My recent efforts to find a publisher for an article I wrote about allegations involving Roy Price, the head of Amazon Studios, represents one of the most difficult chapters in my decades-long career in journalism. Not only does it show the lengths to which a deep-pocketed subject will go to shut down a negative story, but it reveals the fear that now permeates news outlets at a challenging time for journalism.
The fact that my story, like the recent investigative pieces about now-disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein, centered around allegations of inappropriate sexual comments in an industry dominated by men also shows how hard it still is to convince big organizations to take on stories about misconduct of powerful executives and the abuse of women.
By the time I was done, I had talks with more than six publications and went through legal review at three. The anxiety is always high when theres a threat of a lawsuit around a story, but this time, it seemed off the charts. At one point, an attorney reviewing the piece only sputtered when I asked her to explain what, exactly, was legally problematic with portions of the story that she wanted to delete. She literally could not construct a sentence to explain her reasoning.
I fear my difficult experience with this story is not unique. As The Washington Posts Margaret Sullivan wrote in a piece about the Gawker effect, veteran rock critic Jim DeRogatis had great difficulty finding an outlet that would publish his explosive R. Kelly story. In August, Fox News hostnow former Fox News hostEric Bolling sued writer Yashar Ali personally for $50 million for reporting that Bolling allegedly sent lewd texts to colleagues. Harder has threatened to sue the Times on Weinsteins behalf.
If theres a silver lining to any of this, its that the environment may have changed just a bit, at least for the moment. Emboldened by the women who have stepped forward to tell their stories about Weinstein, Isa Hackett in recent days agreed to go public with her full story about Roy Price, on the record with me.
The Hollywood Reporter, which had declined to run my earlier piece, didnt hesitate in running that piece on Thursdayall 889 words. Hours after the piece was posted, Amazon suspended Price, effective immediately.
Kim Masters went to many publishers. None would publish her story about Price due to fears of legal backlash. The Gawker effect is real.
Read the whole thing here: https://www.cjr.org/first_person/amazon-roy-price.php