Thank you, Los Angeles Times… Now those are 5 words I never thought my fingers would type. And yet the paper’s Patrick Goldstein just wrote some very nice praise for Deadline in — of all places — Sunday Calendar.

“Finke has been joined by a group of talented reporters from old-line trade publications like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, including Mike Fleming and Nellie Andreeva, and Deadline has morphed into the industry’s must-read digital bulletin board… For decades, Variety ruled the showbiz roost, using its own form of leverage to score scoops until Finke came along to upset the apple cart. She out-traded the trades and turned a tenuous operation into a serious business.”

As for what Goldstein writes about my own reporting, it’s nonsense. As I told him, “One minute I read how I’m bullying everyone and the next minute you claim I’m going soft. I’ll never make you people happy. I’m still me. I haven’t changed at all. Everyone knows I’m an equal opportunity [offender.]” Actually, the word I used was “bitchslapper”. And that’s why I started Deadline: to inject some full-contact honesty into showbiz coverage. I’m going to keep doing exactly that.

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.