Last weekend, The New York Times published “Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” the now-viral exposé detailing how Justin Baldoni’s publicists smeared co-star Blake Lively during the release of It Ends With Us. Notably, the Times didn’t break the news of Lively’s complaint to the California Civil Rights Department—TMZ did—but the paper had a meticulously reported, 4,000-word piece, complete with graphics, ready to go as word spread. Clearly, the Times had been sitting on a draft for some time. But did anyone bother to confirm with the relatively obscure California agency whether Lively’s complaint had actually been filed? And why there?
The answers might offer a glimpse into where things are headed. Typically, coverage of a legal development follows the event. But in this case, it feels like the story itself was the objective. And that could have ramifications.
