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

deadline.com:

GQ magazine has removed a profile of 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, cataloguing a number of moves by Zaslav that had made him “the most hated man in Hollywood.” Bailey wrote that Zaslav is “only good at breaking things,” comparing him with the character played by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.

The article then went through a round of edits before being fully removed from the site after the company complained and Bailey asked for his byline to be removed.

Archived versions of the original and a revised version have been circulating on social media. (The Washington Post captured both versions in its piece about the flap.) Condé Nast-owned GQ said it had identified several inaccuracies in the piece by Bailey after the piece had been prematurely published. “GQ regrets the editorial error that [led] to a story being published before it was ready,” the magazine said in a statement reported by several media outlets. (Deadline has reached out to GQ and will update this post when it receives a response.) 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 any coverage, especially longer and in-depth profiles. “The freelance reporter made no attempt to reach out to Warner Bros.