BROS: An American Film Classic (Ava and C.I.)

BROS.  It was supposed to be just a film but it became so much more.

As a film, let's cover the basics.  Nicholas Stoller directed the film with a screenplay by Billy Eichner and Stoller, while the producers are Stoller, Joshua Church and Judd Apatow.  The stars include Billy, Luke Macfarlane, Ts Madison, Monica Raymund, Guillermo Diaz, Guy Branum and Amanda Bearse.

 

The film is hilarious and the script so great it should be a lock on the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.  The reviews are wonderful because the film is hilarious.  

Billy Eichner has noted that, over the summer, UNIVERSAL had to address issues with a theater chain who didn't even want to play the trailer for BROS.  Billy thinks UNIVERSAL handled it.  Billy is wrong.

 

UNIVERSAL did strong arm them on the trailer.  But before it came out, it was already obvious that it wasn't going to be a success it's opening weekend because of the theaters. The day before the film opened, for example, Stan wrote:

 

Okay, BROS comes out tomorrow.  It will not be playing on a level field.  C.I. told me about that and I checked it out, she is correct.  A per theater average will be released (how much each film made per theater) and you'll be under the impression that SMILE, for example, outsold BROS.  You'll be told about their per theater average.

That's a lie.  It's not a valid figure to make comparisons with.

I never realized it before.  I have covered that figure and treated it as real repeatedly.  

C.I. explained it to me.  She said BROS will not get as many showings a day as other films.  She said that some theaters would not show it until the last matinee and would only show it once or twice at night.  I've gone online and she's correct.  I looked at ten different cities.  Tomorrow SMILE will play repeatedly beginning in the morning and on through the day over and over.  BROS will play four times a day on average (so low because some cities are only showing it three times all day).

So the per theater average isn't an accurate metric.  They should be doing "per showing."  That would be more accurate.   BROS has no chance because it's not being shown as many times a day.   In Atlanta, for example, on Friday, SMILE will have 31 showings.  BROS?  Friday in Atlanta, it will only have 24 showings. 

 

BROS was being undercut from the first ticket sold.  It was never on an equal playing field.  That is made $4.8 million its opening weekend was amazing for that reason alone.  'B-b-but it was supposed to make $15 million opening weekend!' That expectation was based on a flawed prediction.

The model used was the normal model of projection -- it did not factor in that the film was not being shown at theaters in the usual amounts that a film on opening weekend will be.

UNIVERSAL should have caught that and tamped down on expectations.  The prediction was inaccurate and that was obvious (yes, this piece is being written by Ava and C.I. --same C.I. who warned Stan what was going to happen before the film opened).  

But people were surprised and that included Billy.  Apparently, he's now deleted the Tweet he posted the Monday after BROS opened.  It did read: "That's just the world we live in, unfortunately.  Even with glowing reviews, great Rotten Tomatoes scores, an A CinemaScore etc, straight people, especially in certain parts of the country, just didn't show up for Bros.  And that's disappointing but it is what it is."

This became controversial.  It became proof of hatred of straight people or some such nonsense.

 

Bill Miller, sometimes just "Bill," astroturfed many sites with comments like the following left at DEADLINE:

Bill miller on October 1, 2022 7:08 pm

Bros had terrible marketing. In ads they literally said, remember straight people, me neither.’ I’m all fine with gay movies relationships- but I’m not paying money to just be insulted. Imagine a movie trailer that said the reverse? Uproar.

Poor Bill. He quotes a line from the film and he can't even get it right.

And this mistake ended up playing very well to the right-wing who ran with it as well.

"They had a good run."  That is what the trans woman says in the film.

It's the same trailer, by the way, that includes Luke and Billy's "Gay people are so dumb" dialogue.

But little Billy Miller got ass hurt over a line he misheard and couldn't appreciate that the film was mocking everyone.

Just as there was that misunderstanding, Billy's Tweet was intentionally misunderstood.

 

The right-wing -- but not just the right-wing -- was up in arms over his comment which they said was him attacking -- attacking -- straight people for not showing up.

 

Attacking with this: "straight people, especially in certain parts of the country, just didn't show up for Bros.  And that's disappointing but it is what it is."

 

Wow.  

 

If you're getting ass hurt over that 'attack,' we wonder how you make it through a day in the real world.

 

It was an expression of sadness.

 

And Billy had every right to be sad.

 

BROS is a funny movie, very funny.  It's also a heartfelt film and one that works because Billy took a knife, opened a vein and bled all over the page.  That's Billy up there on the screen.  Not just as an actor, that's Billy's thoughts, that's who he is on his best day and who he is on his worst day.  Like Joni Mitchell's classic BLUE, Billy put it all out there in a way that few ever do.

