Zoom-in Online

Initially I was going to write a post about the Ed Wood of our generation, Uwe Boll, and an article from The Hollywood Reporter where he complains that political correctness has denied a wide release for his latest film, Postal. Instead, I want to draw attention to an issue more important to film bloggers and the internet community. Trade papers Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are both widely known for their comprehensive coverage of the most late breaking news in the entertainment industry. Or are they? Recently websites The Latino Review and The Collider, both of which also cover the biz, are calling for a boycott of the trades claiming that stories which initially break on the web are often republished by Variety or THR as brand new with no credit given to the sites.

I initially became aware of the issue yesterday while scanning the film blog FilmSchoolRejects, a personal favorite of mine. There, they had an article entitled "If The Trades Can't Play Fair, Then We Won't Be Friends" which summarized the situation. The article in turn linked to a more detailed grievance written by The Latino Review (with links given to their timely posts as well as the trades' outdated ones) and the call for a boycott of the trades from The Collider. The boycott involves not linking back to either Variety or The Hollywood Reporter even if they're mentioned in an article. Kellvin Chavez's article at The Latino Review, "Why both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter TOTALLY SUCK!," even claims that in its 12 years of existence, Ain't It Cool News, a well-known hub of the internet film community, has been mentioned by the trades only 7 times.

The issue at hand is not about stealing or plagiarism but about mainstream media outlets not recognizing internet film blogs as relevant or respectable. There is, perhaps, a sense of pride and dignity in these trade publications that have been reporting on the biz for many years. However, with the accesibility of information on the web and the increasing journalistic integrity from film bloggers, it's arguable that print is becoming less relevant. If internet bloggers aren't relevant why is Harry Knowles showing up on TV? Why is Mark Bell of FilmThreat on panel discussions at Sundance?