When I learned this morning that some sleaze mongers had crawled out from under a rock to unveil a grotesque blog aimed at the founder of this site, I was certain that the decent people at Hollywood trade publications would condemn it to instant oblivion. No such luck. I do not wish to draw additional attention to it, but feel compelled to note that I have today seen the bar of decency taken to a new low by some of our competitors who are having a gleeful time by promoting that shameful site.

I have been covering this stuff at Variety and Deadline for a quarter century, and I cannot remember observing a personal attack as reprehensible. mean spirited and disgusting as this. I have grown accustomed to this lack of class from Sharon Waxman’s The Wrap. I am genuinely surprised and disappointed that The Hollywood Reporter would wallow; I don’t know her, but thought Janice Min was above this. Both stories are based on this cowardly anonymous website. Let’s break this down for what it really is: two trade publications selling their souls for the sake of clicks and readership, propping up as provocative a reckless invasion of privacy against a person who covets her personal privacy.

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These cowards hide in the bushes, stalk and snap photographs they serve up with slanderous glee in a malicious manner without having the courage to disclose their identities. Why? Because the journalist was tough in covering the film and TV business. Even though he didn’t win, Quentin Tarantino earned a lot of respect suing a website that linked to another anonymous website (that it probably created) to make public a leaked copy of Tarantino’s copyrighted first draft script. I hope there is stronger legal ground against this kind of soulless exercise. Those who legitimized this exercise with coverage will revel in the clicks and traffic, but I don’t see how they can feel any level of pride when they look in the mirror, knowing they have taken this racket to an all-time low by not even considering things like higher purpose, or empathy.