 

And so it would be hard as the actor in BROS to deal with Monday morning after the opening, but when you are the movie, it's even harder.

 

He didn't attack anyone.  He expressed sadness and you'd hope people would recognize that and cut him some slack but instead it was attack, attack attack.

 

He didn't respond in anger but he would have had every right to.

 

Our response that Monday was anger.  We were appalled by the box office -- and we knew it was going to be low.  But we were appalled because, over and over, the LGBTQ+ community was there throughout 2022 -- lifting others up and sharing the stage.  That included on that awful NETFLIX special we called out, the supposed PRIDE special, which let Sandra Bernhard take the stage to address . . . abortion.   When ROE was killed by Clary Thomas and others on the illegitimate court, the LGBTQ+ community could have been silent.

Outside of rape, it's not really a pressing issue for that community.  If a lesbian is pregnant, outside of rape, it's pretty much because she wants to be, for example. 

But they didn't take a pass.  As a community, they came out strong and loud about the death of ROE.

And where's the straight community been all year long?

Jonathan Turley?  Our legal expert?  He's said that LGBTQ+s have nothing to fear from this court and that despite Clarry Thomas noting in his concurring opinion in DOBBS that the same right to privacy the Court denies exists for ROE also does not exist for marriage equality or, for that matter, anal sex.  

Jonathan wants you to know that the Court will never, ever, go after these two issues.  This is the same Turley who wanted you to know that the Court would not overturn Roe in 2022.  So, forgive us, we're not really believing Jonathan Turley these days.

YOUTUBE has a host of programs.  REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT, THE KATIE HALPER SHOW, LEFT LENS, RISING, BREAKING POINTS, HARD LENS MEDIA, JACKIE AND HIS TINY HINKLE, THE JIMMY DORE SHOW, THE CONVO COUCH, MINT PRESS NEWS,  and many, many more.

 

Help us out -- which one of them has done a program -- a full segment -- on how DOBBS could threaten the LGBTQ+ community?

Answer: None of them.

Gay activists and gay celebrities did not go silent about reproductive rights after DOBBS was issued.  but we can't say the same for the straight community, can we?

And it was apparently too much for our community to get it off its lazy ass and go to the movies and see BROS. It was just too much for us.  Buying a ticket and all.  

Billy's right to be offended.  Time and again, we expect every community to serve us but we don't appear to want to return the favor.

While we refused, as a community, to support BROS, the right-wing was very happy to use the box office as a referendum on gay rights.  Did you miss that as well?

When the LGBTQ+ community is under attack, we took a pass and fed the right-wing.  

America doesn't like gays, that's what the right-wing is taking from BROS.  

Thank you, to our fellow straights, for doing your part to oppress.

That's all you did.  You're rather see some crappy movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis who, let's be honest, wants you to now care about trans people because of her daughter but when asked -- by a Howard Stern personality -- about the rumors that she was born intersex, Jamie screamed and snarled that children were present (she was promoting her children's book) and "How dare you!"

 

Apparently, that video has vanished from the internet so we will go with the closest approximation of that moment, Derek from THE CATHERINE TATE SHOW.

And some thought Jamie Lee couldn't do comedy.  (Here's a post with the video of Jamie Lee losing it and responding, "How dare you!")

Back to BROS, it's a wonderful comedy.  But the straight community couldn't support it?  They weren't being asked to sit through WHO'S THAT GIRL or any of Madonna's other films.  BROS is a genuinely funny film.  The funniest of 2022, in fact.  It's a joy to watch.  And you can now watch at home in the US -- it's on streaming for rental and for purchase.

And let's hope it finds support there because it really hasn't gotten the support it needs or it deserves.  Even now.

In terms of history, that's fine.  BRINGING UP BABY was not a box office hit.  It was a classic film and its audience only grew with each year.  The same that happened with HAROLD & MAUDE and the same that will happen with BROS.  It's a great film.

 But the most disturbing aspect of BROS has been the delight with which some have had attacking it.

Let's leave the right wing for a moment to note what we like to call The Underfed And Angry Twink Brigade.  Without seeing the film -- clearly without seeing BROS -- they began attacking it online over -- wait for it -- its lack of diversity in the cast.

They held it up to FIRE ISLAND.  And lied that FIRE ISLAND was their life.  (Fire Island?  They're lucky to make it to Des Moines.)  They lied further claiming FIRE ISLAND was more diverse than BROS.

The thing about liars is that they're also usually pretty stupid.  So they held up their Asian-American male cast with a token female (Margaret Cho) and pretended this was the height of diversity for LGBTQ+ films.

BROS, by contrast, actually has a diverse main cast.  They do have Asian-Americans and they also have a Latino in the main cast, they have African-Americans (an A-A group not in the main cast of FIRE ISLAND, FYI), they have lesbians, they have a bi-sexual, they have trans women, etc, etc.  

