Media Criticism
Daily Gut: Sarah Palin’s Books Sales Prove We’re All Racists (Again)
by Greg Gutfeld
So apparently Sarah Palin sold over three hundred thousand copies of her book in one day – and as you can guess – they were all purchased by racists.
At least, that’s what the sociology professors over at MSNBC Community College believe. Check out Hardball guest Norah O’Donnell, impersonating a talking puffin…
“This is a largely white — almost no minorities in this crowd. And they`re here because they love Sarah Palin. I think it`s an emotional connection, Chris because they feel, too, that they`ve been beat up on, whether it`s the economy or they feel like outcasts. They like the outsider, if you will, in Sarah Palin. And that`s why people have been willing to wait, 1,500 of them, since 7:00 AM this morning to just get a glimpse of Sarah Palin.”
So let me get this straight: people appreciate Palin because they’ve been picked on by a big bully. It makes me wonder if Norah ever psycho-analyzed Obama supporters this closely… or called them “largely black.” (more…)
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‘Newsweek’s’ Snobbish Stand-Up Slam
by Jeffrey JenaStand-up comedy is the least respected of all the performing arts. As if being a stand-up comic weren’t hard enough; the years of being judged by every person who owns a liquor license and a microphone, driving six hours to a non-existent gig, begging moronic agents and managers who are looking for a “new, original and exciting” talent to come out to see your show only to be asked why you aren’t more “Seinfeld-ish.” On top of that it takes years to develop an act and find your voice on stage. There are child actors, child musicians, tiny dancers and even I would guess a few very young working writers, but no child comics. Why? Because stand-up comedy is the only experiential-based art form. Kids can tell “jokes” but they can’t do stand-up. Stand-up comedy, really good stand-up comedy has evolved from joke telling into a personal narrative dialogue with the audience.
Still, every now and then some elitist hack with a degree from the right college and the proper connections gets a job at a failing weekly magazine and decides to take a shot at you and your profession, feeling they are qualified to judge this art form because they know how to laugh and talk. This is rarely if ever done with other art forms. Seriously folks, when is the last time you saw an article about actors who can’t act, dancers who can’t dance, painters who can’t paint or pointless “performance artists.” Yet, about every six months some “critic” declares a number of famous comics “not funny.” (more…)
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Health Nazis Target Movie Snacks
by Big Hollywood
ABC News spends 2050 words explaining how irresponsible movie theater chains give their customers what they want slowly kill their customers with fatty, sugary high-caloric snacks:
Everyone expects to splurge a bit at the movies, but while your wallet may be able to handle an $8 tub of popcorn, your waistline may not — at least according to a new report released today by the consumers group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
Even popcorn did not escape the scrutiny of the report, which mentioned that even a small bag of the cinema favorite tips the scales at 700 calories and three days worth of saturated fat.
It’s not the first time that CSPI has given movie popcorn two thumbs down; the new report is actually a sequel to one in 1994 that gave similar negative reviews. And like the first version, the most recent edition of CSPI’s Nutrition Action Health Letter suggests moviegoers forego that trip to the concession stand altogether.
The report looked at the popcorn, soda and candy sold at the country’s top three movie theater chains: Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Theaters, and Cinemark. The researchers tallied the calories, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium in each theater’s various sizes and combos. Based on their findings, the authors warn the public that their movie-time indulgences may be a lot more indulgent than they bargained for. …
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NBC’s ObamaVision: Will Peacock’s News Division Expose the Alarmism?
by Patrick Courrielche“Why can’t we ignore [global warming]? Because it’s the biggest crisis we’ve ever faced.” — Al Gore, April 24, 2009, Testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Climate Change Legislation.
Next week NBC is entering their “Green Week” of programming, infusing environmental messages across many of their prime-time shows. But the campaign does not only include entertainment programs – the eco-messaging will also be spread through NBC News’ Nightly News, Meet the Press, and the Today Show.
My question for the NBC News organization is this – will you be discussing the biggest global warming story of the year?
Early this year a study from Oregon State University, entitled Reproduction and the carbon legacies of individuals, contained the single biggest decision that anyone could make to dramatically lower their carbon footprint. And that decision? Have fewer kids.
The results of the report are actually mind boggling for anyone somewhat informed on environmental policy. The study investigates how the reproductive choices of an individual affects their “carbon legacy”, or said differently, the CO2 emissions attributable to a person’s offspring. What they found was that a US citizen’s decision of having a child adds 5.7 times the expected CO2 emissions for that citizen. Yes, 5.7 times!! This is due to the domino effect of your kids having kids, which have kids, and so on. (more…)
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‘By the People’: Ed Norton and Hollywood’s Mindless Obama Praise
by Billy HallowellAmy Rice and Alicia Sams’ documentary, “By the People,” provides a lens into Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. A guided tour of sorts, the film delves into the Obama’s biggest milestones, while ignoring glaring contradictions and blemishes. Perhaps two words can best describe it: snooze fest. Teamed with the films vapidity and its lack of new, unexplored material, there are some intriguing conflicts of interest surrounding its production.
“By the People” is a praise initiative that doesn’t offer much beyond what politicos and Obama enthusiasts already know: Obama was a regular Joe who, through a series of (unfortunate for the American people) events, captured the presidency.
While Hollywood’s insane obsession with anything and anyone left of center is never a surprise, one should ardently question why HBO, after purchasing the film for seven figures, has chosen to ignore other intriguing political stories. Why not balance the film with another special or documentary that explores the McCain-Palin campaign? One could argue, as I’m sure HBO would, that the focus of the film is on to the winning candidate. Fine. Argue away, but anyone with a pulse knows we’d be hard pressed to see a similar accolade to a Republican victor. Furthermore, Sarah Palin’s initial book sales prove that she’s a brand worth exploring. So, why not go for it? (more…)
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‘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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