Deadline’s Nikki Finke has demanded a published apology from rival Hollywood trade Variety and has threatened legal action if it does not materialize.
Last week Variety’s BlogDogger column accused Deadline of changing the time stamp on a blog post to match a Variety scoop. When the story went up at 3:00 a.m. PST, no one else had it, including Deadline, according to the unbylined post. Later that day, Deadline allegedly published the item with an identical, 3:00 a.m. time stamp.
“Coincidence?” asked the anonymous blogger. “Or Deadline exercising its now-industry-standard flexible time-stamp privileges?”
You owe Deadline and especially Mike Fleming a correction and apology in the column you made the allegation. You know full well that Fleming is one of the finest journalists in showbiz. I will not tolerate your outlet anonymously defaming him.
If you don’t, I will turn this matter over to our parent company’s attorneys. Your column has made other unfounded allegations against Deadline yet never came to me for comment. Your lies about Deadline staff are actionable.