Diversity?  Sorry, Underfed And Angry Twink Brigade, FIRE ISLAND had no real diversity.

Unless you count dressing up men in women's role.  That is what FIRE ISLAND does, please grasp, dress men up as 19th century women.  Couldn't come up with his own concept so Joel Kim Booster lifts from Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.  Amy Heckerling took Jane Austen's EMMA and managed to actually update it and have it comment on today (with high school replacing the class system) while Joel Kim just stole characters and a plot because he was so bereft of originality.  This while, again, Billy Eichner opened up a vein to co-write BROS.

Here's some more reality: Joel Kim is not a convincing Elizabeth Bennett -- and that's not just because he's over a decade and a half too old for the part -- though watching a 34-year-old man try to play 20 is both pathetic and impossible.

FIRE ISLAND is a TV movie and not a good one the way SINGLE ALL THE WAY is.  It's a mediocre TV movie and if that bothers you, get ready to really be bothered.

There's something truly sad about a movie like FIRE ISLAND where a nearly 35-year-old man goes through an entire movie out of a relationship and, in the final scene, gets to hug and kiss.  Doris Day got more action in her films with Rock Hudson.  As did Meg Ryan, in SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, in case you forgot.  Annie in the kitchen, on the phone, surprised by Walter (Bill Pullman)?  She got out of bed with Walter to take that phone call.  That's why Walter's at her place in the middle of the night.  

But a 34-year-old gay man gets no real action?  As Rebecca noted the day BROS opened, "glad billy eichner didn't pull punches - not with the jokes, not with the sex scenes."  He didn't pull punches.  It's an R-rated film and Billy didn't water things down.  Besides Bobby's sex scenes with Aaron -- of just the two of them -- Bobby also has two encounters with other men and also has two different encounters with Aaron where two other men participate.  

 

It was a film for adults and it was a film that changed things because it wasn't trying to make nice.  "Oh, it's got gay characters, but don't worry, we're reworking Jane Austen!"   BROS is brave.

And that was in the casing as well.

There were a lot of idiots on this aspect but let's go to the right-wing and Josiah whatever his name is.  Sorry if you thought it was our obligation or duty to popularize a homophobic right-winger, it's not.  So on his YOUTUBE show last week, Josiah (who is obsessed with BROS) wanted you to know that BROS was a bomb -- it didn't bomb -- and that this told you the reality -- of what? -- and besides BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN was a hit.

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN starred two well known men and they were well known for being straight.  BROS didn't give you the way out -- nor should it have.  You didn't get to sit there and have the easy out of, "Robin Williams is just pretending to be gay."  And Nathan Lane is in the closet, of course.  (He was during the time of THE BIRDCAGE.  As he's noted, Jason Alexander outed him later.)

 

The primary cast of BROS is LGBTQ+ and that was major.  

Bobby gets at that throughout the movie.  And does so in a manner similar to Elaine May (people miss her media critique that runs throughout THE BIRDCAGE) and Nora Ephron (equally true of SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE -- or have people not read Susan Faludi's BACKLASH).   

Grasp that.  BROS offers a media and a social critique while also making you laugh and making you cry and making you give a damn about the love story between Bobby and Aaron.  

It's a mature movie and grasp how rare that is.  The straight left loves to whine about seeing comic books on the big screen -- and especially about the origin stories.  And yet we couldn't turn out for a funny, adult film that treated the audience like thinking people?

That's sad and appalling.  

We are the people who used to tut-tut over MELROSE PLACE cutting to a close up of Andew Schue's slack-jawed face instead of staying on Matt to show him kissing a man.  Nearly 30 years later, we get a little reality and we refuse to support it, we refuse to turn out for it.

 

Homophobia has not ended.  Don't pretend that it has because Twitter makes it clear that homophobia is thriving.

❤️❤️❤️ https://t.co/lXYjygrF5s

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) October 5, 2022

In that Tweet, Twitter is censoring this photo.

It's 2022 and we've actually gotten worse than we were in the 90s.  MELROSE PLACE could have gotten away with the above in the 90s.  In 2022, Twitter censors that.

Clarence Thomas wants to end marriage equality and yet we, the straight allies, couldn't even just buy a ticket to a film to show our support.  It's embarrassing and its shameful.

(If you bought a ticket and you're straight, great for you.  We did as well.  But there's no denying that our very large community didn't.)

BROS is brave and it pulls this country where we need to be.  As Rickie Lee Jones sings in "Chuck E.'s In Love," "Oh, it's never gonna be the same."  And we should all be grateful for that.

