Talk:Jeffrey Katzenberg

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There is a little bit more information about Katzenberg's early career in the SaveDisney.com article entitled "The Rise and Fall of Disney Animation in the Modern Era". It's told from an animator's perspective, so there's not much about Katzenberg specifically, but his actions are described in several places. --Ardonik.talk() 23:33, Sep 8, 2004 (UTC)

He was under investigation for campaign finance violations at 14? Really? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.167.193.102 (talk) 11:42, February 23, 2007 (UTC)

Political activities request 2

Hi editors, I have another request for the Political activities section, this time for the second paragraph. This is primarily just some rewording and summarizing of the coverage of the Clooney dinner that I think helps with flow, as well as bringing a sentence up from the third paragraph related to Andy Spahn to better fit the timeline. No sources change, but I did update the citations themselves to make everything consistent. Overall, I think this removes promotional language, fixes some grammar/spelling issues, improves citations and timeline flow, all while maintaining the facts currently present in the article.

Since this is bit tougher to visualize I'll use the TextDiff template:

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− Katzenberg has been an avid fund-raiser for Obama, doing so while much of [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] was still supporting the Clintons. His fund-raising prowess has reportedly allowed him to become an "informal liaison" between Hollywood and the White House. Katzenberg co-hosted a fund-raiser for President Obama at the home of actor [[George Clooney]] in May 2012. Katzenberg said that the event raised almost $15 million, which would make it the most profitable presidential fund-raiser in history. It was reported that Obama campaign officials were not happy about some of the requests that Katzenberg had made. In particular, they were bothered that Katzenberg, who reportedly had made himself "indispensable to Obama", required that the President spend time talking at each of the 14 tables. + Katzenberg was an avid fundraiser for Obama, doing so while much of Hollywood was still supporting [[Hillary Clinton]]. Following Obama's election, Katzenberg's fundraising prowess reportedly allowed him to become an "informal liaison" between Hollywood and the [[White House]]. Katzenberg was reportedly Obama's top "bundler", and, with [[Andy Spahn]], had collected at least $6.6 million in combined donations for both of Obama's presidential campaigns. In 2012, Katzenberg hosted a fundraiser for Obama at the residence of [[George Clooney]] and said the event had raised nearly $15 million, which would make it the most profitable presidential fundraiser in history. Some Obama campaign officials were unhappy with some of Katzenberg's requests, including that Obama stay and talk with guests at each of the 14 tables at the dinner.

Fully rendered, it looks like this:

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Katzenberg was an avid fundraiser for Obama, doing so while much of Hollywood was still supporting Hillary Clinton. Following Obama's election, Katzenberg's fundraising prowess reportedly allowed him to become an "informal liaison" between Hollywood and the White House. Katzenberg was reportedly Obama's top "bundler", and, with Andy Spahn, had collected at least $6.6 million in combined donations for both of Obama's presidential campaigns. In 2012, Katzenberg hosted a fundraiser for Obama at the residence of George Clooney and said the event had raised nearly $15 million, which would make it the most profitable presidential fundraiser in history. Some Obama campaign officials were unhappy with some of Katzenberg's requests, including that Obama stay and talk with guests at each of the 14 tables at the dinner. References Note: Source 1 is the "Raising funds for Obama" WSJ source already used in the live article.

ARandomName123 tagging you here since you've been reviewing my recent requests.

Thanks for taking a look, and please let me know what you think! Cheers, BINK Robin (talk) 15:40, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

@BINK Robin: Hi, is there a reason Hillary Clinton is specifically mentioned, instead of the Clintons, as it was before? There also seems to be a some close paraphrasing, so if you could resolve that, that would be great. Everything else seems fine. ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 17:11, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

@ARandomName123: Hi, good questions. I specified Hillary since she was the one campaigning at the time. However, if you don’t think that is a necessary distinction, I’m happy to leave it as “the Clintons”.

For the close paraphrasing, I can work on making “In 2012, Katzenberg hosted a fundraiser for Obama at the residence of George Clooney and said the event had raised nearly $15 million, which would make it the most profitable presidential fundraiser in history.” more distinct from the source, is there anything else you feel is too close? Cheers! BINK Robin (talk) 18:11, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

@BINK Robin: I think it would be best to leave it as "the Clintons," since it probably refers to Bill Clinton as well (hence the plural).

