Who is the most hated man in Hollywood? Regarding this question, I believe that from the red stars in the circle to the people who eat melons, everyone should have their own answers. However, at least in the past twenty or thirty hours, the current head of Warner Bros. Discovery Group, David Zaslav (David Zaslav), has won this "laurel crown" with his "strength".

David Zaslav. Visual China Map

On July 5 local time, the Washington Post first exposed this news: GQ magazine, at the request of Warner, withdrew a feature on Zaslav's character that had already been online. Such a matter, which involves the freedom of news gathering and editing, which is especially valued by the American media, and the interference of negative opinions by powerful Hollywood figures, is bound to become hot news immediately and attract the attention of all aspects of society.

The now-deleted article is reported to be titled "How Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Became Public Enemy Number One in Hollywood." Hollywood), and New York film critic Jason Bailey, 48, was in charge of writing this profile for GQ magazine. Bailey, who graduated from the Department of Journalism at New York University, usually contributes to the "New York Times" and other media as an independent writer. The Complete History of Quentin Tarantino's Masterpiece), "The Ultimate Woody Allen Film Companion" and other six monographs have a good reputation among readers and peers.

This time, "GQ" magazine invited him to write a character report article about the head of Warner. On July 3, the article was officially launched on the GQ website, but it soon received complaints from Warner, because the author wrote that its head Zaslav may be the most hated person in Hollywood at the moment, and even He was compared to his father Logan Roy in the hit series "Succession" and satirized his unreasonable paternalism. At the end of the article, the author concluded his statement, saying that the man in power who combined Warner Bros. and Discovery, two major entertainment companies, "is nothing but good at one thing, and that is to destroy."

After receiving Warner's complaint, the editorial department of "GQ" obviously took it very seriously, and quickly made major deletions to the article, including deleting the above-mentioned sentence "probably the most hated person in Hollywood", and deleting the statement with Logan. Roy's comparison, which deletes the coffin conclusion at the end. In short, after deleting a total of about 500 words, it was re-launched. It's just that in the Internet age, everyone who walks will leave traces. The original article has already been automatically captured by the Internet Archive, a network archiving organization. Only by comparing the two, can the editorial department of "GQ" delete the content that provoked Warner's sensitive nerves.

The author himself is naturally more aware of what has been deleted. According to Jason Bailey, the deletions were not his handiwork. "Initially, I wrote what I wanted to write according to their invitation and according to my own ideas. Unexpectedly, they asked me to rewrite the article after it went online. I refused, and the changes they made made me very happy. Not satisfied. So I contacted the editorial office and asked GQ to remove my authorship," Jason Bailey said in an email interview with The Washington Post. In his opinion, this kind of castrated text is no longer his original intention, and naturally he should not continue to hang his name in the author column.

In the end, on the afternoon of July 3, "GQ" simply deleted this feature on Zaslav's character, and similar things are rare in the American press. In this regard, the official statement given by the magazine is: "Before this article went online, the editing process could not be completed accurately. After the article was revised and re-launched, the author asked to remove his signature, so we decided to cancel the publication of this article. The agency deeply regrets the editorial error that led to the early release of this article without proper editing."

Today, the article, titled "How Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Became Hollywood's Public Enemy Number One," has been pulled from the website.

At the same time, Warner may also have a premonition that this storm of public opinion is about to hit, so it issued an official statement on this matter, admitting that it had indeed contacted "GQ" magazine directly because of this article and expressed protest. "This independent contributor made no attempt to contact our company to fact-check the content of the article prior to publication - exactly the industry standard practice of any reputable news organization. Therefore, our company contacted the media and asked to correct many mistakes in the article—this is also a standard practice in the industry. During the process, the editorial department of the other party finally made a decision to withdraw the report.”

It is worth mentioning that "GQ", 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 fully controlled by the American private media company Advance Publications (Advance Publications), which also holds about 8% of the shares of Warner Bros. Discovery Group.

In addition, a source revealed to the media that this time Warner directly contacted Will Welch, the current editor-in-chief of "GQ" magazine, in order to revise the manuscript, and this gentleman is currently participating in Warner's new film as a producer. Whether the production of "The Great Chinese Art Heist" (The Great Chinese Art Heist) has made him scruples in handling articles critical of the group's chief executive, I am afraid that only he knows.

Welch, 42 years old this year, is also a reporter himself. He has struggled for many years at "GQ" magazine and was finally promoted to the post of editor-in-chief five years ago. The "Chinese Art Heist" produced by Warner will be directed by the Chinese director Zhu Haowei who has filmed "You Now You See Me 2" and "Crazy Rich Asians". It tells the story of what happened in Fontaine, France in 2015 The story of the theft of the Bailu Palace China Pavilion was adapted from the article "The Great Robbery of Chinese Artworks" published in "GQ" magazine in 2018, so Will Welch also became one of the co-producers. However, since the film was announced in 2021, there has been very little news about its progress. As for how much real content, how much fictitious elements, and how many groundless speculations are in the article "The Great Robbery of Chinese Artworks" in "GQ", related topics have already aroused many protests in China in 2021.

For the retraction of "GQ" this time, the most dissatisfied are probably the uncrowned kings of the United States. After this revelation by the Washington Post, the matter quickly became a hot topic on social media. Journalists and film critics empathized with what happened to fellow Jason Bailey, expressed solidarity, and tried their best to use the news resources at hand to thoroughly expose the wrong practices of Warner and Zaslav. Soon, they wrote such titles as "David Zaslav kills everything he touches, including GQ", "David Zaslav Is a Cheapskate" (David Zaslav kills everything he touches, including GQ). Small, Petty Man) and other long articles made Zaslav almost become a street mouse that everyone shouted and beat.

The 63-year-old David Zaslav, since he took office last year, has continuously become the focus of the media with various new policies, including the decision to hide the film "Batwoman" that has been filmed, the wrong decision on the selection of CNN's CEO, and the once thought On the grounds of cost control, the Turner Classic Movie Channel (TCM), which is popular with old film audiences, was cut off. On the other hand, a number of Warner's productions, including "The Flash", have been coldly received in the global box office market, and the group's stock price has also fallen by 50% in the year since Zaslav took office. , It really makes this old Hollywood company, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, feel quite precarious.