 

It's not Channing Tatum pretending to be gay.  And it's not a story of two gay guys who hug and maybe kiss at the end after being apart the whole movie.  And it's not a story that, in the final scenes, kills off one of the two in the relationship.  And it's not a story where they break up in the end.

It's two gay men playing two gay men who get together.  

BROS pulled film into the 21st century and did so with confidence, humor and so much love.  

The film's available on streaming platforms -- for rental and for purchase.  It'll be out on BLU RAY shortly.  And the film will be remembered for years because it is a comedy classic.  Congratulations to all who were a part of the film and especially to Billy who didn't hedge, who went full out.  He has so much to be proud of.

 

 

The African-American Roundtable

Ty: We're doing The African-American roundtable and thank you to Ava and C.I. who are taking notes for this transcript piece.  Participating are  are me from  The Third Estate Sunday Review, Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man;  Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix;  Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.

Ty (Con't):  For those late to the story, Scott Ritter has been arrested multiple times for attempting to have sex with underage girls.  He used to claim it was all a plot by Bully Boy Bush to silence him and his criticism of the Iraq War.  But it wasn't.  And Barack Obama is president when Scott gets arrested again.  This time there's no probation or excuses, he goes to trial.  He's convicted.  He's sent to prison and now he's out.  And some idiots on the left are promoting him.  Some of those idiots?  Jimmy Dore, Jackson and His Tiny Hinkle, THE CONVO COUCH, Aaron Matte, and now?  BLACK AGENDA REPORT so that's why we're having this roundtable.  In the community, Betty's "Margaret Kimberley and her ASIAN WHITE REPORT," Marcia's "The Nutty Left?," Ann's "So Margaret Kimberley chooses pedophiles over children" and C.I.'s "The lack of respect for females leads some to prom...'' addressed this issue.  Okay, whomever want to go first, jump in.

Cedric: I want to start by saying my wife is not a bot.  I don't appreciate her being called that.  I don't appreciate the lies.  But lying is all Margaret Kimberley's readers can do because they're lied to as well.  Shame on you, Margaret, for promoting a registered pedophile.  Shame on you.  That is outrageous and it does serious damage to everyone on the left especially to those of us who are African-Americans.  

Isaiah: Preach.

Cedric: Ann noted how outrageous it was in a Tweet she left on Margaret Kimberely's Twitter feed.  Because not only did BLACK AGENDA REPORT begin publishing Scott Ritter this past week, Margaret Kimberley began promoting it.  That's what happens, I guess, when one person who wanted to control BAR finally gets in charge, she destroys it.  And that is what has happened.

Marcia:  This should be a non-starter.  There is no reason for the left to ever rally behind and promote a convicted sex offender.  This is exactly what WSWS doesn't understand.  #MeToo started for a reason.  That reason is junk like this: idiots acting like it's okay to be a registered sex offender.  

Betty: Jumping in for a second, C.I. handed me a note: WSWS is not promoting Scott Ritter.

Marcia: Thank you, that's correct.  WSWS is very critical of #MeToo and that's what I was referring to, sorry.  But it exists for a reason and it's because men -- and apparently women who identify with men over women -- would act like assault was no big thing.  Do we have rights or not?  Do we get respect or not?

Stan: James Brown's classic says "I'm Black and I'm proud."  Is BAR proud?  Glen Ford and Bruce Dixon pass away -- two leading African-American voices -- and they're replayed with a White convicted sex offender and with Asian-American Danny Haiphong?  And Betty's right, he does not bring African-Americans on THE LEFT LENS.

Ty: I see Ava's eyes so I'm jumping in to explain.  Betty has long criticized, at her site, THE LEFT LENS -- which is now BLACK AGENDA REPORT's only YOUTUBE program -- and how Danny books everyone but African-Americans while he builds his name via African-Americans.

Stan: Builds it on our back, let's be clear. BAR's turned into a plantation run by Danny for Danny.  

Ann: I would so agree with that.  And I question the importance that he's taken on at BLACK AGENDA REPORT.  Margaret couldn't find African-American writers?  It's disgusting.  This was supposed to be a place for African-American writers to focus on issues that impact us.  Instead, it's Danny Haiphong.  He needs to go elsewhere.  He's been a problem since he joined.  Now he's taken over. 

Betty: It's not for Black people anymore.  It's really not.  It's betraying the audience it used to court, the one it still pretends to speak to.

Marcia: And, as an African-American woman, I have to wonder why any Black publication would promote a pedophile?  With all African-American women and girls have to endure, how the hell can BLACK AGENDA REPORT promote a pedophile?

Betty: I love how they pretend it's 'thought crimes,' the ones who defend him.  He acted on those thoughts.  Pretending otherwise?  That's like pretending the people who plotted to kidnap the governor of Michigan didn't do anything because they were caught before they could kidnap her.