Regarding the close paraphrasing, "Following Obama's election, Katzenberg's fundraising prowess reportedly allowed him to become an "informal liaison" between Hollywood and the White House." is also pretty close to "Mr. Katzenberg's fundraising prowess has earned him access and a role as the informal liaison between Hollywood and the White House". Once this is fixed, feel free to ping me, and it should be good to accept. Thanks! ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 19:04, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

@ARandomName123: Sounds good! I think adding the WSJ in-text citation should help with WP:CLOP. Here's what I'm thinking, let me know if this works for you. Cheers, BINK Robin (talk) 15:27, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

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Katzenberg was an avid fundraiser for Obama, doing so while much of Hollywood was still supporting the Clintons. The Wall Street Journal reported his efforts allowed Katzenberg to become an "informal liaison" between Hollywood and the Obama administration. Katzenberg was reportedly Obama's top "bundler", and, with Andy Spahn, had collected at least $6.6 million in combined donations for both of Obama's presidential campaigns. In 2012, Katzenberg organized a fundraiser for Obama's 2012 presidential campaign at the residence of George Clooney. The event reportedly set a record for presidential fundraisers, garnering approximately $15 million. Some Obama campaign officials were unhappy with some of Katzenberg's requests, including that Obama stay and talk with guests at each of the 14 tables at the dinner. References

 Done . Looks better now, thanks. ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 15:34, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! BINK Robin (talk) 15:42, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Political activities request 3

Hi editors, for my next request in Political activities I'd like to ask for some small changes to the third-to-last paragraph. Like my last request, I'll use TextDiff to highlight the differences. Essentially, this request is just to summarize the text a bit, smooth out some biased language (e.g. "deep-pocketed"), cleans up some references and replaces a dead link. Please let me know what you think. Cheers, BINK Robin (talk) 15:26, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

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− It was reported that Obama arrived in Los Angeles on October 7, 2012, where he joined [[Bill Clinton]] at Katzenberg's Beverly Hills home for a private meeting with several deep-pocketed Democratic donors. Obama's campaign indicated the meeting was to thank supporters, but some members of the campaign finance committee said that it involved the pro-Obama PAC [[Priorities USA Action]]. Members of the White House press corps who had traveled to California with Obama were kept in the garage of Katzenberg's mansion and one reporter called the meeting "unusual". Katzenberg, who had previously donated $2 million to the pro-Obama PAC Priorities USA Action, donated an additional $1 million in October 2012. He donated $1 million to the Super PAC Priorities USA, which supported [[Hillary Clinton]] in the 2016 presidential race. In October 2016, he hosted a $100,000-per-person fund-raiser at his Beverly Hills residence with President [[Barack Obama]] as the main attraction. + In October 2012, Obama and Bill Clinton reportedly visited Katzenberg at his home in [[Beverly Hills]] for a private meeting with wealthy Democratic donors. The Obama campaign said the meeting was to thank supporters, but some members of the campaign finance committee said that it involved the pro-Obama [[political action committee]] [[Priorities USA Action]]. Members of the [[White House press corps]] who had traveled to California with Obama were kept in the garage of Katzenberg's mansion and one reporter called the meeting "unusual". Katzenberg, who had previously donated $2 million to Priorities USA Action, donated an additional $1 million to the PAC that month. Kaztzenberg donated $1 million to Priorities USA Action in 2015, which supported [[Hillary Clinton]] in the 2016 presidential race. In October 2016, he hosted a $100,000-per-person fundraiser at his Beverly Hills residence with President [[Barack Obama]] as the main attraction.

Rendered together, it looks like this:

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In October 2012, Obama and Bill Clinton reportedly visited Katzenberg at his home in Beverly Hills for a private meeting with wealthy Democratic donors. The Obama campaign said the meeting was to thank supporters, but some members of the campaign finance committee said that it involved the pro-Obama political action committee Priorities USA Action. Members of the White House press corps who had traveled to California with Obama were kept in the garage of Katzenberg's mansion and one reporter called the meeting "unusual". Katzenberg, who had previously donated $2 million to Priorities USA Action, donated an additional $1 million to the PAC that month. Kaztzenberg donated $1 million to Priorities USA Action in 2015, which supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. In October 2016, he hosted a $100,000-per-person fundraiser at his Beverly Hills residence with Obama as the main attraction. References

 Done ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 14:02, 16 April 2024 (UTC)

@ARandomName123: thanks so much for doing that! BINK Robin (talk) 16:55, 16 April 2024 (UTC)

Political activities request 4

Hi editors, my next request for the political activities section is a bit trickier, but I hope it makes sense.

