Leftists: Read Your Book, Win A Grammy
by Tim SlagleNowhere is Hollywood bias more blatant than at awards shows. The nominations and prizes provide a remarkable window into the political leanings of the industry. The snub of Clint Eastwood for Best Actor in “Gran Torino” is symptomatic of that overwhelming bias. Usually when a legendary actor yet to win a performance Oscar plays what could be his last role, he’s a shoe-in. Yet, Eastwood’s fine work was ignored, probably due to the film’s political bias.
For a number of years now, the Grammy award for “Best Spoken Word Album” has been the most political. It has nothing to do with recording or performance quality and has degenerated down to the “political statement we most admire.”
A politician seeking a Grammy for his shelf, need do nothing more than read parts of his book in front of a microphone. Barack Obama (2008 & 2005), Jimmy Carter (2007), Bill Clinton (2004), Al Franken (2003 & 1996), and Hillary Clinton (Non Musical 1996), have all taken the award in the past.
This year, the award was taken by Al Gore for another version of “An “Inconvenient Truth”; a never-ending documentary, which has actually outlasted the warming. For those of you who are unaware (I was), there was an audio book version of the book version of the film version of his PowerPoint presentation. It was read by Beau Bridges, Blair Underwood, and Cynthia Nixon. (Apparently, it took three actors to get through the whole thing without falling asleep.)
Why are awards dominated by Leftists? While on the Right, achievement is ranked by material gain, for the Left, it’s awards and honorary degrees. What is in the leftist mentality that enjoys golden statues so much? Is there something in the mind of collectivists that makes a nodding approval from the group necessary for self-fulfillment?
On the left, awards are very important. Al Gore might be spouting gibberish disguised as science, (and his enormous carbon footprint is testament to how little he actually believes what he says) but the fact that he has a Nobel, an Emmy, an Oscar, and now a Grammy, is enough to label him a genius.
I’m reminded of the line from a Charlie Brown Christmas, where Lucy enrages Schroeder over Beethoven:
He never got his picture on bubble gum cards did he? Have you ever seen his picture on a bubble gum card? How can you say someone is great who’s never had his picture on bubble gum cards.
No wonder conservatives are treated like idiots.
They’re not “great.”
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22 Comments
This is like the typical Daily Show, where the audience cheers and applauds for a dig at Bush – but doesn’t actually LAUGH. The Colin Quinn show “Tough Crowd” used to have a rule that if your joke got cheers instead of a laugh, you had to pay a fine.
This is the Achilles heel of the leftist’s funny bone. Politics trump comedic value, regardless of how hilarious or stupid the joke is.
[...] READ YOUR BOOK, win a Grammy! [...]
This says it all about why I do not watch the award shows.
You said “While on the Right, achievement is ranked by material gain, for the Left, it’s awards and honorary degrees”
If that’s the case, then why do you guys spend so much time whining about awards shows?
Every once in a while I will channel surf to one of these awards shows and all I see is a bunch of narcissists in a big circle with their lips firmly planted on the buttocks of the person in front of them.
Great observations.
Algore’s probably trying to figure out how he can snag a coveted Teen Choice award.
Is there something in the mind of collectivists that makes a nodding approval from the group necessary for self-fulfillment?
Um, yes… it’s collectivism. That’s one of its essential characteristics. You might as well have asked if there was something in the mind of racists that makes them dislike people of color.
It’s very simple, the older members of the Academy are generally more politically conservative than the younger members. Several prominent older Academy voters like Ernest Borgnine and Tony Curtis publicly stated that they were so personally offended by the subject matter of Brokeback Mountain that they had no intention of seeing it.
If gay cowboys is what they think merits taking a stand, it’s no wonder the Left has taken over their profession… they won by default.
Is there something in the mind of collectivists that makes a nodding approval from the group necessary for self-fulfillment?
Um, yeah… collectivism. The need for group approval is one of its defining characteristics. You may as well have asked whether there was something in the mind of racists that makes them distrust people of color.
It’s very simple, the older members of the Academy are generally more politically conservative than the younger members. Several prominent older Academy voters like Ernest Borgnine and Tony Curtis publicly stated that they were so personally offended by the subject matter of Brokeback Mountain that they had no intention of seeing it.
If gay cowboys is what it takes to motivate conservative members of the Academy to take a stand, then it’s no wonder the Left has taken over their profession … they won by default.
If the Academy hates Clint Eastwood, why did “Changeling” get three nominations, including Best Actress? Come to think of it, if the Academy hates Clint Eastwood, why did he WIN Best Director in 2004 for Million Dollar Baby? But wait! Conservatives hated Million Dollar Baby! Even though Clint’s an outspoken Republican! And wait! If the Academy hates Clint Eastwood, how did “Letters from Iwo Jima,” a film in a foreign language and no stars, get four Oscar nominations, including a Best Picture nomination in 2006?
Do you think you could maybe correct this article to indicate that Clint Eastwood is, in fact, beloved by the Academy? ‘Cause, seriously, dude, you’re starting to lose me.
Clint Eastwood didn’t get an acting nomination for two reasons:
1) He won for Best Director four years ago. It bites, but there it is. His recent win in an equally impressive category worked against him.
2) It was a very strong year for performances–Frank Langella, Sean Penn, Richard Jenkins, Brad Pitt, and Mickey Rourke.
