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January 30, 2009
This Year's Patrick Attack
I thought Patrick Goldstein had grown out of his personal rage at me and everyone else who knows more about the awards season than he does... but no.
Today's late season attack on me and others was a surprise. I am going to reprint my response to his blog entry here... because this way someone might read it.
Like Nikki Finke, Roger Friedman, and Jeffrey Wells, Patrick’s endless well of whinny anger at me is no secret in this town. I guess I am done trying to be nice about it, trying not to take it personally.
I walk the tightrope, as someone who is not unwilling to criticize other journalists myself, of seeming to be simply thin-skinned. And in the privacy of my workspace, I often am. But I pull myself back together and try to act like an adult, focusing on the good or bad of the work and not of the personalities.
Many people in my position believe in just not commenting and moving on. That’s just not my way. I don’t want to pretend I am not offended… or worse, that there is significant validity to the attack.
It is Patrick’s right to think I am silly for suggesting that Variety is pushing an agenda that the season is still competitive. But the spin that I am claiming a conspiracy is both willful and false. Of course, Patrick himself wrote about Peter Bart’s desperate plea for ads in October (a day after I wrote in my silly way about it), but that was, I suppose, profound insight. I am just a silly conspiracy theorist. Fuck that.
I feel terrible for everyone at the LAT, working under the duress for years now, never knowing what Zell-ian horror is just around the corner. But being bitch-slapped by Patrick Goldstein is not something I need to just take because the guy is under pressure and he works for a big paper. He has been doing this annually for years. (If I am “always wacky,” what does that make you for obsessing on me?) Enough is enough.
I don’t waste my time or energy commenting on every dumb thing Patrick does in print/e-print. I used to pay more attention, I admit. But, I haven’t written a headline about the guy – or almost anything printed in the LAT - in over a year. Every couple of months, Patrick goes off on some truly idiotic and seemingly personal binge, like his obsession with Fox and Tom Rothman, and I feel a need to speak up. But 90% of what he writes might as well be written by some anonymous blogger as far as I am concerned. I check in every few days to see if he’s written anything… rarely getting past the first graph… (shrugging my shoulders).
So even though some of the regular commenters on The Hot Blog are sure to shove this right back in my face, I will feel better if I put this on the record. And then, I will get back to some real work.
I’m just silly that way.
I am endlessly amazed by your willingness to slam others for doing less silly stories than you are actually doing on this blog virtually every day you deign to make an entry.
You intentionally mislead your readers about what has been written and what the context is. Not quite an outright lie, but right on the cusp.
You misunderstand your ignorance of what's happening amongst awards consultants for confusion on the part of others... and do no reporting to determine what the truth is.
I only wish you had the guts to actually do even the tiniest bit of reporting for your annual attack instead of childishly sniping at others from behind the LA Times' now-tattered coattails, But you do not behave like a man of honor, much less a good reporter. Making a call or two might make you late for your lunch with some agent or hack producer at The Grill. Whose expense accounts are those lunches on these days, by the way?
Variety is cutting jobs, including those of your direct competitors, but you are so busy “reporting” on valet parking at the CAA building and Scott Rudin’s schadenfreude, that you can’t see – though you commented (a week after I had) on one example of it a few months back – that Bart continues to push the agenda that more ads need to be bought. (So silly!) You can’t even be bothered to note the firings. God forbid you would ever acknowledge how bad things are at LAT, where poorly paid freelancers now do most of the work in the entertainment sections you work for!
You got a rise out me, Patrick. My weakness. Probably your goal. You continue to aim low.
I won't dance on your journalistic grave when you lose this job, Patrick. You’ll get your few months at Slate... on to HuffPo... etc. But I won't sweat it either. Year after year, you have gotten smaller and smaller. Wrong direction. But it seems to be all you know after years of smelling your own gas and thinking it was not only sweet, but important. Pity.
Posted by dpoland at January 30, 2009 03:38 PM
Comments
Hey, David, you say Goldstein has an "endless well of whinny anger" directed at you. But I read you both, and over the past six months, you've called him out for the ineptness/lack of activity on his blog over and over again, and to my recollection until today he hasn't said a thing about you. Then you say "I don’t waste my time or energy commenting on every dumb thing Patrick does in print/e-print. I used to pay more attention, I admit. But, I haven’t written a headline about the guy – or almost anything printed in the LAT - in over a year." Like I said, I read you every day, and with all due respect -- I beg to differ. You just commented on him two days ago, in fact.
