Mildly Interesting

From The Washington Post: GQ pulls article slamming Warner Bros Discovery CEO Zaslav after complaint

by Will Sommer July 5, 2023

—The writer said he asked to have his byline removed after GQ made extensive changes after publication. The magazine removed the story instead.—

In an unusual step, GQ magazine removed an article critical of powerful media executive David Zaslav from its website just hours after it was published Monday, following a complaint from Zaslav’s camp. The story by freelance film critic Jason Bailey excoriated the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery for his handling of the company’s entertainment properties — specifically, a series of perceived crimes against film, from layoffs at the Turner Classic Movies channel that outraged prominent directors and other superfans, to his decision to not release finished movies like “Batgirl” for tax purposes. At one point, Bailey compared Zaslav to tyrannical “Succession” patriarch Logan Roy. “In a relatively short period of time, David Zaslav has become perhaps the most hated man in Hollywood,” Bailey wrote. A Zaslav associate complained to GQ about the story soon after it was published, according to people close to the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve confidences. By early afternoon on Monday, the magazine had made extensive edits to the story. Archived versions of the original and edited versions of the article show extensive changes that had the effect of softening its tone. A line calling Zaslav the “most hated man in Hollywood” was deleted. The “Succession” comparison to was removed, as was a segment where Bailey called the reality shows that Zaslav oversaw while running Discovery “reality slop.” The final paragraphs of the original article compared Zaslav to the pitiless businessman played by Richard Gere in “Pretty Woman,” with Bailey writing that the executive is “only good at breaking things.” The ending of the edited article was much kinder to Zaslav, removing the “Pretty Woman” reference and simply noting that film aficionados’ complaints have the executive have “gotten personal.” Get the Post Most Newsletter The most popular and interesting stories of the day to keep you in the know. In your inbox, every day. Bailey told The Washington Post that after GQ made the changes he asked editors to remove his byline. He said an editor told him that GQ would not keep an article on its website without the author’s name. By Monday afternoon, the article was removed entirely from the site. “I wrote what I felt was the story I was hired to write,” Bailey said. “When I was asked to rewrite it after publication, I declined. The rewrite that was done was not to my satisfaction, so I asked to have my name removed and was told that the option there was to pull the article entirely, and I was fine with that.” A spokeswoman for GQ declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Warner Bros. Discovery. GQ has a corporate connection to Warner Bros. Discovery. The magazine’s parent company, Condé Nast, is owned by Advance Publications, a major shareholder in Warner Bros. Discovery. Advance Publications did not respond to a request for comment. The edits and eventual deletion of the story angered top film critics. On Twitter, writer Scott Tobias wrote that the edited version of the story was “completely unacceptable,” while critic Matt Zoller Seitz shared the archived version of Bailey’s original article. Critic Hunter Harris illustrated the controversy on Twitter with a screenshot from HBO’s “The Wire” — another Warner Bros. Discovery property — in which fan-favorite stickup artist Omar Little describes a rival operation as “very sloppy.” The flap over the GQ article is just the latest controversy for Zaslav, who has presided over cuts at Warner Bros. Discovery as it works to pay off nearly $50 billion in debt. The company’s stock price has fallen by about half since April 2022, when Discovery and WarnerMedia merged in a $43 billion deal. Zaslav has also faced challenges managing Warner Bros. Discovery’s most prominent cable property, CNN. Zaslav fired his handpicked CEO, Chris Licht, in June after months of management turmoil at the news giant, culminating in Licht’s ill-advised participation in a profile in the Atlantic that suggested Licht was out of his depth.