“A retraction is probably in order, but I doubt they have the stomach for it.” “If had real editorial standards this piece never, ever would have published,” Alberta tweeted. Alberta, who found himself sucked into Siegel’s story due to his role authoring a devastating profile of former CNN boss Chris Licht, posted on-the-record responses to key assertions made in the report, refuting multiple aspects of the article that impugned his integrity. The outlet’s deafening silence comes as the piece begins to fall apart in public.
But, thus far, Variety has resisted taking any such action, outside quietly removing the widely panned Tatiana Siegel-written feature from its online homepage. One day after publishing a questionable 4,000-word story that aimed to detail the behind-the-scenes drama that has gripped CNN for the last 18 months, the Hollywood trade publication is being met with calls for it to issue corrections to the piece, if not a retraction altogether.įormer CNN chief Jeff Zucker, The Atlantic journalist Tim Alberta, and Puck Editor-In-Chief Jon Kelly have all called for the outlet to publicly correct the record.
