Media Criticism
‘Washington Post’ Endorses Plagiarism to Defend Obama
by Ben ShapiroYesterday, the White House announced that it was removing Alma Thomas’ plagiaristic piece “Watusi (Hard Edge)” from its walls. The White House announced that the painting was moved “because it didn’t fit the space right.” The Washington Post pointed out that posters at FreeRepublic.com had examined the similarity between “Watusi (Hard Edge)” and Henri Matisse’s “The Snail” (1953), ignoring the fact that Big Hollywood actually broke the story. The Washington Post covered for the White House, explaining, “Stephens’s explanation makes sense because it is inconceivable that the White House’s art experts would imagine Thomas’s painting was fraudulent or a copy … Elaborations on earlier artists’ work, even full appropriation, have been common practice in art for hundreds of years.”
Andrew Breitbart immediately emailed the author of the piece, Blake Gopnik, to point out that Big Hollywood had not been properly attributed on criticism of the piece. Here’s Andrew’s email:
“Ben Shapiro at Big Hollywood broke this story with a legitimate report. Not blog opinion. To credit Free Republic or conservative opinion sites is either bad journalism or… bad journalism. Even at Free Republic they cite Shapiro and Big Hollywood. The story was cited properly all over the Internet, why the Washington Post breach? We have been at the forefront of reporting on what the MSM won’t regarding this admin. We had the ACORN story, the NEA propaganda conference call. All hard news stories. And so is this. Shapiro is a Harvard law grad. He is hardly worthy of this kind of brush off. We’d like to see a correction as soon as possible.”
And here is Gopnik’s response: (more…)
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PBS Ombudsman: ‘Sesame Street’ Fox News Slam Crossed Line
by John NolteEarlier this week, Big Hollywood’s Stage Right broke the story of a ”Sesame Street” episode which referred to Fox News as “Pox News” and “trashy.” In response to the episode, PBS also received a number of complaint letters from viewers which prompted a reply from PBS Ombudsmen Michael Getler:
I don’t know what was in the head of the producers, but my guess is that this was one of those parodies that was too good to resist. But it should have been resisted. Broadcasters can tell parents whatever they think of Fox or any other network, but you shouldn’t do it through the kids.
In response to Stage Right using “Sesame Street’s” unfortunate behavior as an example with which to speak for the many, many many parents frustrated with the idea of partisan programming aimed at children, some online outlets responded with the expected and usual dismissive snarky contempt. But now that PBS is on record agreeing with Stage Right, we’re left to wonder if they find PBS ”stupid,” “asinine,” “absurd,” and “idiotic.”
You can read Getler’s full article here, along with some of the complaint letters PBS received. (more…)
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‘L.A. Times’ Writer Slams ‘Anti-Hollywood Crowd’ With Everything But Facts
by John NolteThe other day, the L.A. Times’ Patrick Goldstein responded to this post of mine with a beauty of a headline:
“New Muhammad biopic drives the anti-Hollywood crowd nuts”
You know, sometimes you just have to put politics aside and take a moment to admire the tactics of your opponents, because no matter how you slice it, that is one gorgeous humdinger of a headline.
At a glance, the headline intentionally furthers the whole “conservatives are intolerant” narrative with the inference that I somehow have a problem with a big-budget biopic about the prophet Muhammad. Later in his piece, Goldstein doubles down on that smear with this:
But as usual, the news has aroused a storm of derision from conservative bloggers, who always find a way to be offended by any high-minded Hollywood project.
Odd… Especially when the very first sentence – the opening line — of my piece says the exact opposite: (more…)
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Glenn Beck, CNN, John Nolte, the Canadians and Me
by Michael WilsonJohn Nolte, the Editor-in-Chief of Big Hollywood emailed me last night and asked if I had any interest in doing a piece about The Onion wishing Glenn Beck dead in this video. At first, I thought maybe it was a job for Wolf Blitzer, but then remembered that Glenn is “somewhat” reviled at CNN and they might not fact-check a bit on him. But I felt compelled to write for two reasons: the first is that Glenn and I have a mutual friend who frequently says “the answer to bad speech is more speech,” the second is that John’s request immediately reminded me of a phone call I received from the Canadian Broadcasting Company a few years back. (Bet you didn’t think I could work everything from the headline into one paragraph, did you?)
