Kevin Smith Knocks LA Times’ Reddit Article for Reporting ‘Opinions as Fact’

The "Clerks" director argued (and demonstrated) on Twitter how a mere footnote in a story about Hollywood stars using Reddit was riddled with inaccuracies

Kevin Smith is criticizing an article published in the LA Times on Thursday for reporting opinions about his career and internet activity as fact.

Through a series of tweets, the "Clerks" director offered corrections to Matthew Fleischer's article titled "Can Hollywood's star machine master Reddit's 'Ask Me Anything'?"

Also read: Kevin Smith Begins Writing 'Clerks III' (Update)

"NOT mad at all and NOT starting a jihad," he began, "But the author includes two of his opinions as fact that are incorrect and easily fact-checked."

The article, which examines the publicity benefits of Reddit AMA's to Hollywood stars, cites Smith as a regular on the site. He has participated in five of the popular online Q&A sessions. Fleischer asserts Smith's "fluency with Reddit has arguably made him one of the most popular podcasters on the Internet — a career turn that helped land him his television show 'Comic Book Men' on AMC."  

According to Smith, the connection between Reddit and his podcast is "just nuts."

"I've been podcasting since '07, did my first @reddit last year," he tweeted. "Subscriptions to our podcasts took no discernible jump after any of my AMAs."

He also takes issue with Fleischer's statement that Smith's "film success has cooled since his heyday in the 1990s."

"The numbers say different," Smith tweeted. "'Red State' notwithstanding (it only ever played theatrically 15 times in US on tour), my last film,'Cop Out,' was also my highest grossing."

"Cop Out," a 2010 buddy-cop comedy starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, grossed $55.5 million worldwide. Two years before that, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" grossed $42.1 million worldwide. 2001's "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" grossed nearly $33.8 million worldwide.

Smith's highest grossing film in the 1990s was "Dogma," the 1999 religion-inspired apocalyptic comedy starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (and, of course, Jason Mewes and Smith as Jay and Silent Bob), which grossed $30.6 million worldwide. "Clerks," Smith's critically-acclaimed debut feature, was the second highest grossing film of that decade, making a little over $3.1 million.

"I guess it depends on how you define 'film success,'" Smith continued to tweet. "But if it's box office, then I'm MORE successful than I was in the '90s. Go figure."

While Smith also clarified he's "not mad" or "even offended" by Fleischer's inaccuracies, he did identify a growing problem in journalism: "I get that we live in the opinion-as-fact age. And I'm not even offended by it. It's just not correct."

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