Variety Updates Controversial Zucker-CNN Story

The fallout from Tatiana Siegel’s Variety article that has captivated the media industry continues, as Variety quietly added updates to the piece on Friday.

TheWrap reports the article received backlash from many, with some calling for Variety to retract the story that claims former CNN CEO Jeff Zucker has spent the last year courting billionaires to secure funding in an effort to purchase CNN, including The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta, Puck News co-founder John Kelley and Zucker himself.

On Friday afternoon, Variety added updates to the story in order to “reflect new statements from Kelly and Alberta,” a note at the bottom of the page now reads.

Jeff Zucker

“After this article was published, Alberta responded on social media that he met with Licht on seven different days and used ‘zero off-record details or quotes,’” the story says in an updated paragraph.

The update adds that Alberta “also pushed back on suggestions that he had not been honest about the type of story he was writing.”

Variety also added a paragraph to the section about Puck News and Dylan Byers, whose journalistic integrity was questioned throughout the article.

“In an email to Variety following the publication of this article,” the story now reads, “Kelly wrote that ‘we never disclosed my conversations with RedBird because Dylan was intentionally unaware of them.’”

According to the update, Kelly said in his email that Variety’s suggestion that Risa Heller, PR representative to both parties, “served as a backchannel between Puck and Zucker was ‘laughable.’”