Show me the contract
I just posted about the controversy surrounding the demand by Angelina Jolie’s lawyers that journalists sign a contract outlining the scope and rules of any interview with the star at the premiere of her latest movie A Mighty Heart.
There’s another story here, though, about the way the media works. I cited a number of articles in which Jolie’s actions were condemned and I read through many more. My goal was to find more details of the infamous contract. I haven’t found any so far.
What I did find is that virtually every report simply quoted from or, worse, did a rewrite of a story by Roger Friedman on FoxNews.com. Why didn’t we see any interviews with other journalists (or at least something indicating that other journalists weren’t willing to speak about it)? And why didn’t anyone else use their own quotes from the contract? They simply repeated Friedman’s.
In this day of transparency why is no one confirming the story with their own direct quotes? I assume a lot of people saw this contract and there seem to have been many who didn’t like it so you think they’d be interested in revealing its contents…
Anyone seen a link to copy of the contract or more details about it? I’d love to see it…
Posted: June 19th, 2007 under Accuracy, Entertainment Beat, Journalistic Credibility, Legal Issues, Media Interview Trends.