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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Posted Friday, January 30th, 2009 - 7 Comments »

This Year's Patrick Attack

I thought Patrick Goldstein had grown out of his personal rage at me and everyone else who knows more about the awards season than he does… but no.
Today’s late season attack on me and others was a surprise. I am going to reprint my response to his blog entry here… because this way someone might read it.
Like Nikki Finke, Roger Friedman, and Jeffrey Wells, Patrick

7 Comments »

7 Responses to “This Year's Patrick Attack”

  1. Biscuits says:
    January 30, 2009 at 5:52 pm

    Hey, David, you say Goldstein has an “endless well of whinny anger” directed at you. But I read you both, and over the past six months, you’ve called him out for the ineptness/lack of activity on his blog over and over again, and to my recollection until today he hasn’t said a thing about you. Then you say “I don

  2. David Poland says:
    January 30, 2009 at 6:12 pm

    Commenting on someone’s work is not picking a fight, in my view. It is what we all do in this business. If we can do it to the industry, the media should surely be equally open to doubt.
    The majors do get slapped sometimes, but it is the vast minority of what we cover on MCN.
    I have never attacked Drew or Harry about anything personal… only about AICN and what it stands for. And even then, less than once a month over the years and I can’t imagine it’s more than 3 times a year at this point.
    I don’t recall writing anything bad about Tapley in years, though the opposite is not the case.
    And I haven’t read, spoken to or written about Wells in over 2 years.
    I haven’t trashed Waxman’s new site. I have suggested that it is will have a hard time staying in business.
    I think the world of David Carr and am pretty sure MCN coined “The Bagger” as his short tag. Like all of us – certainly including me – he is not perfect, especially in his coverage of this industry.
    I still have issues with a lot of the things HuffPo does – and many others do – to create page views on other people’s content.
    I have enormous professional respect for a lot of people and organizations. I do not have respect for people who do gossip or personal attacks and pretend it is news.
    In the end, I say it all in public, not behind people’s backs, not kicking them in private while praising in public, etc.
    Nikki used to squeal in rage about me daring to comment on other reporters. But then she started doing it daily, almost never – as I try to do it – as regards the work… almost always to try to defend turf she believes to be her own.
    I am what I am. I have fans. I have people who hate me. I have people who don’t know or care who I am. But I am honest. And my comments about Patrick and anyone else have come from honest, thought out, considered opinions of the work. Aside from being silent, I don’t know how to do better for you.

  3. IOIOIOI says:
    January 31, 2009 at 12:16 am

    Heat: honesty only gets you so far in this world with most people. You can state that this is all honesty, but some could see it as being how you attack others. Biscuits sees it that way as do all the people you have honest, well-thought out, and considered opinions about as bloggers.
    If you are being honest. You are being honest. This does not change the fact that the way you respond to these people, can be perceived as harsh, overbearing, and agenda-based. There’s always two sides of the story, but do not expect those who you rail against to simply accept your views as HONESTY.

  4. David Poland says:
    January 31, 2009 at 8:44 am

    True enough, IO… but I have to live with myself, not so much with ‘them.”

  5. transmogrifier says:
    January 31, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    “Today’s late season attack on me and others was a surprise. I am going to reprint my response to his blog entry here… because this way someone might read it.”
    Ow, catty!
    I’m more of a Wells reader than a Poland one, and I can tell you this: I don’t think Wells regards you one way or the other. You can try and play up the fact that he hates you or something, but I suspect you know that’s not true. He mocked you a few times, granted (My favorite was when he postulated the Second Coming, Jesus walking around on Earth and everyone is amazed, except for DP saying “Who’s surprised about this? This is news? I predicted this weeks ago.”)
    Still, it helps with the image, and I guess that’s what counts.

  6. jeffmcm says:
    January 31, 2009 at 4:13 pm

    Wells is too self-absorbed to hate any one particular person – his universe is “him” and “everyone else”.

  7. Not David Bordwell says:
    January 31, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    Hey, Poland, I know you check in at the Chicago Reader and Michael Miner’s column from time to time (or Ray Pride alerts you to things, whatever) but did you see this?
    http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/hottype/090129/
    Maybe Ray is going to the forum, but if you’d like a fly on the wall to be there, let me know and I’ll request an invite.

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