Edit: we'd published an article last week about Mel Gibson's strange relationship with an online tabloid that gives positive news coverage for FEMEN and attacks Pro-Life causes. It was a head scratcher for sure. To date, nothing has come to light showing that Mr. Gibson has altered his relationship with TheLip or Mr. Lustig, although his son no longer works for the company.
The original publisher of the article, The Deadline's editor, Mike Fleming, however, has chosen to defend its article while attempting to portray Allison Hope-Weiner's alleged change of heart as the honest to goodness truth, even going so far as to write about how The Passion had changed his life. He denies any financial relationship with Icon or Mr. Gibson.
The Deadline is an entertainment and media news source, which featured an opinion piece was by journalist Alison Hope-Weiner. Ms. Weiner not only writes for Deadline, but she writes for TheLip.com, a publication where Mel Gibson's son until quite recently worked, and which is partly owned by Gibson's production company, Icon.
Whether or not Ms. Weiner's extraordinary conversion took place as result of a real change of heart or for other reasons doesn't belie the fact that she failed to disclose an obvious conflict of interest based on the financial relationship her employer has with Mr. Gibson.
Mr. Gibson and theLip's founder, Michael Lustig, are very close indeed, or at least it seems from the photos of them together on a balcony at Cannes.
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| Lustig and Mel Hanging Out |
Actually, one commenter from Deadline puts it succinctly:
Ms. Weiner made a major breach of journalistic ethics by not disclosing Icon’s involvement with a start-up venture which she has an equity stake in. This is journalistic ethics 101 and she knows it. It’s smoke and mirrors to suggest since she has editorial freedom and isn’t paid by Icon she did nothing wrong. The fact is she has a financial connection to Icon and should have disclosed it. Readers should be able to decide for themselves if there is a potential for bias, but they need all the facts to do this.
I’m also disappointed in Mr. Fleming’s long-winded explanation about how much “Passion” meant to him. It’s not relevant here. DHD should just acknowledge they blew this one and make a commitment to doing a better job in the future. I actually think Deadline is more professional than it was when Nikki was running it and think Mike’s a terrific writer. Not sure why it’s so hard to just apologize when you make a mistake instead of all this self-justifying.Photo stolen from JustJared.
