What Hath Peter Bart Wrought? (Oy!)

COMMENTS (37)

• JD pretty much said what I’m thinking and Nikki has every right to defend herself.

  Comment by cookmeyer1970 — Tuesday March 24, 2009 @ 9:41pm PDT  Reply to this post

• 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

  Comment by Carol L. Soskin — Tuesday March 24, 2009 @ 9:45pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I betcha when Variety and HR reporters roll into work in the morning, the first site they surf is Nikki’s.

  Comment by wonder boy — Tuesday March 24, 2009 @ 9:58pm PDT  Reply to this post

• 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.

  Comment by Still in Disbelief... — Wednesday March 25, 2009 @ 4:40am PDT  Reply to this post

• 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!

  Comment by Longtime Observer, Now Removed — Wednesday March 25, 2009 @ 8:09am PDT  Reply to this post

• @ wonder boy:

  Second, after monster.com.

  Comment by keith — Wednesday March 25, 2009 @ 8:53am PDT  Reply to this post

• 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.

  Comment by an observer — Wednesday March 25, 2009 @ 10:33am PDT  Reply to this post

• 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!

  Comment by jennab — Wednesday March 25, 2009 @ 11:19am PDT  Reply to this post

• 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.

  Comment by Armando — Wednesday March 25, 2009 @ 11:44am PDT  Reply to this post

• 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.

  Comment by writer — Wednesday March 25, 2009 @ 2:46pm PDT  Reply to this post

• 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!

  Comment by Go Nikki! — Wednesday March 25, 2009 @ 6:47pm PDT  Reply to this post

• 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)

  Comment by TVFan — Friday March 27, 2009 @ 5:36pm PDT  Reply to this post