The former president of the Oprah Winfrey Network and a board member of Big Machine Records vilified Taylor Swift over her feud with entertainment executive Scooter Braun.
Erik Logan shared a scathing letter, which has since been deleted, to Twitter on Monday after the pop star attacked Braun, Justin Bieber’s manager, for buying her catalog of past albums when his company Ithaca Holdings purchased old record label Big Machine Label Group from Scott Borchetta for $300million.
Logan came to Borchetta’s defense, saying that he watched the executive work tirelessly to launch Swift’s career.
‘Somewhere you have told a story to yourself that you have the right to change history, facts and re-frame every any story you want to fix with any narrative you wish,’ Logan wrote.
‘But, as someone who has been by Scott’s side from before you were born, I’m not going to sit on the sidelines and allow you to rewrite history and bend the truth to justify your lack of understanding of a business deal.
‘The facts will come out, you will be proven wrong and people will begin to see that the world you perpetuate, only through your lens, is NOT reality.’
Erik Logan, former president of the Oprah Winfrey Network and a board member of Big Machine Records, shared a scathing letter to Taylor Swift over her feud with entertainment executives Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta on Monday. Logan (left) called Swift (right) a liar and a bully for her reaction to the sale of her catalog of past albums
Logan’s since-deleted tweets defending Borchetta and lambasting Swift are seen in full above
Logan went on to write: ‘I also find it very interesting your use of the word bully. As I watch you attempt to re-write history and parse words, all from your massive platform, I’m reminded that’s what a real bully would do.
‘For someone who draws such power from being the “voice” and against all the things you talk about, I’m watching you violate what you allegedly stand for.
‘You’re the real bully. Your power is fading, your shine is dull and this is what bully’s do, they lash out – especially when they are called to stand in the truth.’
Logan accused Swift of lying about the deal Big Machine Records offered her, saying he knows the truth because he’s a board member.
‘You can be mad at yourself that you didn’t want to accept a deal that you should have. That’s okay, in the real world that happens all the time. But you don’t get the right to twist the truth.
‘You are one of the most talented and gifted performers and writers the industry has ever seen, but this is one area where you’re (sic) attempt to rewrite history just won’t work.’
Logan served as OWN president for seven years before stepping down last fall. He is now leading the World Surf League as President of Content, Media and WSL Studios.
Logan served as OWN president for seven years before stepping down last fall. He is pictured with Oprah Winfrey in February 2018
It emerged on Sunday that Scooter Braun’s (right) Ithaca Holdings had purchased Big Machine Label Group from Scott Borchetta (left), which released all of Swift’s studio albums and owns her masters, in a $300 million deal
Braun and Swift’s latest feud reached a fever pitch on Sunday after the singer shared a lengthy Tumblr post about how she felt ‘sad and grossed out’ when she learned her masters now belong to Braun.
She accused Braun of subjecting her to years of incessant bullying and manipulation and said she was blindsided by the news of the purchase.
Sources told The Blast that Braun tried to call Swift via mutual friends on Monday morning to discuss her reaction to the $300 million business deal, but she was not interested in talking to him.
It came after Braun re-posted and then deleted an Instagram post from one of his friends that congratulated him for now owning Swift.
Swift’s fans posted screenshots of the since-deleted post that read: ‘WHEN YOUR FRIEND BUYS TAYLOR SWIFT.’
Braun reportedly tried to call Swift for a ‘mature’ conversation after her scathing social media post following the news that he bought her catalog of past albums but she ignored him
It came after Braun re-posted and then deleted an Instagram post from one of his friends that congratulated him for now owning Swift. Swift’s fans posted screenshots of the since-deleted post that read: ‘WHEN YOUR FRIEND BUYS TAYLOR SWIFT.’
Big Machine released all of Swift’s six studio albums and owns her masters.
The sale prevents Swift from owning the first six albums in her catalog.
In her scathing post, Swift said she only learned of the sale on Sunday when she woke up and it ‘was announced to the world’.
Borchetta then issued his own lengthy statement accusing the singer of being misleading about the situation, claiming she knew well ahead of time about the deal with Braun.
‘So, it’s time for some truth… In regard to a post earlier today from Taylor, it’s time to set some things straight,’ he wrote in an open letter on the Big Machine Label Group’s website.
‘Taylor’s dad, Scott Swift, was a shareholder in Big Machine Records, LLC. We first alerted all of the shareholders on Thursday, June 20th for an official shareholder’s call scheduled for Tuesday, June 25th.
‘On the 6/25 call the shareholders were made aware of the pending deal with Ithaca Holdings and had 3 days to go over all of the details of the proposed transaction. We then had a final call on Friday, June 28th in which the transaction passed with a majority vote and 3 of the 5 shareholders voting ‘yes’ with 92% of the shareholder’s vote.’
Borchetta said he texted Swift at 9.06pm on Saturday as a courtesy to inform her of the deal prior to news breaking.
‘I guess it might somehow be possible that her dad Scott, 13 Management lawyer Jay Schaudies (who represented Scott Swift on the shareholder calls) or 13 Management executive and Big Machine LLC shareholder Frank Bell (who was on the shareholder calls) didn’t say anything to Taylor over the prior 5 days,’ he wrote.
‘I guess it’s possible that she might not have seen my text. But, I truly doubt that she ‘woke up to the news when everyone else did’.
Taylor Swift denied that her father Scott (above) was involved in the deal that saw her music catalog sold off to Scooter Braun as the pop star insists she found out about the $300 million sale with the rest of the world
Bringing the receipts? Borchetta outlined the terms of what he called an ‘extraordinary’ offer to Swift which would have kept her at Big Machine Records and given her ownership of her material, posting documents of the offer he made
Swift’s representative later doubled down on how she found out about the deal after it was implied that her father, Scott Swift, had known about the deal for at least a week.
