The following letter refers to our coverage of the dispute regarding Ron Howard's new film The Dilemma. The controversy revolves around the gay rights group GLAAD's protests about a line of dialogue in the film that they deem insensitive.
Dear Lee;
I
can’t believe that you appear to be supporting movie censorship. There is
no evidence that humor from any movie is tied to any crimes against people
because they are gay. It’s hypocritical for GLAAD to go after a movie for a
funny line that makes fun of gays when every other movie and TV series in
America routinely makes fun of white, male, Christian, heterosexual, conservatives and nobody raises an eyebrow. This comes on the heels of a
related story where openly gay entertainer Adam Lambert is scheduled to perform
at a concert in Malaysia where he has been asked by the government to tone down
his act after Malaysia’s Islamist Protest Party has demanded that his concert
be canceled. In Malaysia it is also a crime to be a homosexual, yet GLAAD is
totally silent on this issue and some would say they were cowards. Should we
submit all movies for approval by other politically correct organizations like
NAACP, PETA, NOW, CAIR and others? Maybe the narcissistic, thin skinned,
whining and hyper- sensitive cry babies who can only laugh at jokes aimed at
others, like CNNs Anderson Cooper who called Tea Party members “Tea Baggersâ€
and GLAAD, should stay out of the censorship business and speak out against
real, rather than imagined, threats to out Freedom an Liberty and get a sense
of humor…
-Doug Oswald
Retro responds: Doug; Whoa there, big guy! That's sure a lot of hyperbole for a simple story reporting on a dispute over a line in a movie that doesn't even involve politics. In fact, if you read our coverage, we're not advocating anything because there is no opinion expressed one way or the other. Whether or not GLAAD's objections are appropriate or overly-sensitive is left to the individual readers to decide. Similarly, I'll leave it to those readers to decide if "white, male, Christian, heterosexual, conservatives" are being discriminated against. It's a minefield I'd rather not walk across. There seems to be a presumption among some of our conservative readers that, by simply reporting on a story, Cinema Retro is biased against their views. I do have to say that we never get similar complaints from liberals when we run favorable stories that in some ways involve Presidents Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush or other conservatives. Nor do we get complaints about our site being a virtual love letter to the ultimate symbol of conservatism, John Wayne - which is a bias I will admit to because he's always been my favorite actor. Likewise, in the most contentious days of the Bush administration, I never received a single E mail complaining about the respectful coverage we gave to the President on those occasions where he figured into a story. None of this means I'm siding with liberals over conservatives, but the mail trends do seem to indicate a sensitivity on one side of the political spectrum that we don't hear from on the other side. To our conservative friends and readers: please just chill out because no one is criticizing your views or beliefs and we are not advocating any political philosophies here.
I've tried hard not to use Cinema Retro's vast readership as a platform to espouse political opinions of anyone who contributes to our site. I confine my personal political views to my circle of friends. We've been passionately arguing our positions for years - without changing anyone's mind. (Isn't the definition of insanity the tendency to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results?) I've had to continue repeating this like a broken record because we keep getting submissions from readers who want to tie in contentious political aspects to their stories. I have not run these articles regardless of whether they are slanted to the left or the right. There are a million web sites where these opinions would be appropriate, but a site about movies isn't one of them. I'm not one for Kumbaya moments, but I'd like to think that a love for classic cinema is a topic that might bring people together, not divide them. As for my opinions about the Tea Party, whether favorable or unfavorable, this is not the appropriate forum to express them. However, if you ever swing by New York City, let me know and I'll be happy to discuss 'em with you mano-a-mano over a few beers- and I'll pick up the tab even if we don't agree. Thanks for writing - Lee Pfeiffer