Isaiah: Exactly.  I'm serious though, Margaret can not run BAR.  She couldn't when Bruce and Glen were alive.  All she wanted to do was write her weekly column.  That's it.  And that's why she's turned things over to Danny Haiphong.  She's not an editor, she's not a publisher.  

Cedric: And her weakness is destroying BAR.  And we don't need Danny writing about China's Communist Party at BAR and pretending that's a Black issue when it's not.

Stan: It's a betrayal of us, it's a betrayal of Black people.  Danny should have started his own site and stop trying to shoe horn his way into BLACK AGENDA REPORT with all his pet issues that may be good for Asian-Americans but don't belong -- as they are written -- at BAR.

Marcia: This site, this community, has supported BAR and I'm just not going to do it anymore.  I'm tired of it.  I'm tired of White man Scott Ritter, a convicted sex offender, a registered sex offender, getting published by BLACK AGENDA REPORT.  Every time they publish Ritter or Haiphong, that's two African-Americans that didn't get published.  And that's not why BAR was created.  Equally true, from the three roundtables that Bruce Dixon participated in for the gina & krista round-robin, we all know that he never would have supported Scott Ritter being published by BAR.

Ty: Is that okay?  C.I. just shrugged.

Marcia: Sorry  I was mad and I didn't think.  We can pull that out from the published transcript.

Ty: C.I.'s shaking her head "no."  But, as a general rule, we don't discuss what takes place in the round-robin without permission.  It's for members only for a reason and the people outside the community participate with that understanding.  Bruce Dixon is dead so I think it's fine.  I agree with C.I. that it should stay in.  

Marcia: But I was part of three roundtables with him and I know that.  Margaret Kimberley is supposedly his great friend and she didn't know that?  Or she just didn't care?  She betrayed Bruce.

Stan: I agree with my cousin, Margaret is betraying Bruce Dixon.  She's also betraying what Glen and Bruce were creating.  There's no real reason for BAR to exist anymore if this is what it's going to be.

Ty: Okay, I think we've covered it.  This is a rush transcript.  Best e-mail to reach us at?  That would be common_ills@yahoo.com.

Will Smith's insincere apology to Chris Rock

Will Smith attacked Chris Rock at the Academy Awards and he thought some fake assing would wipe that moment away.  It won't.  Will's trash forever.

But it's cute how now he doesn't care to pretend.  He thinks it was funny and cool to attack Chris Rock.

If you missed it, this is ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT:

 

It’s no secret that Will Smith’s reputation has taken a big hit after he slapped presenter Chris Rock during the Academy Awards broadcast over the comedian’s “GI Jane” joke about the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

However, one person who’s proven to have Smith’s back is boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.

During a recent London screening of his upcoming film “Emancipation”, Smith revealed that Mayweather called him the day after the Oscars — and then continued to call for 10 consecutive days.

[. . .]

“And, he was like, ‘Ay, you know you the champ, right? You good? You know you the champ, right? I want you to hear my voice say it,'” he continued.

“That was every day he called me… and it’s like, that’s my dude forever right there.”

 

 Trash, human trash, who lied to the world for weeks pretending he'd learned and that he understood he was wrong.  Trash.  Lying trash.

Go hide in your closet, Will.  Alexis Arquette was right to call you out.

Tweet of the week

 

The so-called progressives in the neoliberal fascist democrat party have declared war on peace & everyone who advocates for peace & restraints on U.S. & Western imperial power. For these progressives peace is a Kremlin talking point!

— Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) October 29, 2022

Take a moment to enjoy THE PEW

Isaiah's took the "House Reject, House Mess and House Dunce" and put them all on their own show -- he's kind of a Barbara Walters of the comic set.  So sit back and take a moment to enjoy THE PEW.

"Take A Moment To Enjoy The PEW" 

 

"Enjoy THE PEW"  

 

 

"The Ladies Of THE PEW"

"Hot Topics With THE PEW"

 

Twitter's homophobia

Repost from THE COMMON ILLS.

Do you see this homophobic garbage Twitter is pulling?

Ava and I are working on our piece for THIRD this week, and as I noted here, it's going to be on BROS.  So we're pulling up some stuff including what I'd written in snapshots here.  I want you to look at the following and note please the second Tweet:

We're back to BROS and we're back to my marveling over how some people are so uninformed and some are taking part in the backlash without even grasping it.

BROS is the best comedy of 2022. Billy Eichner co-wrote the screenplay and he stars in the film with Luke Macfarlane.  People

Did you see that second Tweet?

Twitter is censoring.  This is what they're censoring (click on "VIEW TWEET" above if you don't believe me):

Of that photo, they say, "The following media includes potentially sensitive content. Change settings"

WTF.

