Latest posts

  • Conrad Murray’s creditors come after NBCUniversal and MSNBC

    By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-20 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, 2011 When MSNBC scheduled a documentary built around Conrad Murray, FishbowlLA flagged the lawsuit that followed the money — and questioned the wisdom of the deal that produced it. Then The documentary Michael Jackson and the Doctor: A Fatal Friendship was…

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  • THR’s web editor disputes TheWrap’s report of his exit

    By Sasha Park · Republished 2026-05-20 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, 2011 In October 2011 FishbowlLA found itself refereeing a bitter dispute between two media outlets over a story about a third one. Then TheWrap’s Lucas Shaw had reported that THR.com deputy web editor Patrick Day was leaving for the LA Times,…

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  • Adam Winkler’s ‘Gunfight’ — the 2011 book that refused to take a side in the gun debate

    By Maya Trent · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Pandora Young on FishbowlLA, September 2011 In late September 2011, FishbowlLA covered UCLA law professor Adam Winkler’s new book Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. The framing hook was a telling anecdote: when Winkler spoke to a TV-booking agent about…

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  • Chuck Philips joins a Suge Knight documentary — September 2011, and the Pulitzer winner’s second act

    By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, September 2011 In late September 2011, FishbowlLA reported that a Showtime documentary on Death Row Records founder Suge Knight was in development, with Training Day director Antoine Fuqua attached to helm. The detail FBLA flagged: Pulitzer Prize-winning former LA Times reporter…

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  • August 2011: photographer David Strick sues the LA Times — and a Tim Rutten reporting dispute

    By Maya Trent · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, August 2011 In mid-August 2011, FishbowlLA covered two parallel LA Times stories. Freelance photographer David Strick had filed a lawsuit against the paper. And — separately — reporter Brent Lang had run an item that the original FishbowlLA framing called “a…

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  • The Hollywood Book Festival’s 2011 call for entries — and the adaptation-potential judging criteria

    By Cassidy Lee · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, January 2011 In late January 2011, the Hollywood Book Festival announced a call for entries to its sixth annual literary competition. Books would be judged across 14 categories, but two of the stated criteria stood out: the storytelling ability of the…

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  • The Hollywood Reporter rolls out a fashion blog

    By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-20 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, 2011 In October 2011 The Hollywood Reporter launched a fashion column — another sign of how central red-carpet style had become to the entertainment-trade business. Then THR announced ‘FASHtrack,’ a print and online fashion column. FishbowlLA, in its way, led with…

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  • The day PMC filed the copyright lawsuit against Prometheus — September 14, 2011

    By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2011) · Wayback archive → On September 14, 2011, five days after Nikki Finke’s notorious “SCOLDJA” email response to Prometheus Global Media’s lawyers ran on Deadline, Penske Media Corporation filed its copyright infringement complaint in U.S. District Court. Then The complaint’s headline allegation was about web…

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  • Section 34 — what PMC’s THR lawsuit actually alleged, and how the case ended

    By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2011) · Wayback archive → The headline charge of Penske Media Corporation’s September 2011 lawsuit against Prometheus Global Media was about TVLine and HollywoodReporter.com having suspiciously similar templates. The actual document was 30 paragraphs longer and aimed at something different: a numbered list of stories THR…

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  • When Tribune’s 2011 consolidation skipped the LA Times — the seven-year-long sale signal

    By Maya Trent · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer (2011) · Wayback archive → In mid-July 2011 Tribune Company announced a major consolidation of its publishing division — folding the Sun Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, The Morning Call, and the Virginia Daily Press under a single new CEO based in Chicago. Conspicuously…

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