I don't know Jeff Sneider. I've never met him, and I'm not sure I've ever read a full piece of his. But this site has run his reporting plenty of times, including last month when Josh Wilding relayed his scoop that Inde Navarrette is playing Rogue in the MCU. It just so happens that he spent last week threatening that very same actor.
I was alerted to the situation while browsing through the comments of a few articles, and users were wondering why it hadn't been covered, and I promised that I would look into it if nobody else had. So here's a look at what happened, who Jeff Sneider is, and my thoughts on the entire situation.
On July 15th, Sneider emailed Navarrette's reps asking them to confirm a rumor that she had landed a role in the Apple and Plan B movie, The Waffle House Index. They apparently didn't respond. On September 3rd, the day Deadline announced her casting, he posted a screenshot of that email on X. Complex and IBTimes UK both preserved the wording before he pulled it down, and I've been able to find screenshots:
"I plan to write about Inde Navarrette for a long time. I can be a useful friend to her team... or I can share literally everything I hear about her. The best part is, THEY get to decide. I can forgive being ghosted this summer. I won't forget, but I can forgive... just not twice."
And he didn't let it go after that! About four hours later he posted:
"Complaining? I wasn't complaining. That was a threat! Engage.. or don't, and be subjected to non-stop rumors. Believe me, I'd love to continue being ignored so I can say whatever I want. It's proven to be very lucrative for me."
Both posts are gone now. I checked the links myself Tuesday morning and X returns nothing for either one. The quotes above are as Complex, Pink News and That Park Place captured them while they were up and there are screenshots doing the rounds (the internet never forgets).
On Friday the moderators of r/MarvelStudios, the biggest Marvel community on Reddit, announced Sneider is permanently banned as a source there, citing his "actions and threats with harassment towards other parties involved in the community/Studios/actors."
Later that night, Sneider seemed to have deleted his original tweet and posted this:
It opens with "Tired of the noise so I'll delete and apologize, as per protocol," and closes regarding Navarrette with "She got swept up in a long-running feud." Towards the middle he states, "I am sorry to Ms. Navarrette, who was and will continue to be treated fairly, despite previous comments suggesting otherwise." Was it a sincere apology? I'll let you decide...
Note that in the replies he added that his "ego got the best of" him and he "went overboard with my victory celebration."
The same day he apparently released a longer explanation behind his newsletter's paywall under the headline "My One-Sided Battles With Inde Navarrette's Team and the Internet" and teased that the problem "has nothing to do with Navarrette, and everything to do with her reps." His podcast went out over the weekend as usual, with the episode notes listing "Inde Navarrette's new film sparks controversy over who broke the story" as the first topic.
Navarrette hasn't responded, nor have her reps, Marvel Studios, Apple or Plan B. As of this morning (Tuesday) I couldn't find a line about it from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter or Deadline, or from a single one of the big comic book movie sites. Nobody has said they'll stop citing him. His newsletter and his show are running as normal. I'm curious how his viewership and follower count are holding up…
So who is Jeff Sneider? He's been at this for a while. He started at Ain't It Cool News in 2003 under the name MiraJeff, interned at Variety, and bounced between Variety and TheWrap through the early 2010s. Variety fired him in January 2013 after he lost the Interstellar scoop to Kim Masters and tweeted that he was going to drive his car into a tree and his blood would be "on Hollywood's hands." He went back to TheWrap, got suspended in 2016 over a fight with a publicist, moved to Mashable, and was gone from Mashable by that December after declaring #OscarsSoWhite over. Then The Tracking Board, then Collider from 2018 to 2021, then a stretch at The Ankler and Above the Line where, according to Wikipedia, he left over unpaid wages. Since November 2023 he has been running his own newsletter, TheInSneider, plus The Hot Mic podcast with John Rocha every week.
He's had hits and he's had misses. The Waffle House Index casting he was chasing in that July email turned out to be right, and Deadline confirmed it the same day he posted. Our Rogue story came from him. On the other side, in 2024 he reported Sydney Sweeney opposite Johnny Depp in Day Drinker, and her team said no. And in June he posted this about The Batman Part II: "EVERYTHING you've read about THE BATMAN PART II has been wrong, and I humbly apologize for my part in that. But I'm here to correct my mistake..."
