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Date Posted: 12:20:24 11/16/04 Tue
Author: by Nicolette Beharie
Subject: The ethics of press junkets in the entertainment world
In reply to: By City News Service 's message, "Studios press junkets prompts lawsuit" on 12:19:04 11/16/04 Tue

" To Pay or Not To Pay "
The ethics of press junkets in the entertainment world
by Nicolette Beharie


Debbie Melnyk walked into the double suite of the lavish Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles to a chorus of whispers from her competitors.

She, like the other entertainment reporters attending the press "opportunity," was there to speak to a "movie star." But unlike most of the 15 other out-of-town journalists patiently waiting to be called in for an interview, Melnyk had paid her own freight.

As the muttering faded, another journalist confidently walked up to her and spat, "I never thought youÕd show your face in here again."

When Melnyk asked her what she was talking about, the journalist replied archly, "Well, after that movie you did..."

Melnyk still feels the impact of those words. Toronto-based journalists Melnyk and Rick Caine had just released a controversial documentary entitled Junket Whore. The film, which aired all across North America the week prior to the confrontation, outlined the ethics of the "press junket," the freebie weekend, provided by movie studios for reporters willing to avoid asking uncomfortable questions in return for ten minutes with a star.

Melnyk admits to being shocked by the venomous reaction, but most of all she's disappointed for being ostracized for simply doing her job Ñ revealing the truth.

"I knew the publicists would be angry, but the journalists admired in the junket circuit were extremely angry and spiteful."

What prompted her to make the documentary?

"I had been doing junkets in Los Angeles for about three years and I started to realize how controlling publicists are and how much pressure they put on you to ask questions they want you to ask," she explains. "I didn't like being handled.

"I donÕt think the public knows that a lot of the information they get is tainted by journalists who want to stay on the junket circuit."

Caine says he can understand the reaction. "Some of the anger from the journalists came from the fact that a lot of them were local television reporters who could not otherwise gain access other than doing the press junkets."

Peter Howell, movie critic for The Toronto Star, says his newspaper does not accept press junkets unless reporters pay for their own accommodations.

"To cover a junket in New York you're looking at spending $2,000 to $3,000, whereas other papers, The Toronto Sun being a notable example, get the studio to pay their way," Howell says.
"You're basically a paid employee of the studio when you do that and it's a very artificial environment."

The Sun's entertainment editor, John Kryk, doesn't much care for that characterization. "When we go on them, the studio pays for the flight and the studio pays for the accommodations. We pick up everything else. In taking up those other expenses, we're paying more for those stories.

"It's ironic that some newspapers proudly wear the badge that they don't do junkets, then turn around and buy features from reporters who've gone on those junkets."

In addition to the all-expense paid trips and other perks, studios often insist on paying for Ñ and thus controlling Ñ equipment, video tapes and the crew. Which means that TV reporters are made particularly vulnerable to pressure.

"You can do a whole interview sometimes and they'll blank the tape. ItÕs their tape and their crew. Everything is bought, provided and supplied by the studio," explains Junket WhoreÕs Rick Caine.

Rob Davidson agrees. As former entertainment reporter for Global Television News, he says at times, it was a fight to get a little more substance on the air.

"It's one thing if you're a print journalist and you fire-off a question and they say 'please don't ask that question.' It's another thing altogether if you're a television journalist and you fire-off a question and they confiscate the tape."

Davidson recalls encountering an imperious publicist after a tougher-than expected interview with actor Nicholas Cage.

"I had no idea that [Cage] was all bent out of shape until the publicist caught up to me in the hall and asked me what I meant by asking that question. She said 'I was actually seriously thinking about confiscating your tape.' I was left shaking my head."

It's not unusual for publicists to vet the questions to be placed before delicate Hollywood flowers. And in some cases, reporters are asked to sign a document before an interview Ñ agreeing that they will not deviate from the publicist's script.

"It's the role of the reporter to question authority, that's how we unveil corruption and greed," says Caine. "When the reporter falls down on the job and stops asking the tough questions, that's when these large corporations are going to run over not just Canada, but the entire world."

But 30-year public relations veteran Gino Empry, of Gino Empry Entertainment in Toronto, whose clients have included singing stars Tony Bennett and Anne Murray, defends the process.

He says celebrities have the right to protect their images. "Usually a press junket is for one reason, and one reason alone Ñ there's a film coming out," he says. "The junket is not to talk about their life story, it's to talk about their role in the film. ThatÕs all."

Uppity reporters who don't recognize this discover "that's the last time they'll ever get a chance to do it," he says. "That reporter will find himself shut-out."

So is the junket bound for the junkyard? Will the power of the entertainment industry bend in the face of an increasingly righteous press corps

Caine thinks not.

"As TV channels continue to multiply and divide Ñ which is happening in the cable television universe Ñ and you have entire channels devoted to nothing but entertainment coverage, the situation's going to get worse," he says. "There's going to be more and more people out in the field trying to gather more and more material from essentially the same number of celebrities."

His partner on Junket Whore, Debbie Melnyk, is likewise pessimistic. "The solution is for journalists to pay their own way, and to never take junkets. But like we said in the film, journalists from smaller papers and smaller TV stations canÕt afford it. So that's never going to happen.

"As long as the public appetite for celebrities is there, you're going to have this type of reporting."

http://magazines.humberc.on.ca/convergenceonline/beharie.html

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