Bart blasts NYT on 'Passion'

The New York Times has been unfair to Mel Gibson and his hit film The Passion of the Christ, Variety editor Peter Bart (an ex-Timesman) writes in his column.

After its release, the Times quoted the predictions of unnamed power brokers in Hollywood that Gibson would be blackballed by the film community, his career ruined.

As predictions go, the Times' entire litany could stand major "correction." Despite the fact that Frank Rich compared it to "a porn movie," by the end of its run "The Passion" could rank second only to "Titanic" as the highest-grossing movie ever made. Further, there have been no signs of anti-Semitic outbreaks tied to the film's release -- not even in places like France and Argentina.

As for Gibson, there's no indication that his viability as an actor or filmmaker has been compromised. Indeed, Hollywood reveres success, and Gibson's personal take from his film -- somewhere north of $400 million -- will surely be history's biggest. That makes Gibson not an outlaw, but a Hollywood folk hero.

It is not my intent here to indulge in Times-bashing. I spent eight very happy years on the Times staff, and I respect that paper's unique role in our journalistic establishment.

Still, the Times has vastly stepped up its coverage of pop culture and, in doing so, seems to be bending its normal rules of journalistic fairness.

The entire column is available for free via Yahoo.

10:56 AM Monday, April 26 2004 • Link
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Bart has some nerve, complaining about a lack of "fairness" while misrepresenting others, fumbling his own facts and doing his bit to protect Mel behind the scenes. A week before my NY Times Magazine story was published, an item in Army Archerd's column about Mel, the movie and his dad was mysteriously pulled. Now Bart claims that the Times reported that his career would be "ruined" and that Mel expressed "exasperation" about his "obscure" dad? In fact, the Times never predicted that Mel's career was finished; moreover, Mel has never repudiated the extremist views of his dad, who by the way is the author of three books and is well known in traditionalist circles. Guess O'Reilly wasn't the only one deployed on Mel's behalf...

Posted by: Christopher Noxon at April 26, 2004 03:00 PM

Just for the sake of accuracy, Christopher Noxon should be corrected about Bill O'Reilly being "deployed" by Mel Gibson to defend him. According to a New York Times correction, Gibson "discussed the film with conservatives like Bill O'Reilly, on Fox television, but did not ''deploy'' them to encourage their audiences to see it, and Mr. O'Reilly did not recommend it."

Near as I can tell, O'Reilly is a friend, fan and business associate of Gibson. But I don't think anyone deploys him.

Posted by: Ron Fineman at April 27, 2004 05:30 PM

Mel gibson is developing a Bill O'Reilly book as a film project, which makes Gibson O'Reilly's boss.

Posted by: gale Holland at April 28, 2004 02:47 PM
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