Justine Bateman Shames Hollywood Reporter for Fake News

Justine Bateman said we can collectively breathe again following Donald Trump’s re-election.

Decompressing from walking on eggshells for the past four years.

— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 8, 2024

What does that mean?

The actress-turned-filmmaker saw the results as a rebuke to those eager to silence debate, attack free speech and make select opinions untenable.

Even if the vast majority of Americans hold them.

That doesn’t mean she endorsed Trump, nor does she call herself conservative. She avoids political labels. She wants a free, robust return to free speech, American style.

That should be a bipartisan clarion call, but it’s not in 2024.

That explains why The Hollywood Reporter mischaracterized her interview with new media superstar Megyn Kelly this week.

Bateman and Kelly explored a crush of topics, including free speech and the raging culture wars. Bateman saw the election results as a death knell for a “mob mentality momentum” that fueled Cancel Culture and diminished artistic creativity across Hollywood.

Someone even wrote a book about that.

“The last eight years, and most acutely last four years, were f***ing unbearable. Unbearable. I never want to go through anything like that again in my life. I truly don’t. It was the most un-American situation I’ve ever been in. And I’m 58.”

The Hollywood Reporter noted the conversation in question. And, much like the site unfairly maligned conservative actor Nick Searcy earlier this year, they did something similar to Bateman.

Consider the story’s original subhead:

“Bateman is a well-known supporter of Donald Trump and frequently speaks out against those in Hollywood who criticize her for expressing her conservative views.”

The magazine made that sentence up out of whole cloth. Bateman isn’t a Trump supporter. Nor is she a conservative. She’s aggressively apolitical.

This isn’t an obscure blogger weighing in with false information. The Hollywood Reporter, along with Variety, are considered the dueling bibles of the entertainment field.

And THR got the story wrong. Bateman used her X perch to call them out.

.@zoegphillips @THR, what are you doing?
Your assessment of me in this article is wildly inaccurate. I have always have a good relationship with THR, including interviews with Lesley Goldberg @Snoodit and Daniel Feinberg @TheFienPrint, and others there anytime they have asked… https://t.co/IYDCDqP1WB

— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) December 19, 2024

To THR’s credit, the site updated the story and removed the erroneous information. It even included an editor’s note, although it didn’t fully address the issues with the original reportage.

Updated Wednesday, Dec. 18, 11:06 p.m.: An earlier version of this story reported that Bateman is a supporter of Trump. She has not shared support for any presidential candidate in the 2024 election.

Why would the site make such a glaring mistake? Two possibilities.

Blame Trump Derangement Syndrome.

The author’s rage against all things Trump saw Bateman’s comments as unabashedly pro-Trump even though she’s been clear in public statements that she’s hasn’t endorsed Trump or any other politician.

The other possibility?

The site’s lack of intellectual diversity meant no editor could stop the story from going or quickly retract it without Bateman’s intervention.

There’s a third, more cynical option in play. The site wanted to tar Bateman as a MAGA activist to diminish her in the eyes of her Hollywood peers.

We’ll never know the final answer, but it’s a sign that Bateman is looking forward while THR is stuck in the past.