David Zaslav Article Taken Down By GQ After Warner Bros. Discovery Raises Objections

Dade Hayes
·3 min read
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GQ magazine has removed an article about Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav from its website after the company objected to the article.

The unflattering piece by freelance film critic Jason Bailey appeared Monday. It catalogued a number of moves by Zaslav — particularly decisions at Warner Bros, Max and TCM — which have made him “the most hated man in Hollywood.” Bailey wrote that Zaslav is “only good at breaking things,” comparing him with the businessman played by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.

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The article then went through a round of edits before being fully removed from the site without explanation after the company complained and Bailey asked for his byline to be removed. One change removed the “most hated man” line and replaced it with “the face of a rocky and controversial new period in Hollywood.” Archived versions of the original and a revised version have been circulating on social media and The Washington Post included both in its piece about the flap. Entertainment site Showbiz 411 had the first report about the disappearance of the article.

It is unusual for a publication of GQ‘s caliber to remove any article from circulation without offering an explanation to readers. It also can often take months or even years for a piece to be taken down entirely, but things moved far more swiftly in this case.

Condé Nast-owned GQ said it had identified several errors in the piece by Bailey after the piece was prematurely published.

“A piece published by GQ on Monday was not properly edited before going live,” the magazine said in a statement provided to Deadline. “After a revision was published, the writer of the piece asked to have their byline removed, at which point GQ decided to unpublish the piece in question. GQ regrets the editorial error that led to a story being published before it was ready.”

WBD’s main point of contention was that it had never been contacted by Bailey at any stage of the writing process, which is not the norm for corporate coverage in general.

“The freelance reporter made no attempt to reach out to Warner Bros. Discovery to fact-check the substance of the piece before publishing — a standard practice for any reputable news outlet,” WBD said in a statement. “As is also standard practice, we contacted the outlet and asked that numerous inaccuracies be corrected. In the process of doing so, the editors ultimately decided to pull the piece.”

CEOs by nature tend to be highly visible, but the latest episode extends a run in a particularly bright spotlight for Zaslav, who ascended to a larger throne after shepherding the $43 billion merger of Discovery with WarnerMedia in 2022. In overseeing assets like Warner Bros. Pictures and HBO, a big change from steering cable networks known for unscripted programming, the exec has presided over some financial improvement but his managerial approach hasn’t always hit the mark. In the past six weeks alone, he elicited boos from students and striking WGA members when delivering a commencement address at Boston University; raised eyebrows by throwing a lavish party in Cannes in a time of cost-cutting and labor unrest; and alarmed A-list filmmakers including Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese with a significant round of staff cuts at classic film cable network TCM.

The Newhouse family, which owns Condé Nast, has seats on the Warner Bros. Discovery board and a stake in the company. While that structural element was noted in coverage of the article dustup by the Post and The New York Times, a WBD rep emphatically denied it played a role in how events unfolded.

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