I may be one of the few film bloggers who enjoys the existence of Nikki Finke (you may remember I somewhat defended her earlier this year when Variety made its three-pronged attack). Of course, I appreciate her for the same reason I appreciate a lot of filmmakers I don’t necessarily agree with or like. And for the same reason that I’m glad Fox News exists. She plays by her own rules, doesn’t ever seem to hold back and doesn’t appear to care with whom she becomes enemies.
So, I for one was glad to hear the news that her blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily, was bought by Mail.com Media Corp., which also owns one of my other favorite film blogs, Movieline. Hopefully she isn’t reigned in at all now that she’s got a boss, though I can’t see why MMC would want DHD if they didn’t want the Finke everyone knows and doesn’t love.
It’s hard to tell if anyone else is as excited as I am to see how her transition goes, but those who’ve covered the story at least seem curious. Check out some bloggers’ reactions after the jump:
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Variety published three separate but similar “Top Stories” Sunday (one - two - three) on the topic of blogs and how certain bloggers (mainly Nikki Finke, pictured) exhibit questionable journalistic practices. What seemed at first to be an excessive, behind-the-times and otherwise forgettable trio of articles has today (and initially last night) become a topic of discussion for many film bloggers, including some who were mentioned in these Variety pieces who felt the need to respond.
My personal response is primarily, as I said, one of disregard. But here’s a quick commentary: I enjoy Finke and others as I might have appreciated Louella Parsons or Hedda Hopper decades ago — with a grain of salt. The fact that some bloggers are taken more seriously for their rumors and faulty reporting styles than, say, any one of the hundred other fanboy movie blog sites out there is the problem of the reader (especially the one who’s a Hollywood player), not the writer.
Though the timeliness of Variety’s blogger-hating trilogy comes on the heel of recent errors and conflicts involving Finke and others, there’s no more necessity in such articles as there would be for a trio of stories about the trustworthiness of Fox News. Don’t read the blog, don’t watch the channel, don’t read the trade magazine if you don’t like their content.
Anyway, I’ve given my two cents; read what others have to say after the jump:
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Only a handful of people were in attendance for last night’s world premiere of blogger/filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake’s new documentary Indie Film Blogger Road Trip at NYC’s Anthology Film Archives. Apparently most fans and writers of blogs had better things to do, such as read and write posts on the internet. Because really, what is the point of watching a film about writers about films? The only thing more unnecessary and inwardly spiraling — obviously I’m guilty of it here — is blogging about a film about bloggers about film.
Even with the film blogosphere’s reputation for insularity Ekanayake’s doc has no purpose, because its subject matter and content are already well documented on blogs. And anything new that might be discussed, any new questions that might be raised would also be more appropriately written about on the web. The film’s largest offense, though, is that it doesn’t even seem to have an intended purpose. It does not actually attempt to offer anything new to the discourse on film blogging. Nor does it have any sort of cohesive thesis regarding any preexisting discourse. The doc is simply a series of long, mostly uncut interviews with film bloggers. It’s not even necessarily a sufficient profile of the film blog community, in a “Meet the Bloggers” kind of way.
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