After I made “Michael Moore Hates America,” I spent several years (and still occasionally) doing interviews for the press on movie stuff. They’d always call me, because, you know, I’m a crazy, angry right-wing nut job and I’d made the only “conservative” documentary any of them had ever heard of. Something controversial would happen in the world of cinema, my phone would ring for a few days and then I’d go back to my life. In one episode, I received a call from the CBC. They wanted to know if I could do a satellite interview with them on an evening news talk show. The topic was the about-to-be-released film “Death of a President” where President George W. Bush was digitally assassinated. (more…)
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How the MSM Might Survive: Come Out of the Ideological Closet
by John NolteWhenever reading Politico, everything should be washed through this filter. You must always keep in the front of your mind that this supposed “news” organization took the time to dig up and publicize dirt on a private citizen whose only sin was asking a perfectly reasonable question of a public figure. Politico’s warning to the everyday American was clear: get in the way of our guy and we will summon all our resources to publicly humiliate you. This all goes to prove that Politico is nothing more than a digital version of the Dinosaur Media — and just as clueless and dishonest as their unholy brethren, especially when it comes to explaining why their counterparts are drowning in the tar pits of obsolescence.
To hear Politico tell it, CNN’s stuck in humiliating fourth place behind FOX, MSNBC and their own Headline News because they’ve made the mistake of not appealing to the great unwashed who prefer partisan bickering and echo chambers:
With the proliferation of media across platforms these days, there’s less shared knowledge among people, who are increasingly heading to niche outlets for information. At the same time, there’s a large appetite for the new media world where the MSM gatekeepers no longer hold as much clout, and “he said, she said” journalism gives way to strong point of view. …
There’s no doubt that the over-the-top, and politically partisan, hosts are having more success attracting viewers on nights when there’s no major news event.
And what better place for Politico to get an opinion on such a matter than The Nation aka: “The flagship of the left“:
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J-School Rappers Rhyme Against Fox News
by Greg GutfeldNormally I don’t like making fun of Columbia journalism students, because it’s like shooting fish in a barrel, if the barrel were full of Columbia journalism students.
And that would be very wrong.
But when I saw this video, I couldn’t resist. It’s of a panel, in which students are pointing out how predictable cover letters won’t help you get a job in the post j-school world. So what would? How about a rap?
And so it begins, as one student unleashes his inner Jay-Z, listing in all earnestness a lengthy promise of his many qualifications.
Roll tape, roll-tapers:
So, no surprise: the student raps benign pap that his professors and like-minded dorm-rats would applaud – from railing against complacency, to never losing touch with “his humanity.” But I’ll repeat the part the kid really wanted them to hear:
“There’s no need to hear crazy, or create a false sense of parity, like Fox News and Hannity.” (more…)
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Burnt Offering: Artists Must Unite to Protect Free Speech
by Robert DaviSo I wake up groggy and after getting my morning green tea –- yeah, I seem to be going through that phase — coffee doesn’t go well with global warming. Anyway, I start the computer and begin my ritual of clearing out emails; a daunting but necessary task where depending on my time and interest I sometimes randomly open something to read.
If your mailbox is like mine you receive an overwhelming amount of political stuff and reading it all can be a time-suck of enormous proportions. Let’s face it, if you don’t derive your living from this stuff, no matter how much of a concerned citizen you may be, there comes a point where you have to say, “Ah, is this paying my mortgage?” That’s reality biting you in the ass and so the knee-jerk reaction is to press delete and move on to something that may add a few more dollars to your already crumbling retirement fund. But, and I stress BUT, like the” pusher man” (remember that song, G** D**** the Pusher Man?) who you cannot seem to get away from, the sheer volume of political noise coming at you can’t be ignored and after just one peek … aaahhh your fix takes hold. (more…)
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‘The Simpsons’, Islamophobia and CAIR: The Price of Freedom
by Mark TapsonThis past January, London’s Daily Star tabloid announced urgently that an upcoming episode – “the most controversial episode ever”! – of The Simpsons on the Sky1 network “pokes fun at Islam” and “is certain to enrage Muslim fanatics.” As anyone who morbidly follows this sort of thing (as I do) knows, enraging Muslim fanatics is hardly an accomplishment of Halley’s Comet-like rarity. It doesn’t take much: books, cartoons, teddy bears named Mohammad, posters of puppies, piggy banks, a Burger King ice cream swirl and the Nike logo (both of which apparently too closely resembled the Arabic script for “Allah”), are just a few of the recent Western offenses that have sparked their frothing outrage worldwide.
Yet despite the Daily Star’s perversely hopeful tone, there was no violent reaction in the UK from said fanatics, nor was there one in the United States after the episode originally aired here last Thanksgiving weekend (in a grimly ironic twist, the same weekend as the devastating mass murder and mayhem committed in Mumbai by a band of – wait for it – Muslim fanatics, or as the culturally sensitive media preferred to call them at the time, “gunmen”). So why no Muslim fury over The Simpsons? (more…)
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ARTISTLIARTHIEF: Obama Artist Shepard Fairey Admits to Wrongdoing in Associated Press Lawsuit
by Big HollywoodL.A. Times just dropped this blockbuster:
In a strange twist to an already complicated legal situation, artist Shepard Fairey admitted today to legal wrongdoing in his ongoing battle with the Associated Press.
