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"[Alex Ben Block] is Editor-in-Chief of Hollywood Star News, Box Office columnist for Bridge News, and since January 2001, Executive Director of the L.A. Press Club. He is an internationally known journalist, author, broadcaster, consultant and show business historian, and for seven years was Editor of The Hollywood Reporter. He is also author of "Outfoxed: The Inside Story of America's Fourth Television Network," and "The Legend of Bruce Lee." He has also been Entertainment Editor of the Miami News, columnist for The Detroit News, City Editor of the L.A. Herald Examiner and Associate Editor of Forbes Magazine. He has won numerous honors, including the Hearst Award, the LA Press Club Award, and four times was nominated for a Publicist Guild of America Press Award." (www.lapressclub.org) On 11/7/02, I surfed over to www.lapressclub.com and found it was a tawdry satirical Australian site poking fun at good journalism. I now understand my problem. I am the spawn of convict stock. I come from the land of Rupert Murdoch, the land down under, where women glow and men plunder... It was while munching on cookies and peanuts at the LA Press Club on the evening 10/23/02 that I asked Mr. Block about Anita Busch. He said he had been in daily touch with her during her crisis (in the summer of 2002) and that the man who threatened her, Alexander Proctor, was a Gambino associate. Another journalist acquaintance of Busch's told me the same thing a few days later. Yet I could find no evidence of Proctor being a Gambino associate. I wondered who came up with this notion? I exchanged a flurry of emails with Anita Busch, who's prone to conspiracy theories, in early November. I asked if she had been telling her friends that Proctor was a Gambino associate. She denied it and said that I must've been making things up again. I said no, in fact, her friend Mr. Ben Block told me just that 10/23/02 at the LA Press Club. Anita forwarded my email to Block who wrote me an hour later, on 11/7/02: Anita forwarded to me an email in which you quote me, and so I am responding to set the record straight. On Oct. 23, I did produce an event at the LA Press Club, where I may have spoken to you. To be honest, I don't remember the conversation as it was a very busy evening for me. At the time, if we did speak, I did not really understand what you were doing, or that you would quote me inaccurately and out of context. I find it particularly odd that you would quote me and then write that you were not sure what I said, apparently because of my "accent." I did not know I had an accent other than that of an American. In any case, since then I have had an opportunity to read your web site. If I had seen it in advance, I would not have spoken to you at all about anything. I may well have said to you that I had spoken to Anita, because we are friends, and have been for a number of years, and I am happy to be supportive in any way I can to her. Anita Busch is one of the finest journalists, most honorable people and most loyal friends I have ever known. I have great respect for her integrity and courage, as do many other journalists. Shortly before Oct. 23, I had been asked by my colleagues on Call Sheet on KPCC-FM to make a brief comment about the arrest of the man who was alleged to have vandalized and terrorized Anita. In readily available news stories which I read, there was a mention that this man was said to be a friend of an organized crime family boss. That might have been what I told you. That information did not come from Anita. She and I never discussed any thing about who he was. I only spokle to her as a friend, trying to be supportive to someone who had been the subject of a terrible and unnerving threat. Since then I have had occasion to read your web site, and to see the unsubstantiated slurs which you make and repeat against Anita in the most casual manor. When you operate a web site, I believe you have the same obligation as any other publication or broadcaster to make sure what you put out is true to the best of your knowledge. I believe much of what you wrote about Anita is untrue, and it is irresponsible to put it out on the public web. I do not believe you have done proper due diligence in this case, and I have been left with the impression that you just print any "stuff" which comes across your screen. That doesn't make you an editor. It makes you a garbage collector. Anita is a private individual, not a celebrity, and not a public personality. I don't think you should be writing things beyond the scope of her professional endeavors. If Anita has helped and inspired journalists in L.A., and I include myself in that group, then it is a good thing, not something to be turned into mean spirited gossip. I am asking you to take down information which is defamatory and inflammatory about Anita, because she is too classy to make the request herself. I am asking you to do it because you appear to be interested in good journalism, and what you have done brings no honor to you or your fledgling web business. LUKE REPLIES: "The remark that Anita is a private figure struck me as amusing as she had her incident with Proctor planted in the NYDN, and she has always excelled at getting great publicity for herself, ie, her deification at the hands of David Shaw in the LAT four parter on entertainment journalism, and at the hands of bernie weinraub of NYT...creating this myth that Fox stopped advertising in the Hollywood Reporter because she condemned Fight Club." Alex Ben Block replies: Dear Luke, I believe the laundry list in your reply also contains inaccuracies, but I am not going to go through it item by item. In American law, the definition of who is a public figure is quite clear and Anita, in my opinion, would not qualify. You may certainly do as you wish, but it seems unfortunate to me if the goal of your enterprise is to be the infomation age equivalent of a garbage heap. Why Must Amy Alkon, Cathy Seipp Act Like 14-Year Old Girls? 1/4/03 After much prompting, I finally got Cathy Seipp to spill on her battle with Alex Ben Block, former editor of the Hollywood Reporter and director of the Los Angeles Press Club. Cathy replies to my inquiries: "Oh...nothing really worth mentioning. As you may have noticed, Amy and I have a collective maturity level of about 14 yrs old when we get together. Alex Ben Block was giving Amy a hard time about sending our party invites to the LA Press club list -- apparently there was some glitch in their email system and he couldn't be bothered to fix it or figure out what was wrong -- so I just sent it out to everyone @lapressclub.com. It worked. But since I didn't wanted to be personally bothered with all the Press Club RSVPs, I did it under a new screen name I created called Alexbenblockhead@aol.com. Apparently this made Alex stomp around a while and threaten to sue "whoever did it" -- as if he didn't know it was me. Anyway, that's all there is to that story. Except that I guess Alex isn't going to be Press Club director anymore as he just got hired as an editor at Electronic Media and good for him!" Alex Ben Block writes: "Dear Luke, I am not going to suggest that there was not a flap, as a result of a misunderstanding to which I contributed, but I have already agreed to put it behind me after receiving apologies. I don't think there is value at this time in digging it all up again. Thanks ABB" |