‘Shameful, Crappy, and Corrupt’: GQ Gets Pummeled by Journalists for Taking Down Article Which Criticized David Zaslav
Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images for Discovery
The journalism world is standing by freelance reporter Jason Bailey, the original author of the now-deleted GQ profile of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, and decrying the decision to pull the article.
The highly-critical profile was first published on July 3 under the headline “How Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Became Public Enemy Number One in Hollywood.” Edits were made to soften the article, and hours after the new version was posted, the article was pulled entirely. Bailey told the Washington Post that he disagreed with the edits and asked GQ to have his name removed from the byline. The mag wouldn’t publish without a byline, so they pulled the article off the site. (The full original article can be found on archival sites.)
But GQ‘s explanation for making the edits then pulling the article were what raised the ire of journalists, claiming the original piece “was not properly edited before going live.” But the Post stated that WBD had complained to GQ about the article, and the edits that were made were “exactly what WBD wanted changed,” according to Bailey.
In a nutshell, a “warts and all” profile was changed to be more of a puff piece to appease the subject of said puff piece. And writers of all kinds are livid.
And that’s just a taste. A simple search for Zaslav yields a lot of supporting evidence as to why Bailey felt fit to say the CEO was “the most hated man in Hollywood.”
But as others on Twitter pointed out, GQ’s move makes more sense after you find out about the whole “GQ editor who took down the article about Zaslav is producing a movie for Zaslav” thing:
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