Just hours after NBC and Dick Clark Productions – the Golden Globe’s broadcast network and production partner – asked the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. to expel a former president via email calling the Black Lives Matter a “hate movement,” that member is out of the organization.
“Immediately effective, Phil Berk is no longer a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn,” a statement from HFPA said Tuesday.
The move follows a Times report that South African-born Phil Berk, a current member and eight-time HFPA chairman, sent an email on Sunday criticizing Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors. The post reached a fiery storm among many members of the organization, a group of international journalists who eliminate the annual Golden Globes.
In the e-mail, Berk shared an article calling the BLM a “racist hate movement” and described Cullors as “self-proclaimed” trained Marxist. ” He was sent to the members of the association, its staff and general counsel and the head of the operational officer group, Gregory Goeckner.
In an internal e-mail sent by DCP, the company told employees: “We unequivocally condemn the actions and words of an HFPA member. I called on the council to take swift and decisive action. I also indicated that this response should serve as an example of how they intend to act on the behavior of members that violate their recent commitment to reform and improve racial equality. We have been working with the organization for months to guide them and push for significant change. Although we remain hopeful about progress, this is a very real reminder that there are members who do not support this work. This is unacceptable. ”
In a public statement, the company said: “We stand in solidarity with our colleagues, artists, journalists and directors who have been injured or overlooked by HFPA. We are disgusted by the racist rhetoric broadcast yesterday by a member. We have been encouraged by the very strong statements that HFPA has previously made about improving their organization on racial reform and equity issues. This member’s actions and statements are inconsistent with the direction HFPA has publicly stated that it has committed itself. ”
Privately, on Monday night, DCP sent HFPA a letter requesting Berk’s immediate expulsion.
On Tuesday, NBC also issued a statement echoing DCP.
“NBC strongly condemns Phil Berk’s actions and calls for his immediate expulsion. While we continue to wait for the details of HFPA’s future reform plan, swift action on this front is a key element for NBC to move forward with HFPA and the Golden Globes. ”
The statement can be read while NBC puts the hammer on the organization, according to a person familiar with the dynamics between NBC and HFPA, but who is not allowed to speak publicly.
So far, DCP has remained silent, working behind the scenes with HFPA and not speaking in public. He waited until the association launched a set of reforms planned for early May, according to one person involved but not authorized to speak. However, Berk’s e-mail displayed a “very egregious display of racism”, and the company considered it necessary to say something public, the person said.
Earlier, HFPA’s board of directors rejected Berk’s e-mail in a statement saying “the views expressed in the article,” which Berk shared, “do not reflect – in any way form or form – the views and values HFPA. HFPA condemns all forms of racism, discrimination and hate speech and considers this language and content to be unacceptable. ”
HFPA has been under pressure because it does not Black members as well as for allegations of ethical and financial obsolescence raised in a Times investigation In group.
Last month, the group behind the Golden Globe Awards pledged to make “transformative changes” and retained a strategic advisor for diversity, Shaun Harper, professor of racial, gender and LGBTQ issues at USC’s Marshall School of Business and an outside law firm, Ropes & Gray, to review its policies and requirements and membership.
HFPA, which in recent weeks has reached the National Association. of black journalists and the NAACP, intends to announce a set of reforms on May 6.
Times James writer Meg James contributed to the report.