Kudos to rejecting the idea of participating in funding Rowling’s hate. From a news perspective, though, no one actually asked Pankiw to direct anything; it was just her agent asking if she’d be interested in case anyone asked. It’s unclear in anything I can find if Herron was actually asked to direct, or if they also were just saying no to the idea.
Again, kudos to their commitment, but I don’t really see the journalism here beyond the author finding a couple of people saying, “No, I wouldn’t do this if I were asked, for whatever that’s worth.”