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  • November 2011: Conrad Murray’s creditors sue NBCUniversal over the documentary fee

    By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, November 2011 In mid-November 2011, FishbowlLA covered a complicated media-ethics-and-litigation story: as the documentary Michael Jackson and the Doctor: A Fatal Friendship was set to air on MSNBC, creditors of Conrad Murray sued NBCUniversal. Murray had reportedly been paid around $300,000…

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  • March 2011: LA Times publisher Eddy Hartenstein takes the stand in the Tribune bankruptcy trial

    By Maya Trent · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, March 2011 In mid-March 2011, FishbowlLA tracked a substantive LA-media-business moment: LA Times publisher Eddy Hartenstein took the stand in the Tribune Company bankruptcy trial. Then The Tribune Company bankruptcy was one of the most consequential American newspaper-industry financial collapses of…

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  • March 2011: Prometheus Global Media discounts a New York Post story about its CEO

    By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, March 2011 In mid-March 2011, FishbowlLA covered Prometheus Global Media — the parent company of The Hollywood Reporter — discounting a New York Post story about its leadership. Then Prometheus Global Media was the holding company that owned The Hollywood Reporter,…

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  • March 2011: the LA Business Journal runs the numbers on the relaunched Hollywood Reporter

    By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, March 2011 In late March 2011, FishbowlLA picked up a Greg Hernandez piece in the LA Business Journal that ran the business numbers on the relaunched Hollywood Reporter — the glossy weekly magazine that Janice Min had built from the ashes…

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  • 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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