. Nikki has deep contacts she has cultivated over the decades and works them (um, isn’t this what Woodward & Bernstein did…?). Really, her reportorial grounding is so solid…infused with a soupcon of snark, perfect recipe! Her only agenda is against a-holes…she is not a corporate shill, and I think Nikki holds herself to higher standards than many other blog sites. Pat yourself on the back all you want, Nikki, you deserve it!
I gotta give Nikki some Kudos. The woman has steel resolve. I like the way she stands up to Hollywood. Always makes this blog interesting reading.
Dear still-in-disbelief,
Many of the people, including myself, on here defending Nikki against Bart are not implying that Nikki is the “messiah” or even a top-notch journalist.
I’m saying she’s very good at what she does and she’s a better journalist than Bart or anybody at his worthless rag. That’s not hard to be at all.
As for breaking a cardinal journalistic rule about not making yourself the story,” again that’s a rule that was sort of challenged pretty seriously a half-century ago by people like Truman Capote (and no, I’m not saying Nikki is Truman Capote). It’s really not a cardinal rule. And if it were, Bart has violated far more often than Nikki has.
Yes, she’s snarky and cynical. Yes, I know for a fact that she’s reported a totally false rumor about at least one person in the industry in a pretty unfair character assassination piece. But she admitted it was not firsthand and it was clear she was espousing an opinion. When people like Bart and Littleton write about and shape reporting about issues like the ongoing labor situation, they try to convince people that their AMPTP party line is actually related to FACT.
Again, you don’t have to believe that Nikki is any great shakes at all to say she breaks more stories, reports more sides of controversial issues and is more upfront when she’s spouting opinion than Bart–the industry’s Andy Rooney–and the folks at his worthless rag.
This is from someone who’s not a fan of Nikki, not a worshipper, not an apologist. Just someone able to see that so long as she stays away from the tainted, antiquated world of Reed Business, she is a better source of industry news than Variety or THR. And in the Bart vs. Nikki pissing contest, Bart suffers from serious prostate trouble.
I just got done reading Peter Bart’s little ‘piece’ on you and am digusted! How DARE he suggest that you go to charm school?! Bart has resorted to using schoolyard bullying antics to slander you and he really just comes off a sexist pig! If you were a man Nikki, he wouldn’t have made a mention of charm school or resorted to personal attacks. Bart is a RELIC plainly put and he can’t handle that YOU have scooped him more times then he can count! Whatever happened to journalistic integrity? He should be FIRED but he won’t be. Sounds like some serious blog envy to me! Variety can kiss my ass goodbye b/c I will NOT be paying for it any longer!
You go, Nikki!!!
First, I rolled my eyes and laughed when I saw the comment made against you. The nerve of those Variety honchos to pretend to be outraged at the erosion of journalistic integrity. What standard are they using??!! Journalism is dead. No one does analysis anymore nor cares to report on the future impact of current stories.
Blogs report and have a personality and opinion behind them. That’s their nature. “Journalists” used to do their jobs and it was enough for the public to respect their integrity: unbiased reporting for the public was the nature of news. I support strong women like Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. But the biased and inaccurate reports were disgusting. The cheerleading for Obama and Pelosi was nauseating. And if the lawmakers AND the media did their job and acted for our best interests, they would have read all the bills instead of letting us just now find out about all the AIG bonuses. Who knows what ticking, hidden timebomb lies in any of the bills coming out of the Obama bill factory? No one informed the public and we are caught surprised, with no power to do anything about it because it’s too late.
Now, I know that I’m injecting politics and criticism of mainstream media to a primarily Democratic Hollywood group here, I’m sure. BUT– just think about it. Variety and all the trade publications are in bed with the moguls and studios. SIMILARLY, most newspapers are in the pocket of the Democratic Party. This is very clear and has been studied. I often heard Obama’s campaign talking points recited verbatim by the media. The media’s cheerleading for Obama and the DNC strips it of journalistic credibility!
So Variety and the newspaper rags can suck it. They can no longer whine about the erosion of journalism when they have killed it. I’m sure there are hard-working journalists out there, but few who have talent AND the public good in mind. If they had a sense of responsibility to inform the public, they wouldn’t be sitting on stories that are “negative” for their chosen leaders or moguls. The truth is the journalists have forgotten that their duty is to protect the public by reporting issues that affect Americans. It means Variety should report negative things even if it shows the moguls in a bad light, and that New York Times should criticize bad policies regardless of whether they stem from Bush, Obama or Clinton. It means CNBC’s Cramer and Santelli shouldn’t be marginalized by their own station for correctly criticizing the current administration.
Keep reporting, Nikki!!!
(and *please* don’t sell to Huffington Post)