Initial reports suggested that Swift’s father was on the record label’s board of directors but her representative later clarified that he was a shareholder.
‘Scott Swift is not on the board of directors and has never been. On June 25, there was a shareholder phone call that Scott Swift did not participate in due to a very strict NDA that bound all shareholders and prohibited any discussion at all without risk of severe penalty,’ her rep told DailyMail.com.
‘Her dad did not join that call because he did not want to be required to withhold any information from his own daughter.
‘Taylor found out from the news articles when she woke up before seeing any text from Scott Borchetta and he did not call her in advance.’
In his post, Borchetta also denied Swift’s claims that she wasn’t given the opportunity to purchase her work.
He outlined the terms of what he called an ‘extraordinary’ offer to Swift, which would have kept her at Big Machine Records and given her ownership of her material, but it fell through when she inked a pact with Universal Music Group last November.
‘Taylor had every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings but every video, photograph, everything associated to her career. She chose to leave,’ he wrote.
He went over their interactions during the critical time period in which she switched labels.
‘Taylor and I then talked through the deal together,’ he said. ‘As you will read, 100 percent of all Taylor Swift assets were to be transferred to her immediately upon signing the new agreement. We were working together on a new type of deal for our new streaming world that was not necessarily tied to ‘albums’ but more of a length of time.’
Borchetta said he and Swift ‘remained on very good terms’ throughout the negotiation process, and upon her pact with Universal.
In a scathing Tumblr post, Taylor Swift said she only learned of the sale Sunday when she woke up and it ‘was announced to the world’
Swift had earlier shared this screenshot of Bieber’s August 2016 Instagram post in which he’s he’s Facetiming Braun and Kanye West as proof of Braun’s bullying tactics
Justin Bieber has leapt to the defense of his manager Scooter Braun in response to Taylor Swift’s Tumblr post denouncing his purchase of all her old music masters
Swift left Big Machine and signed with Universal Music Group back in November because she says she knew that re-signing with the group that had managed her since she was 15 would only result in her not owning her future work.
‘When I left my masters in (Big Machine Label Group founder Scott Borchetta’s) hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them,’ she said on Sunday.
‘Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter.’
She claimed Braun got two clients, including Justin Bieber, to bully her online about a leaked and illegally recorded snippet of a phone call she had with Kim Kardashian. She also referenced when Kanye West, a Braun client, organized a ‘revenge porn music video which strips my body naked.’
Swift said that Braun had ‘stripped her’ of her life’s work that she ‘wasn’t given an opportunity to buy’.
‘My musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it,’ she said.
Borchetta said he was not aware of Swift’s passionate feelings about Braun but did know of her discord toward’s the manager’s superstar client, Bieber.
‘As to her comments about ‘being in tears or close to it’ anytime my new partner Scooter Braun’s name was brought up, I certainly never experienced that,’ he said.
‘Was I aware of some prior issues between Taylor and Justin Bieber? Yes.
‘But there were also times where Taylor knew that I was close to Scooter and that Scooter was a very good source of information for upcoming album releases, tours, etc, and I’d reach out to him for information on our behalf. Scooter was never anything but positive about Taylor.’
He said Swift twice passed on Braun’s offers to include her in shows he organized following the Manchester bombing in 2017 and the Parkland, Florida school shooting in 2018.
Scooter Braun’s wife Yael Cohen, 32, came to his defense after Taylor Swift, 29, and others criticized his purchase of her old label, which gives him ownership of her music master recordings
Braun’s wife, Yael Cohen, also chimed in on Instagram refuting Swift’s claim that she found out the news with the rest of the world
He posted both text exchanges from Swift’s departure from his label last November; and a message he sent her Saturday.
In Swift’s message dated November 19, she wrote, ‘Owning my masters was very important to me, but I’ve since realized that there are things that mean even more to me in the bigger picture. I had a choice whether to bet on my past or to bet on the future and I think knowing me, you can guess which one I chose.’
In the message he sent her Saturday, Borchetta advised Swift that the Wall Street Journal was going to report news of the Braun merger, adding, ‘I wanted to pass along to you the same courtesy that you passed along to me in regard to my future.’
Representatives for Braun did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Justin Bieber apologized to Swift late Sunday for a 2016 Instagram post in which he was seen with Braun and Kanye West – the post she accused him of sharing as a way to bully her.
But Bieber went on to defend Braun who he says ‘didn’t have anything to do with it’ and has her back. He also questioned why she would use social media to attack Braun, saying she knew it would prompt her fans ‘to hate on’ the music manager.
‘Hey Taylor. First of all i would like to apologize for posting that hurtful instagram post, at the time i thought it was funny but looking back it was distasteful and insensitive..,’ Bieber wrote.
‘I have to be honest though it was my caption and post that I screenshoted of scooter and Kanye that said ‘taylor swift what up’ he didnt have anything to do with it and it wasnt even a part of the conversation in all actuality he was the person who told me not to joke like that.. Scooter has had your back since the days you graciously let me open up for you.!
‘For you to take it to social media and get people to hate on scooter isn’t fair. What were you trying to accomplish by posting that blog? Seems to me like it was to get sympathy u also knew that in posting that your fans would go and bully scooter.’
Braun’s wife, Yael Cohen, also chimed in on Instagram refuting Swift’s claim that she found out the news with the rest of the world.
‘Your dad is a shareholder and was notified and Borchetta personally told you before this came out,’ Cohen alleges.
‘My husband is anything but a Bully.’
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