Who is the most hated man in Hollywood? Regarding this question, I believe that from the red stars in the circle to the melon-eating masses, they should have their own answers. However, at least in the past twenty or thirty hours, David Zaslav, the current head of Warner Bros. Discovery Group, has won this "laurel" with "strength".
David Zaslav. Visual China map
On July 5, local time, the Washington Post took the lead in revealing this news: "GQ" magazine removed a feature of Zaslav characters that had been launched at the request of Warner. Such a thing, involving the freedom of news gathering and editing that the American media particularly value, and involving the interference of Hollywood powerful figures in negative opinions, is bound to immediately become hot news and attract attention from all aspects of society.
It is reported that the article, which has now been deleted, is titled "How Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Became Public Enemy Number One in Hollywood", and the person responsible for writing the character feature for GQ magazine is Jason Bush, a 48-year-old New York film critic. Jason Bailey. Eric Bailly, a journalism graduate from New York University, writes mainly as an independent writer for The New York Times and other media, hosts a film podcast, and has published "Pulp Fiction: The Complete History of Quentin Tarantino's Masterpiece" and "The Ultimate Woody Allen." Film Companion) and other six monographs, which have a good reputation in the minds of readers and peers.
This time, GQ magazine invited him to write a character report about Warner's boss. On July 3, the article was officially launched on the GQ website, but soon received complaints from Warner, because the author wrote his head Zaslav as the most hated figure in all of Hollywood at the moment, and even compared him to his father Logan Roy in the hit series "War of Succession", satirizing his unreasonable parent-making style. At the end of the article, the author concludes his statement by saying that the person in power who combined Warner Bros. and the big companies exploring two entertainment industries was "simply useless, and only one thing he is good at, and that is to do sabotage."
After receiving Warner's complaint, the editorial board of GQ obviously took it seriously, and soon made significant changes to the article, including deleting the above-mentioned cruel phrase "the most hated character in all of Hollywood", deleting the comparison with Logan Roy, and deleting the closing conclusion. In all, it was only after deleting a total of about 500 words that it was relaunched. It's just that in the Internet era, everything that walks through must leave traces. The original article has long been automatically crawled by the Internet Archive, an online archive preservation agency, and people who want to compare the two can naturally distinguish which content that provokes Warner's sensitive nerves deleted by the editorial office of GQ.
Exactly which ones were deleted, the author himself naturally knows better. According to Jason Bailly, the deletion was not his handiwork. "Initially, I wrote what I wanted to write at their invitation and on my own ideas. Unexpectedly, after the article went online, they asked me to rewrite it, I refused, and the changes they made made made me very dissatisfied. So I contacted the editorial office and asked GQ to remove my author's byline. Jason Bailly said in an email interview with The Washington Post. In his opinion, this castrated text has long ceased to be his intention, and naturally his name should not continue to hang in the author column.
In the end, on the afternoon of July 3, GQ simply deleted this feature of Zaslav's character entirely, and similar things are rare in the American press. In this regard, the official statement given by the magazine is: "Before this article was launched, the editing process could not be completed accurately. When the article was republished after being revised, the author asked to remove his signature, so we decided to cancel the article. We deeply regret the editorial errors that led to the early publication of this article without proper editing. ”
Now, the article, titled "How Warner Bros. Discovery Group CEO David Zaslav Became Hollywood's number one public enemy," has been removed from the website.
At the same time, Warner may also have foreseen that this storm of public opinion was coming, so it also issued an official statement on the matter, admitting that it had indeed directly contacted GQ magazine because of this article to express protest. "The independent writer had never tried to contact us to fact-check the content of the article before publishing it—the industry standard practice for any reputable news organization. Therefore, we contacted the media outlet to request corrections to many of the errors in the article – which is also standard practice in the industry. During this process, the opposing editorial office finally made the decision to withdraw the article. ”
It is worth mentioning that GQ magazine, which has a history of more than 90 years, is currently owned by Condé Nast Publishing Group and has local editions in many countries, including China. Condé Nast is wholly owned by Advance Publications, a privately held U.S. media company, which also owns about 8 percent of Warner Bros. Discovery.
In addition, a source revealed to the media that this time Warner directly contacted Will Welch, the current editor-in-chief of GQ magazine, and this jun is currently participating in the production of Warner's new film "The Great Chinese Art Heist" as a producer, which makes him have some scruples when dealing with articles criticizing the CEO of the group, I am afraid that only he knows.
Welch, 42, is a journalist by training, worked for GQ magazine for many years, and finally rose to the position of editor-in-chief five years ago. And the "Chinese Art Robbery" produced by Warner, will be directed by Chinese director Zhu Haowei, who has filmed films such as "Shocking Bandits 2" and "Crazy Rich Asians", telling the story of the theft of the Chinese pavilion at the Palace of Fontainebleau in France in 2015, because it is adapted from the article "The Great Robbery of Chinese Art" published in GQ magazine in 2018, so Will Welch has also become one of the co-producers. However, since the film was announced in 2021, there has been little news about progress. As for how much real content, how much fiction, and how much groundless speculation there is in the article "The Great Robbery of Chinese Art" in GQ magazine, the related topics have already triggered many protests in China in 2021.
For the retraction of "GQ", I am afraid that the most dissatisfied are the uncrowned kings of the United States. Through the Washington Post's revelations, the matter quickly became a hot topic on social media. Journalists and film critics alike shared the plight of their colleague Jason Bailly, expressed their support, and tried to use their news resources to thoroughly expose Warner and Zaslav's wrongdoing. Soon, they were writing long articles such as "Whoever gets caught in Zaslav must die, including GQ" magazine, and "David Zaslav Is a Small (Petty Man)," making Zaslav almost a rat crossing the street.
Since taking office last year, David Zaslav, 63, has continued to be the focus of media with various new policies, including the decision to make the movie "Batgirl", which Xuezo has already made, the wrong decision on the selection of CNN's CEO, and the once desire to cut the Turner Classic Movie Channel (TCM), which is popular with audiences of older films, on the grounds of cost control. On the other hand, many Warner productions, including "The Flash", have been snubbed in the global box office market continuously, and the group's stock price has fallen by 50% in the more than a year since Zaslav took office, which really makes this old Hollywood company celebrating its centennial feel quite stormy.