The errors on the smaller details throw into question the larger story that Siegel weaved together, which portrayed Zucker, who was ousted from CNN in 2022 over an undisclosed consensual office relationship, as a bitter man singularly consumed with aspirations to purchase CNN in an act of revenge - even if it apparently meant imploring a Russian oligarch for funds to secure the necessary capital for the effort.
“From the opening sentence,” Byers observed, “the story seemed problematic and riddled with factual inaccuracies.” But Byers, who looked into the matter, wrote: “In fact, there was no such run-in at the hotel, because the two parties connected by phone beforehand and agreed to meet privately at one of the hotel’s private cabanas.” Discovery boss David Zaslav in a Miami hotel lobby in March, where he complained about being unfairly attacked in the press by his successor Licht. Meanwhile, Byers, the relentless Puck scribe known for breaking news about CNN, who was unfairly maligned as a Zucker shill in Siegel’s story, reported Wednesday night that the opening anecdote - which struck many observers as preposterous - was simply false.Īs Siegel told it in her story, Zucker, with “tears in his eyes,” ran into Warner Bros. “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.
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