By the way–and Tim, this one’s goin’ out to you and all the adorable little commenters–do you agree with me that Clint Eastwood deserved to win the Best Director Oscar in 2004 for “Million Dollar Baby”? (Oh noes! Trick question! Danger, Will Robertson, Danger!)
As for complaining about “An Inconvenient Truth,” without citing other audio books in the category THIS YEAR that deserved to win more, or citing other audio books THIS YEAR which should have been nominated, I have no idea how to evaluate your argument. Tell me what you think should have won, or should have been nominated, and we can go back and evaluate, book by book. That’s how it’s done.
Hold Up – February 9th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
….why do you guys spend so much time whining about awards shows?
Could it be the screaming hypocrisy? The attempt to proselytize to unsuspecting masses (including kids)? The actual desire to have entertainment we can enjoy too?
Who knows? Maybe some of us are just tired of seeing stupid people worship at the alter of a guy who’s made Franklin Raines money by predicting the end of the world for the last eight years (all while refusing to debate it, speak about it for free, or give up his cushy eco-unfriendly lifestyle). I’m sure there are lots of reasons. The bigger question is, why are people like yourself OK with being used by people who obviously think you’re a moron?
So, according to Big Hollywood, Clint Eastwood is blacklisted for awards because of his politics.
Yet, he’s been nominated for Best Director four times, Best Picture four times, and Best Actor twice since 1992. 10 nominations in 17 years. Yep, real hardcore bias against the Clint.
The only other directors who have had the same Oscar nomination haul in the same period were Steven Spielberg (three nominations for director, three for best picture) and Peter Jackson (two nominations for director, three for picture, three for script).
Yet, somehow you clowns insist on painting Clint as an awards VICTIM this year?
I’m still waiting for “An Inconvenient Truth: The Musical”. I smell a Tony®!
Or “An Inconvenient Truth: On Ice”!
Awards are important to those on the right–don’t believe otherwise.
This column doesn’t really addres the annoyance adequately.
But here it is.
The right gets annoyed at awards shows because we can not discren why the left wins. Sales success? nope. Artistic merit? nope. So many leftist ’sucesses’ are failures handed an award.
And we see that the very definition of success is altered to make sure the things favored by leftists usually win. Occasionally we get a LoTR situation(and anyone who thinks that the Oscar sweep was solely for RoTK is just insane).
Everybody knows that the Grammy’s are the worst of the worst of the awards shows. They are all politics and have been as far back as I can remember. This was actually the first one I’ve watched in over a decade and…surprise surprise, nothing’s changed. There is so much good music out there NOT being played on “Top 40″ radio stations. NOT being played because payola still exists in a nicer more legal-friendly manner and the Grammy’s would have you believing that anything not being doled out from their beneficent musical coffers just doesn’t exist. So it only goes to show that the spoken word award would go to something political. And by the way, I’m a liberal leftie.
Arnold: LOL! I think I’d go see that! LOL
[...] Big Hollywood: Leftists: Read Your Book, Win A Grammy For a number of years now, the Grammy award for “Best Spoken Word Album” has been the most political. It has nothing to do with recording or performance quality and has degenerated down to the “political statement we most admire.” [...]
I guess we have a Great President though:
http://www.toppsonlinestore.com/servlet/the-Obama...
Sure, Clint Eastwood not getting any nominations is a crime against nature this year, but it's not because of politics. It's because the Oscar people are blithering idiots. Consider that as well as Gran Torino, The Wrestler, Doubt, Revolutionary Road, Wall-E, and The Dark Knight were snubbed for best picture. All films more deserving than say….The Reader.
Christopher–
Ten seconds on google for "Million Dollar Baby" and controversy, gives us this, from libertas, a conservative blog on film:
http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/libertas/index...
"Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times added his voice to the growing lamentations over what conservative critics like Michael Medved and Rush Limbaugh and Debbie Schlussel are supposedly doing to poor Clint Eastwood and his Million Dollar Baby. It’s becoming obvious that conservative critics of this film are having an impact, as writers like Goldstein and Maureen Dowd (see my last post) would otherwise not be bothering to rally to this film’s defense. "
Limbaugh is arguably the most prominent conservative commentator around; Medved, one of the most prominent conservative film critics. It also came in for attack from The Weekly Standard. The fact that "you don't remember" any conservatives complaining about the movie doesn't mean the criticism wasn't there.
As for the film's alleged liberal themes, why would Eastwood, an acknowleged Republican, have put a year or more of his life into making the movie if he believed it promoted a liberal agenda? *Nobody* devotes a year of their life to make a film they disagree with. Either 1) He's not really a Republican, in which case his snub for Gran Torino wasn't political or 2) The movie isn't liberal (it isn't–just because it's *about* euthanasia at the end doesn't mean it *promotes* euthanasia.) It's a story about characters.
"I did not get angry and ban it or walk around telling everyone it was terrible when I knew it wasn't or hadn't seen it ([An] American Carol, Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto)"–I don't remember any complaints about Apocalypto at all. Nobody tried to ban any of those movies; heck, An American Carol disappeared without a trace on its own, pretty much. Saying a movie's terrible is allowed; kinda that whole freedom-of-speech thing. Particularly when it happens to be as bad as, um, An American Carol.
Lil Wayne Haddddd Braidssssss ….OMG Memoriesss
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