I've been doing this for over 23 years, since launching Best Little Sites and ComicBookMovie.com in 2003 with my former business partner. For most of that time, CBM was invited to every Marvel and Disney red carpet and press junket there was. I've walked the carpets, sat in the junket rooms, and been one of the first people on the planet to see some of these movies. Then COVID hit, the invitations stopped, and they never started again. I've reached out more than once to no avail. Luckily our overseas contributors still have access, and I'm glad they do. Me, Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame were the last two events that I attended. I had one invitation after that (Spider-Man: No Way Home if memory serves) and then nothing since the vaccine and masks were required to attend any of their events.
It could be my contacts moving on. It probably is, in part. But I have a feeling the real reason is that during the Avengers: Endgame run, when the studio was chasing down leaks all over the internet, a user-generated site like ours ruffled some feathers. Which is somewhat understandable, but I'll say this: every time Marvel or Disney asked ME to pull a leak or a spoiler, I pulled it. You won't find a site that's easier to work with!
I understand what Sneider is angry about, because getting ghosted by a rep happens, and I'm fairly familiar with the room he works in, because I sat in it for years. Being flown out to see a film early and then sit across from the cast and crew to talk about it is a PRIVILEGE. It's also an amazing experience. That being said, I've never in my life met a more immature, entitled group of people than the "professional" journalists and critics at those events. I watched people leave a screening room looking like a landfill, popcorn and cups everywhere, and then spend the shuttle ride complaining about the hotel, about who they did and didn't get to interview, about how much they hated this actor or how dumb that one was. It was like that at pretty much EVERY event that I attended!
Am I a little bitter about losing access? Sure. But I've found that despite how fun they are, exclusive interviews don't drive much traffic and don't earn much revenue, despite what people outside the business think. Attending a junket in LA cost me about ten times what the content ever earned… Probably more. But I did it because I loved meeting people, and because I typically would get to bring one guest. So, my wife, children, and even my extended family, have been able to experience walking a red carpet (or purple in the case of Black Panther) and seeing a movie before the rest of the world did. Those memories are priceless!
Sorry, I found the interview I did with Peter Cullen back in 2014 in Josh's tribute post and got a little sidetracked… Please forgive my rambling!
Back to Sneider! He has a real case. He had the story. His July email said Navarrette was in the movie, her reps ignored him, and seven weeks later Deadline proved him right, which is why he calls the post a "victory celebration." Publicists ghost independent reporters all the time and use access as leverage every day of the week. That's the "one-sided battle" he says he's fighting, and that part is true. I myself, as well as probably all of the active contributors like Josh Wilding, Mark Cassidy, Mark Julian, and Rohan Patel can attest to getting promised access to top-tier talent, only to find that they're "unavailable" when the time comes… "Oh, but you'll still run the coverage on CBM, right?" 🤬
He also apologized and deleted the post, which to his credit, is more than some people do. A scooper publishing what he hears about an actress is, technically, the job. But I don't think that's what he wrote. He said he could be a "useful friend", or he could "share literally everything" he hears about her. That THEY would get to decide, and then, when called on it, shared that it was a THREAT. Not only that, that him being ignored has been "very lucrative."
Is the fallout deserved? If what's being reported is true, and based on what he posted and deleted himself, then yes, he deserves everything coming his way. If you're so immature and self-centered that you use "rumors" as a weapon against an actor or actress because their reps didn't respond to your email, you're everything that's wrong with journalism and media right now. The entertainment industry, and especially the readers, don't need you.
I'm not going to pretend that he'll never be cited again on CBM. As much as I would like to enforce that as a policy, I won't. It would go against my entire philosophy of what I've built. A platform and network of sites that are based completely on user generated content and what they want to see and read. And this despite the experiences CBM has had with power hungry Reddit and Wikipedia editors banning CBM for something they didn't agree with or like 15 years ago... We'll keep telling you where every rumor comes from, including when it's him, and then let you decide if his word has any value.
Which scoopers do you still trust and why do you follow them?
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