Junket Whore IV: The Final Chapter
The plight of my friend, Eric Snider, is getting attention on some national movie-journalism web sites - though not in a way he probably likes.
As readers of this blog may recall, Snider wrote an article on his web site, "I Was a Junket Whore," about the gaudy excess spent by movie studios on a press junket. In retaliation, the studio in question, Paramount Pictures, barred Snider from all its screenings - and then demanded he remove the article from his site.
A movie-industry journalist I really respect - David Poland, editor of the Movie City News site - took Snider to task on his "The Hot Blog."
Poland writes: "There are so many problems with the junket system, as much at Paramount as anywhere else. But this kind of piece is nothing but spitting in the face of someone who offered you an opportunity. The hotel and the air travel and the per diem is part of that opportunity. If you’re going to say 'yes,' it seems to me that if you have serious concerns about how that opportunity is laid out, the honorable thing is simply to say 'no' the next time. If you didn't know what you were getting into, then learn the reality and tell all your friends, but keep your ignorance to yourself and off the internet. And if you really need to write about it, you owe your host at least the respect of doing a serious job of reporting on what you object to in the system."
I agree with Poland on many points in his posting. But I still have a problem with the bullying tactics employed by Paramount Pictures because Snider, a small fish in the movie-industry ocean, dared to open up the Wizard of Oz's curtain of the press junket.
Some argue that if you let the studio pay for your plane ticket, hotel room and food, you owe it to the studio to write the kind of article the studio wants. I think entertainment journalists should be free to write about whatever happens at a junket - including the mechanics of the junket itself. (This is why my paper pays my way on the infrequent occasions I go on junkets.)
Molly Ivins is fond of quoting an old Texas pol, who had this philosophy: "If you can't take their money, screw their women, drink their alcohol and vote against them anyway, you don't belong in the [Texas] legislature." If entertainment journalists developed a similar philosophy, I think we'd all be better off for it.
In any event, I'm done on this topic for awhile. Snider's a big boy, and he can handle the fallout just fine.
As readers of this blog may recall, Snider wrote an article on his web site, "I Was a Junket Whore," about the gaudy excess spent by movie studios on a press junket. In retaliation, the studio in question, Paramount Pictures, barred Snider from all its screenings - and then demanded he remove the article from his site.
A movie-industry journalist I really respect - David Poland, editor of the Movie City News site - took Snider to task on his "The Hot Blog."
Poland writes: "There are so many problems with the junket system, as much at Paramount as anywhere else. But this kind of piece is nothing but spitting in the face of someone who offered you an opportunity. The hotel and the air travel and the per diem is part of that opportunity. If you’re going to say 'yes,' it seems to me that if you have serious concerns about how that opportunity is laid out, the honorable thing is simply to say 'no' the next time. If you didn't know what you were getting into, then learn the reality and tell all your friends, but keep your ignorance to yourself and off the internet. And if you really need to write about it, you owe your host at least the respect of doing a serious job of reporting on what you object to in the system."
I agree with Poland on many points in his posting. But I still have a problem with the bullying tactics employed by Paramount Pictures because Snider, a small fish in the movie-industry ocean, dared to open up the Wizard of Oz's curtain of the press junket.
Some argue that if you let the studio pay for your plane ticket, hotel room and food, you owe it to the studio to write the kind of article the studio wants. I think entertainment journalists should be free to write about whatever happens at a junket - including the mechanics of the junket itself. (This is why my paper pays my way on the infrequent occasions I go on junkets.)
Molly Ivins is fond of quoting an old Texas pol, who had this philosophy: "If you can't take their money, screw their women, drink their alcohol and vote against them anyway, you don't belong in the [Texas] legislature." If entertainment journalists developed a similar philosophy, I think we'd all be better off for it.
In any event, I'm done on this topic for awhile. Snider's a big boy, and he can handle the fallout just fine.
9:24 AM
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