The Hollywood Reporter and Esquire have refused to publish a shocking article by a freelance journalist who discovered that popular self-help podcaster Jay Shetty lied about parts of his biography.
John McDermott spent a year researching the story about Shetty and eventually This was published by the UK-based Guardian newspaper.
McDermott reported that Shetty, the author of two best-selling books and officiated the wedding of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, plagiarized social media posts and spent three years as a monk in India. He is said to have lied about parts of his life, including claims that he had spent time there. .
But Mr. McDermott was originally assigned to report on the story for Esquire, a popular men’s magazine owned by Hearst Communications. This was reported by the news site Semafor.
When McDermott’s articles began to take on a more critical tone, he was reportedly told by Esquire’s editors that they would no longer publish the articles.
McDermott then approached THR, but the Penske Media-owned publication backed off after Shetty’s publicist complained about him, Semaphore reported.
A Penske Media spokesperson told Semaphore that THR’s decision to tell Shetty’s story “has nothing to do with Jay Shetty’s PR.”
Instead, the company announced that it had passed on the article due to a “conflict of interest” involving McDermott.
The Post reached out to Shetty, McDermott, Penske and Hurst for comment.
Hearst, whose media properties include Esquire and Cosmopolitan, was once known for publishing hard-hitting and offensive articles, but has become more gun-shy for fear of being sued. It is reported that.
Esquire reporters who investigated sexual misconduct allegations against director Bryan Singer in 2018 said Hearst bosses killed the story before publication. There was no explanation as to why that decision was made.
Singer, whose Hollywood credits include “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Usual Suspects,” “Valkyrie” and several films in the “X-Men” series, has had sexual relationships with several underage boys. accused of suspicion.
The allegations were eventually detailed in an article published in The Atlantic.
Road & Track magazine, another Hearst property, published critical articles about F1 racing written by left-wing writers.
However, the article was removed from the publication’s website without explanation hours after it was published.
Last month, Hearst’s other publication, Rolling Stone, was shaken by the announcement that its editor-in-chief, Noah Shachtman, was resigning.
Schachtman, a former top editor at The Daily Beast, reportedly clashed with CEO Gus Wenner, who was unhappy with Rolling Stone’s reliance on anonymous sources. According to Mr. Semaphore.
Semaphore says his resignation calls into question the future publication of several ongoing stories.
