The New York Times says the story at the center of actor Justin Baldoni’s $250 million lawsuit against the paper was "meticulously and responsibly reported" as rhetoric from both sides heats up.
Actress Blake Lively previously filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, her co-star in "It Ends with Us," for sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional affliction of emotional distress, negligence and more. Lively also claims that Baldoni executed and participated in a "social manipulation" campaign to destroy her career and reputation.
The Times published a bombshell Dec. 21 story headlined, "‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine," which reported private emails and text messages that show a "playbook for waging a largely undetectable smear campaign in the digital era" about Lively, a 37-year-old actress married to "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds.
However, Baldoni and other subjects of the Times piece, including Hollywood public relations gurus, assert that the Times article "deliberately omitted portions of text exchanges and other information that contradicted the actress’s version of events." They claim the Times defamed them in the process, leaving out critical context from communications that dispute many of Lively’s claims and filed an 87-page lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
ACTOR JUSTIN BALDONI FILES $250 MILLION DEFAMATION SUIT AGAINST NEW YORK TIMES
New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said the paper plans to "vigorously defend" itself.
"The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article. Those texts and emails were also the crux of a discrimination claim filed in California by Blake Lively against Justin Baldoni and his associates," Rhoades Ha told Fox News Digital.
"To address some inaccuracies in the lawsuit, when seeking comments from Mr. Baldoni and others who would be mentioned in the article, The Times shared the information that we intended to publish, including references to specific text messages and documents, asked them to identify any inaccuracies, provide additional context and speak with our team," she continued. "Baldoni, Wayfarer [Studios] and the other subjects chose not to have any conversations with The Times or address any of the specific text messages or documents and instead emailed a joint response, which was published in full."
The Times executive also said the joint response was sent to the Times hours before the complaint stated.
"They sent their response to The Times at 11:16 p.m. ET Dec 20, not at 2:16 am E.T. Dec 21 as the complaint says," Rhoades Ha said. "We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit."
A Times insider pointed to other errors in the lawsuit, including getting the report’s word count wrong, and said all the text messages used for the story came straight from discovery.
The Times insider is also puzzled by the lawsuit’s focus on the report's publishing timing, as the filing says reporters breached an "implied-in-fact contract" when they offered Baldoni and others until noon the next morning to respond to allegations but published the story at 10:11 a.m. ET, since the paper had already received a response.
Baldoni’s high-powered attorney, Bryan Freedman, has accused the Times of catering to Hollywood elites.
"In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative," Freedman said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively’s self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism amongst the online public," he added. "The irony is rich."
Freedman blasted the Times, accusing the paper of deceiving the public.
"While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the full truth — and have all of the communications to back it. The public will decide for themselves as they did when this first began," Freedman said.
Fox News Digital’s Lauryn Overhultz and Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.
