Deadline co-editor does the mea culpa over diverse casting

Mike Fleming, the co-editor in chief of Deadline Hollywood, took to the site to apologize for last week's story by his co-editor, Nellie Andreeva, that suggested increasing diversity in TV casting was problematic because white actors were losing work. There was a lot of derision directed at the piece, which wondered if the diversity pendulum had swung too far in favor of "ethnic actors." Fleming says in his mea culpa (oddly, a Q&A with longtime Hollywood trades editor Peter Bart) that the outrage from minorities and others was justified. He blames "a perfect storm" of missteps for the story getting published with a headline sure to anger: "Pilots 2015: The Year of Ethnic Castings – About Time or Too Much of Good Thing?" Fleming says: "Our hearts are heavy with regret."

Excerpt from Fleming's post:

I need to start off on a serious note. Deadline ran an article last week that generated controversy and hurt feelings. An unfortunate headline...created a context from which no article could recover. My co-editor-in-chief Nellie Andreeva’s goal was to convey that there was such an uptick of TV pilot casting of people of color that it pinched white actors who’ve historically gotten most of the jobs, and to question if this could last if it was being treated as a fad. All this was undermined by that headline (which we changed after the fact) and a repetition of the word “ethnic” that came off cold and insensitive….

That story was up all night. It was 12 hours before I awoke to numerous e-mails, some by people of color who are sources, who trust us, who were rightfully incensed. At that point, the damage was done….A perfect storm of events left us vulnerable, including me choosing the worst time to be zonked from a 22-hour return flight from New Zealand, and normally smart editors on duty failing to respond decisively even after a torrent of hostile comments rolled in.

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That original headline does not reflect the collective sensibility here at Deadline. The only appropriate way to view racial diversity in casting is to see it as a wonderful thing, and to hope that Hollywood continues to make room for people of color. The missteps were dealt with internally; we will do our best to make sure that kind of insensitivity doesn’t surface again here. As co-editors in chief, Nellie and I apologize deeply and sincerely to those who’ve been hurt by this. There is no excuse….

Some coverage today: Dennis Romero at LA Weekly, Kim Masters and Michael Schneider on KCRW's The Business.