Politics again infects the Oscars. Plus: FOP responds to LeBron. And, grading the prez.
By Gary Abernathy
Good choice to skip political convention, aka ‘Oscars’
As a lifelong movie fan, I used to love the Academy Awards, until Hollywood declared war on conservatives and turned nearly all awards ceremonies into political rallies targeting Republicans and anyone on the right.
It’s a shame, because conservatives love movies, TV, music, etc. as much as anyone. I didn’t watch Sunday night’s Oscars, and, based on a USA Today review, it sounds like I didn’t miss much.
The newspaper reported: The Oscars were a train wreck at the train station, an excruciatingly long, boring telecast that lacked the verve of so many movies we love. Produced by "Ocean's Eleven" director Steven Soderbergh, the Oscars were a dull talkfest that looked more like awards for a regional insurance group than "Hollywood's biggest night."
And from what I’m reading just about everywhere, sounds like the event was more politicized than ever. I found an alternative way to indulge my movie fandom by watching Starz’s great documentary on Quentin Tarantino, “QT8: The First Eight.”
FOP responds to political pundit LeBron James
As most people have heard, noted political pundit LeBron James responded on Twitter – the uber-responsible platform which is so careful to edit harmful posts (sarcasm intended) – to the Columbus, Ohio, police shooting of an apparently armed and threatening juvenile by posting a picture of the responding officer who fired the shots, with the caption “You’re next.”
After he was apparently confronted by sane people and deleted that post, he followed it with this: “I’m so damn tired of seeing black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because it’s being used to create more hate – This isn’t about one officer. [I]t’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY.”
James was rightfully criticized from many quarters, but the response by the Jacksonville, Fla. FOP is particularly worth a read. It includes this: “We do an amazing job in the worst neighborhoods every single day. Over a billion police contacts with citizens annually handled flawlessly around the nation and you chose the wrong one that demonstrates your ignorance in an almost unfathomable fashion to weigh in on. At least admit you were wrong and apologize to the human being whose back you placed a target.” Find the whole thing here.
I wrote after the George Floyd murder that there are police departments across the country who need to weed out the bad apples – “the racists, or the ones who enjoy the power and authority of the badge more than they care about protecting and serving” -- but in a case like this, there’s been a rush to judgment over an incident that for now seems like a case of officers trying to protect someone from a violent assault. But the investigation is ongoing, and we always – always – need to let more light shine on cases like this before weighing in with definitive conclusions either way.
Grading Biden’s first 100 days
I was happy to participate with other Washington Post columnists in making a few comments and assigning a grade to President Biden’s first 100 days. Readers were also asked to weigh in. You can read the results here.
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