Fairey said in a statement issued late Friday that he knowingly submitted false images and deleted others in the legal proceedings, in an attempt to conceal the fact that the AP had correctly identified the photo that Fairey had used as a reference for his “Hope” poster of then-Sen. Barack Obama.
“Throughout the case, there has been a question as to which Mannie Garcia photo I used as a reference to design the HOPE image,” Fairey said. “The AP claimed it was one photo, and I claimed it was another.”
New filings to the court, he said, “state for the record that the AP is correct about which photo I used…and that I was mistaken. While I initially believed that the photo I referenced was a different one, I discovered early on in the case that I was wrong. In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images.” (more…)
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SNL’s Obligatory Obama Nobel Peace Prize Sketch
by Alexander MarlowThere has been a rumor floating around that Fred Armisen is intentionally, perhaps at the behest of the NBC powers-that-be, making his Obama impersonation as inaccurate and unfunny as possible. With that in mind, consider this phoned-in sketch exhibit number 47 in “The People vs. Saturday Night Live.” (NOTE: The only thing that makes the Big Hollywood editorial staff reluctant to investigate further is that the rest of the show isn’t much funnier.)
Also:
-Why doesn’t SNL ever direct Armisen to look back and forth at two teleprompters like Obama does every time he gives an address? Seems pretty obvious, no?
-Of course, “It looks like the CNN fact-checkers will be busy again this week.” (more…)
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Two Fish, One Barrel: Deconstructing Andrew Sullivan’s ‘The Breitbart Standard,’ Demolishing Conor Friedersdorf’s ‘The Right’s Lesser Media’
by Andrew BreitbartTo which I respond to my unofficial biographer Conor Friedersdorf’s Daily Beast criticism of your’s truly and bigger fish Andrew Sullivan’s two-thumbs-up to it:
Andrew Sullivan (left) and Conor Friedersdorf
In the piece you link to and affirm in the Daily Beast, “The Right’s Lesser Press,” Conor Friedersdorf refuses to interview me as he continues to be my unofficial biographer. (I’m VERY reachable, Conor.) He writes opinion pieces on me purporting to be journalism. He doesn’t quote or cite me, he simply assumes and pushes the point of view he thinks I have and makes an argument based on these alleged positions. It’s sloppy and you, of all people, should know better.
Breitbart.com is MOSTLY a news aggregator. It carries the Associated Press, Reuters, even, Agence France Presse, from those dreaded croissant eaters!!!
It even carries the New York Times on its front page — a benefit that even Big Government and Big Hollywood don’t receive.
Big Hollywood is what it is: a counter-voice to the virtually monolithic Hollywood left. How dare I grant a platform, and a means for the defense of those in Hollywood who would dare go against the strident and intolerant Hollywood left.
Big Government, too, is providing an outlet for voices and ideas that are not proportionally represented in the traditional and mostly biased mainstream media.
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Daily Gut: Wolf’s Confusion, Fred’s Misery
by Greg GutfeldIt amounted to breaking news for CNN`s Wolf Blitzer: Saturday Night Live doing a skit, in which they skewer Barack Obama. It was a concept so profoundly distasteful, that it left Wolf incredulous – worse than when he was humiliated on Jeopardy.
At any rate, this first ever comprehensive fact-check of an SNL skit might be the strangest piece of media analysis I’ve ever seen.
Check it out, check-it-outers. (ROLL TAPE)
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Now, wouldn`t you know, according to CNN`s analysis, the skit “missed the mark.” This is a not a fair portrayal, they whine – which is not surprising, coming from a network blinded by the President`s pocket lint. But forgive me for being both flabbered and gasted, but have you ever seen a news network review a comedy sketch for fairness? Did CNN ever do this when SNL went after Bush, Palin, or any other Republican? (more…)
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HuffPo Goes All In to Defend Polanski, Readers Revolt **UPDATED/CORRECTED**
by Christian TotoCORRECTION: This post failed to include numerous essays on the site critical of the filmmaker’s actions. While the site did include several strong commentaries speaking out in favor of Polanski, the site’s anti-Polanski posts outnumber them. I should have dug deeper and apologize for the error. –C.T. END CORRECTION
The Huffington Post has made it crystal clear where it stands on the news that director Roman Polanski may have to answer for his 31-year-old crime of child rape: “Move on, everyone. Nothing to see here. Keep on directing, Roman. Love ya!”
The popular liberal site has posted numerous essays since news that Polanski was arrested in Switzerland broke over the weekend, each arguing vehemently against the Oscar winner’s persecution.