This request is to replace the third paragraph of the section with new text that I think better captures the information available in reliable sources and presents everything in a more neutral manner. As before, I've used TextDiff to highlight the differences, followed by a rendering.

The differences are a bit more substantial, but hopefully editors find it to be more balanced and neutral. My proposed changes:

• Clean up WP:EDITORIAL language (e.g. "When the details of Oriental DreamWorks emerged")
• Remove the sentence about Andy Spahn, which has been made redundant after past edit requests
• Retains Rubin's comments while rephrasing them in a way that I think better meets NPOV
• Removes the Nicholas Confessore sentence as it is unsourced and I have been unable to locate the original interview. I also think the presentation of the Confessore sentence lacks encyclopedic tone and doesn't really add anything to paragraph
• Changes the first sentence to be about an SEC investigation related to Oriental DreamWorks, which I believe is more salient to the topic
• Removes the sentence attributed to the Sunlight Foundation
  • The blog post does not ascribe any impropriety to Katzenberg, and does not directly support connections between the founding of Oriental DreamWorks, the Obama administration, and Katzenberg's donations
  • The presentation of the information in Katzenberg's Wikipedia article is clearly placed and worded in such a way to imply impropriety
  • The wording in the Wikipedia article also lacks encyclopedic tone and contains WP:OR – writing that Allison "suggested" something, rather than what Allison actually wrote, seems to me a clear violation of that policy
  • The only mention of fast-tracking is in the headline, which is not an RS per WP:HEADLINES

Let me know what you think! I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Additionally, if editors are curious, I have created a draft that shows where I ultimately hope the article ends up. The remaining changes are much less complex than this. Cheers BINK Robin (talk) 16:55, 16 April 2024 (UTC)

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− When the details of [[Pearl Studio|Oriental DreamWorks]] emerged, [[Jennifer Rubin (columnist)|Jennifer Rubin]] noted that the Obama Administration's potential involvement in the deal would not be an issue if not for Katzenberg's May fund-raiser for Obama and his "huge campaign donations." It was reported that Katzenberg was Obama's top "bundler", who, along with Spahn, had collected at least $6.6 million in combined donations for both of Obama's campaigns. In an MSNBC interview about the donations, [[Nicholas Confessore]] noted Katzenberg's desire to build movie studios in China, saying that he would need help from the Obama administration to get this done and that "[e]veryone has interests at stake." Bill Allison of the [[Sunlight Foundation]] suggested that Katzenberg's long history of financial support for Obama may have influenced the movie deal being "fast-track[ed]" by the White House, noting that DreamWorks Animation "never registered to lobby the federal government." + In 2012, the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] reportedly opened an investigation into DreamWorks and other movie studios for bribing a foreign official. It was opened after the announcements of a deal between China and the United States to increase the number of American movies released in China and the launch of [[Oriental DreamWorks]], a Chinese offshoot of DreamWorks Animation. News of the investigation broke shortly after [[Joe Biden]] had brokered the Chinese movie deal, which Katzenberg had assisted with, and Katzenberg had held a fundraiser for the Obama campaign, leading ''[[Washington Post]]'' columnist [[Jennifer Rubin (columnist)|Jennifer Rubin]] to question if the deal and fundraiser were related. Katzenberg denied the existence of the investigation, saying that DreamWorks had never been asked for documents or to otherwise cooperate with an investigation. In 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly opened an investigation into DreamWorks and other movie studios for bribing a foreign official. It was opened after the announcements of a deal between China and the United States to increase the number of American movies released in China and the launch of Oriental DreamWorks, a Chinese offshoot of DreamWorks Animation. News of the investigation broke shortly after Joe Biden had brokered the Chinese movie deal, which Katzenberg had assisted with, and Katzenberg had held a fundraiser for the Obama campaign, leading Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin to question if the deal and fundraiser were related. Katzenberg denied the existence of the investigation, saying that DreamWorks had never been asked for documents or to otherwise cooperate with an investigation. References