I don't go back to my own stuff most of the time but we're hoping to pull from a lot of stuff previously written so we're not spending over five hours on the piece we're writing.  

But I want it noted, TWITTER is censoring that photo.  Twitter says that photo "includes potentially sensitive content."  

It's outrageous. 

This edition's playlist

 

 

1) BROS soundtrack.

2) The Pretenders' THE SINGLES.

 

3)  Diana Ross' THANK YOU.

 

4) Diana Ross' THE BOSS.

 

5) Diana Ross' TOUCH ME IN THE MORNING.

 

6) Chase Rice's THE ALBUM. 

7) Diana Ross' diana.

8) George Ezra's GOLD RUSH KID.

9) Bob Dylan's ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS.

10) Adele's 30.  

 

TV: The media that begs for criticism

Joy Behar is paid seven million dollars a year by ABC for co-hosting THE VIEW.  Hey, if they're willing to give it to her, more power to her.  But these outrageous salaries?  

 

They go a long, long way towards explaining why legacy media is out of touch with the country.  

 

 

Last week, Joy raged at voters over a new poll conducted by THE NEW YORK TIMES and Siena College which found most would-be voters citing inflation and the economy as the number one issue. The poll also found that this issue was sending 18% of self-described independent women over to the GOP.  

 

The poll was released Monday, Joy was exploding on THE VIEW on Tuesday.  She wrongly declared that the poll had come out that day and then she expressed dismay over those prioritizing inflation and the economy.  She does get that not everyone pulls in $7,000,000 from a job, right?

 

It wouldn't be THE VIEW without everyone wrestling in the mud.  That happened after conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin declared, "I want to say this respectfully: I worry there might be a blind spot about at this table is the fact that the average American family lost $6,000 in annual wages last year due to inflation. Blame Biden or don't,  but there is a reason that Tim Ryan is running in Ohio away from Biden and away from Nancy Pelosi."

 

 Instead of admitting that was true, the ladies of THE VIEW came on like wrestlers in The WWE.  Joy and Sunny Hostin tried to body slam Alyssa, insisting that she explain what Republicans were going to do about inflation?

That's not Alyssa's role.  Her role is to interpret the poll.  

 

Joy is a comedian.  She's gas bagged for years but she's not an expert on anything and she's also not a journalist.  She doesn't understand journalism.   Nor does Sunny.  Nor does Whoopi.  Nor does Ana Navarro.  Alyssa is the only one of the group who studied journalism.  It's really sad how far from journalism the show has gone.  It's just a professional wrestling match among nit wits.  Gone are the days of Barbara Walters, Meredith Vierra, Debbie Matenopoulos and Lisa Ling.  Gone are the days of trained journalists.  Now it's just basically an hour of big mouths.

By Thursday, Whoopi was screeching on air, blaming the media for the Democratic Party's messaging.  "Blame the media!" echoed Joy sounding crazed and unhinged as she egged her on. "Blame the media!"

 

Joy Behar has now spent two weeks on air fretting over the state of democracy.  We fear what will go down on THE VIEW this week when Joy learns of Monmouth University's poll where 46% of the respondents stated inflation was their main issue.  Democracy is not in danger but sanity is.  Helping Joy spread the insanity was the always overly dramatic Jonathan Capehart who showed up last week on MSNBC to confess to US President Joe Biden, "Mr. President, I'll be honest, I'm scared.  Millions of Americans are scared.  they're concerned about the concentrated attacks on democracy, on voting and how that's going to impact the midterm elections."

 

We groaned as Joe tried to talk Jonathan down from the ledge -- why didn't Joe just let him jump?  Joe said there were reasons to be optimistic.  He all but gave Jonathan a hug as he informed the MSNBC talking head:

 

We're the only nation that is not built on ethnicity, geography, whatever.  It's on a notion that we hold these truths to be self-evident: That all me and women are created equal.  We have never fully lived up to [but] we have never walked away from it.  And it's a core of all this -- that concern.  It's a concern that, you know, the soul is sort of the breadth and essence of who we are.  And it ultimately gets down to not supporting violence, not supporting -- making sure that you have -- that you count the votes when they're cast, not intimidating anyone at the polls, not intimidating anyone who wants to vote.  And I still think that's rock bottom core issue in America.

It's rather amazing that fraidy cat Capehart babbles on MSNBC, THE NEWSHOUR (PBS) and scribbles opinions for THE WASHINGTON POST despite never offering anything of value.  To his credit, unlike Joy Behar last Tuesday on THE VIEW, Capehart thus far has not confused the Iraq War with Ukraine.  

 

But he's confused his many positions with head cheerleader for the Democratic Party. It's a post many in the media are in competition for.  Which is why they prop up Joe even though he's increasingly angry and rude due to the meds being pumped into him to keep him awake and semi-alert.  