- Kim Morgan: “Roman Polanski understands women” – starts with her exasperation over the Polanski witch hunt.
- Bernard-Henri Levy: Let’s start a petition in support of Polanski.
- John Farr: Leniency for Polanski.
But HuffPo readers aren’t buying it. And boy, are they angry.
Check out the comments left on each of these essays and you’ll see faithful HuffPo readers aghast that the site could be defending the indefensible. (more…)
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CBS Early Show: ‘Friends Defend Polanski’
by John Nolte
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Wow. That is quite a moment in the “60 Minutes” interview when director Roman Polanski says of the 13 year-old girl he drugged, raped and sodomized:
“She wasn’t unschooled in sexual matters. She was consenting and willing…”
First off, the victim disagrees. Secondly, if she was so willing, why the Quaalude?
Polanski may be a monster, but he’s Hollywood’s Monster, and they are the rich and powerful elite in this town and that matters. And what does it say about Polanski’s defenders in both the entertainment industry and media that they consider his living luxuriously in Europe as ”a horrible, soul-wrenching price for the infamy surrounding his actions“? (more…)
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Michael Moore: Mainstream Media Boosts Dishonesty
by Billy HallowellSomewhat fresh off the trail from despicable attempts to distort the events and facts surrounding Columbine, 9/11 and the American health care system, filmmaker Michael Moore is back to perpetuate new mis-truths and to face off with a new “villain” – capitalism. In case of shear irony, in his new film entitled, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” Moore sets out to unravel the very system that gives him notoriety, fame and, no doubt, opulence.
Fortunately for Moore, we live in a free society. Despite the fact that his films are comprised of antics and obnoxious absurdities that only small-minded Americans would believe in their totality, he has every right to continue his idiocy. It is the coverage of Moore and his half-witted films that cause one to question the media’s promotional motives.
Mainstream outlets can’t seem to get enough of Moore, as they offer him positive coverage galore and provide him with valuable air time to push his insidious projects. Meanwhile, conservative film projects receive little to no praise – or even attention, for that matter. (more…)
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‘Pioneer of Guerrilla Marketing,’ Specialist in ‘Leveraging’ Arts Community for Health Care Issues Coincidentally in on NEA Conference Call
by Rusty ShacklefordThe NEA apology from the White House is laughable, at best. Again, if this was just all a big misunderstanding then why was a representative from one of the country’s largest political advertising firms involved? And pushing the health care agenda on company time?
I believe the following information might help explain Bim Ayandele’s involvement. Not only did he help set up the Office of Public Engagement, but before joining a division of one of the largest PR firms in the world — which specializes in “grassroots organization”, “issues management” and “crisis communications” — Ayandele:
served as the Director of Cures Now, a Los Angeles based non-profit organization leveraging a coalition of actors, directors, producers, musicians, and writers to promote the rapid, responsible and ethical advancement of science-related social issues, such as stem-cell research and diabetes awareness.
It seems Mr. Ayandele’s expertise is in “leveraging” the entertainment industry to “promote” health care related issues. A skill which would have been useful should, say, the White House or another interested third party wish to get NEA grant recipients to push President Obama’s health care agenda.
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Cowardly ‘Onion’ Ignores Obama, Ridicules Reagan’s Alzheimers
by Christian TotoIt’s bad enough that one of the snarkiest comedy outlets around, The Onion, can’t seem to find anything funny about President Barack Obama. But the faux newspaper hit a new low this week by insulting former President Ronald Reagan’s Alzheimer’s Disease and his economic record in one nasty twofer.
Week after week The Onion bends over backward not to satirize The One. That’s keeping in line with most of today’s cowardly comics, from David Letterman to Bill Maher.
Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” has shown some interest in pursuing the president’s comic potential, but it comes in fits and starts. But The Onion’s latest attempt at humor is both vicious and wrongheaded. (more…)
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Palin’s Hong Kong Speech: I Can See Insanity From My Newsroom
by John ZieglerYou would think at this point it would be impossible for anyone (especially me) to be stunned or outraged by anything the news media tries to pull when it comes to Sarah Palin. After all, once you have been exposed to a year-long brutal beating, one tends to become numb to a simple low blow. However, the news coverage of her Hong Kong speech still managed to spark the senses on several levels.
First, it must be noted that it is rather incredible that this speech got as much play as it did. Remember, this is a private citizen from Alaska who was a “failed” vice-presidential candidate, who has given no official indication she is ever going to run for anything ever again. The speech was a private affair in a foreign country and contained no real “news” whatsoever. The news media was barred and were forced to cobble together bits and pieces of what was said from the paying customers who attended. And yet, nearly every major publication gave the event heavy play and links to FOUR of those articles were displayed prominently on the Drudge Report all day long. (more…)
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