Which leads me to another honest question: can you name one internet movie blogger you haven't picked a fight with? Seriously. As far as I can tell, you take any and every opportunity to slam your competitors any chance you get. Nikki Finke. Jeff Wells. Patrick Goldstein. Friedman -- hard to defend him, of course, and you certainly don't. Harry Knowles. McWeeny. Kris Tapley. You like Anne Thompson, most of the time, but everybody does, and you seem to have a grudging respect for The Bagger. But you unload constantly on Variety, The Reporter, LA Times, NY Times. You've already trashed Waxman's new site. You trashed Huffington Post the first day it went live, then again after the first week, although you've been quiet since it's developed its own audience and niche. But honestly, man, is there anybody else you have professional respect for? Because it seems to me that a decent percentage of your postings are about calling people out for not doing their job as well as you think you do yours.
Posted by: Biscuits ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 30, 2009 05:52 PM
Commenting on someone's work is not picking a fight, in my view. It is what we all do in this business. If we can do it to the industry, the media should surely be equally open to doubt.
The majors do get slapped sometimes, but it is the vast minority of what we cover on MCN.
I have never attacked Drew or Harry about anything personal... only about AICN and what it stands for. And even then, less than once a month over the years and I can't imagine it's more than 3 times a year at this point.
I don't recall writing anything bad about Tapley in years, though the opposite is not the case.
And I haven't read, spoken to or written about Wells in over 2 years.
I haven't trashed Waxman's new site. I have suggested that it is will have a hard time staying in business.
I think the world of David Carr and am pretty sure MCN coined "The Bagger" as his short tag. Like all of us - certainly including me - he is not perfect, especially in his coverage of this industry.
I still have issues with a lot of the things HuffPo does - and many others do - to create page views on other people's content.
I have enormous professional respect for a lot of people and organizations. I do not have respect for people who do gossip or personal attacks and pretend it is news.
In the end, I say it all in public, not behind people's backs, not kicking them in private while praising in public, etc.
Nikki used to squeal in rage about me daring to comment on other reporters. But then she started doing it daily, almost never - as I try to do it - as regards the work... almost always to try to defend turf she believes to be her own.
I am what I am. I have fans. I have people who hate me. I have people who don't know or care who I am. But I am honest. And my comments about Patrick and anyone else have come from honest, thought out, considered opinions of the work. Aside from being silent, I don't know how to do better for you.
Posted by: David Poland at January 30, 2009 06:12 PM
Heat: honesty only gets you so far in this world with most people. You can state that this is all honesty, but some could see it as being how you attack others. Biscuits sees it that way as do all the people you have honest, well-thought out, and considered opinions about as bloggers.
If you are being honest. You are being honest. This does not change the fact that the way you respond to these people, can be perceived as harsh, overbearing, and agenda-based. There's always two sides of the story, but do not expect those who you rail against to simply accept your views as HONESTY.
Posted by: IOIOIOI at January 31, 2009 12:16 AM
True enough, IO... but I have to live with myself, not so much with 'them."
Posted by: David Poland at January 31, 2009 08:44 AM
"Today's late season attack on me and others was a surprise. I am going to reprint my response to his blog entry here... because this way someone might read it."
Ow, catty!
I'm more of a Wells reader than a Poland one, and I can tell you this: I don't think Wells regards you one way or the other. You can try and play up the fact that he hates you or something, but I suspect you know that's not true. He mocked you a few times, granted (My favorite was when he postulated the Second Coming, Jesus walking around on Earth and everyone is amazed, except for DP saying "Who's surprised about this? This is news? I predicted this weeks ago.")
Still, it helps with the image, and I guess that's what counts.
Posted by: transmogrifier at January 31, 2009 03:35 PM
Wells is too self-absorbed to hate any one particular person - his universe is "him" and "everyone else".
Posted by: jeffmcm at January 31, 2009 04:13 PM
Hey, Poland, I know you check in at the Chicago Reader and Michael Miner's column from time to time (or Ray Pride alerts you to things, whatever) but did you see this?
http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/hottype/090129/
Maybe Ray is going to the forum, but if you'd like a fly on the wall to be there, let me know and I'll request an invite.
Posted by: Not David Bordwell at January 31, 2009 06:10 PM
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