 

Or that's what the meds do when they work.  They didn't work that well on MSNBC because later in the interview with Capehart, Joe appeared to doze off: 

President Biden appeared to zone out after he was asked in a new interview whether his wife, Jill Biden, wants him to run for reelection in 2024.

“I have not made that formal decision but it’s my intention . . . to run again and we’ll have time to make that decision,” Biden told MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart when asked whether he plans on running again.

“Dr. Biden is for it?” Capehart asked as a follow-up — but was met with a long, awkward silence as Biden appeared to glance toward the floor in the sit-down interview that aired Friday night.

“Mr. President —,” the interviewer eventually interjected.

 

“Dr. Biden thinks that — my wife thinks that I, uh — that we’re doing something very important,” Biden finally said.

It has not been a good period for Joe Biden.  Melissa Willets (THE LIST) observes:

Consider that in recent weeks, Joe Biden's gaffes have seemed especially cringeworthy. Not only did the POTUS appear to forget that lawmaker Jackie Walorski had passed away this summer in a grisly car accident, but he heartbreakingly misspoke in talking about his son Beau's death.

Now, with Biden zoning out during his interview, not surprisingly, Twitter is wondering if he's up to the task of running the country for another four years. "Nothing to see here, Biden nearly fell asleep and forgot he was being interviewed on National TV," one critic tweeted.

Indeed, watching the clip of the Democrat seems to even show Jonathan Capehart startled by his subject nodding off, with the MSNBC alum prodding, "Mr. President?" 

"Really, really sad," someone commented on the viral moment, while another critic said about Biden's sleepy declaration he plans to run again, "Hell no."

 

As we noted in 2009, Barack Obama was our first method president:

We watched Monday in full as Barack uh-uh-uhed and spoke in that robotic manner that allows him to find more unnatural pauses than Estelle Parsons and Kim Stanley combined. "He's our Method president!" we quickly gasped while wishing we could have one president this decade capable of normal speech. If he gets any worse, he'll be Sandy Dennis.

 

And Joe Biden?  He's the MGM star at the end of his rope and at the end of his contract.  Created decades ago when the studio could boast "more stars than there are in the heavens," he's a dying breed, on his last gasp.  And the studio pumps him full of pep meds to keep him awake and ready for his public -- he's our 21st century Judy Garland!

 

 Sometimes it appears that the only worse thing than our media is the media 'reformers. 

That was brought home yet again last week when alleged Green Party members had Katie Halper (THE KATIE HALPER SHOW, USEFUL IDIOTS and, until recently THE HILL) on his program.  

 

 

The segment was entitled "The Need For Independent Media."  It should have been called "The Need for an Educated Host."

 

We knew we were in trouble the minute Matthew Hoh started invoking AIR AMERICA RADIO.  

 

At this late date, to be unaware of what killed AAR repeatedly is just not acceptable -- especially if you're the host of a program and you choose to bring it up.

 

Matty wanted you to know that we needed something like AAR.  

 

No, we don't.  

 

We never did.

 

And we're not talking about content yet, we'll get to that in a minute.  We're talking about the money fiasco that was AAR.

 

It was a never-ending, money sink-hole.

 

Now at the start, that could be excused.  Any business is going to face serious start-up cost issues.  But this went beyond that and exposed the real problem: The world had changed and the 'minds' at AAR couldn't recognize and couldn't keep up.

 

They just knew they would find influence and respect -- with legacy media -- if they could take the cheapest mass market available -- radio -- and score a hit there.  They never really did.  Their programs weren't available over the airwaves in enough markets for that.  But they kept pursuing that dream and wasting their money -- or the money of investors.

 

The answer was obvious by the first weekend AAR was on the air.  Early Saturday morning -- pre-dawn hours -- they crashed REAL PLAYER.  It had been around for years and was popular.  But AAR listeners were listening via REAL PLAYER on air.  While they struggled for listener over the airwaves, there were enough listeners online to set and break records.  

 

That should have led to a realization: Hey, we've got a new business model we should be exploring.

 

Instead, like Sam Seder caving when NYT threatened to pull their advertising (he immediately shut down his AD NAGS site -- yes, it was his), they apologized to REAL PLAYER and REAL PLAYER imposed a limit on how many hours you could stream.  

 

AAR listeners were putting it on and letting it play through their day.  

 

That's an amazing audience.  They could have listened a la cart, but they believed in the project so much that they were willing to listen to the whole schedule.

 

Time and again, a changing landscape was influencing the listener rate and AAR execs could never figure it out.

 

Well the grass is always greener

But I wish you could have seen her

Drunk and lying with the gutter in her face

-- "Take Me As I Am," written by Carly Simon, first appears on her COME UPSTAIRS album

 

It was enough for Matthew to have a stupidity slip, he then had to pull his ignorance out and wag it in front of the camera.  It's a big ignorance so maybe that's why he was so proud of it?

 

The left, he wanted you to know, needed to be more like the right.  Why?  The right falls in line.

 

Okay, we'll get to how frightening that desire is in a moment but for right now, let's point to the grass on the other yard.  The GOP, which is part of the right-wing, is still conducting a mini-war among their members who support Donald trump and their members who do not support him.

 

And the evangelical wing of the GOP has long been at war with the older GOP set.  Nancy Reagan, for example, found them disgusting.  She thought that they were uneducated morons.  She found their anti-abortion and anti-gay stance offensive (Nancy's godmother was Nazimova, among her best friends were William Haines and Jimmie Shields). Her empty-headed husband roped a warm arm around any idiot who'd vote for him -- kind of precursor to Matthew Hoh?  Those divisions still exist.  

The GOP establishment holds a large number of members hostage because where else are they going to go?  That's the same theme song the Democratic Party establishment likes to hum when the rank-and-file get too loud in their objections.

In addition, the GOP is only one aspect of the right-wing.  There is also the Libertarian Party and many other smaller parties.  

Matthew Hoh doesn't know much about history but he fancies himself a Sam Cooke who can sing us into a wonderful world.

If only.

Now let's deal with the nonsense of needing a media where we can all fall in line.

"Gatekeepers" -- that's how many see legacy media.

That's what he wants to recreate.  

AIR AMERICA RADIO had some infamous moments.  No, not just when Al Franken showed his ass by doing a show on a college campus, bringing on Meg Ryan who spoke of the need for the US to leave Iraq and, as soon as she was off the stage, Al said she didn't know what she was talking about, but wasn't she a great actress?

If Al hadn't gotten into the Senate, he still would have left AAR because besides the problems he caused for his co-host, there was also the Meg incident -- ignored by the fan base but infamous in the industry and the reason that name guests stopped showing up for his show.

But again, we're not talking about that.  We can define the infamy by focusing on one host: Randi Rhodes.

Rock legend Patti Smith dropped by AAR to tape an episode of the weekend show Steve Earle was hosting.  She was accosted in the hallway by Randi Rhodes -- a talk radio host popular in parts of Florida who was now getting a chance at a national audience (via streaming).  Insisting that she was a huge fan, Randi begged her to come into the studio right now and join Randi's live show.  

Because she's a nice person, Patti said yes.  

It started off smoothly enough with Randi talking music.  She wanted to know why, oh, why, weren't there good songs against the war like there were in the sixties.  Contrary to Randi's drug-soaked memories, there really weren't endless top ten hits on sixties radio about the Vietnam War.  But Patti tried to be kind and play along and she talked about the artistic process.

Then Randi let her have it.  In the 2000 election, Al Gore lost to Bully Boy Bush.

This was Pattie's fault, Randi screeched, because Patti supported independent candidate Ralph Nader.

Reality, it was never Patti's fault.  Randi didn't call out Joe Lieberman who tossed the rules aside for military ballots on NBC's MEET THE PRESS. Randi didn't call out Gore's failure to campaign in his own state.   She didn't call out the Democratic Party ordering Rev Jesse Jackson not to come to Florida during the recounts (Donna Brazile proudly delivered that news to Jesse).  She didn't call out the Supreme Court or, for that matter, the lousy legal team Al Gore had.  

She called out Patti Smith.

In other words, long before Susan Sarandon was turned into The Cult of Hillary's scapegoat, Patti was already being slimed.

It was shameful and embarrassing.  But Matthew Hoh thinks we need a one-voice media on the left?

We're not done with Randi.

In 2008, she'd curse and rage on stage about Hillary Clinton.  In 2016, she was acting as though Hillary were her personal god and savior but in 2008, she wanted Barack Obama to get the party's presidential nomination, so she slammed Hillary onstage -- in sexist terms, no less.

Randi got suspended and fired.  She says she quit.  She says that.

At any rate, that's the kind of media Hoh wants?

She uses free speech off the air and she's fired for it?

It reminds us of how THE HILL fired Katie Halper for noting -- in a segment THE HILL refused to air -- that Israel is an apartheid state.

So that's the kind of media Matthew Hoh wants?

He felt the need, in the segment, to brag on Grover Norquist.  He and Grover got to work together and that's what he wanted.  Why couldn't the left do the same?

Uh, because you sound like a racist and sexist idiot.

Norquist wants to dismantle Social Security and Medicare, he's behind the nonsense lie about "welfare queens."  He doesn't believe in a safety net.

When we streamed the video, we called some Greens to ask what the deal was with Hoh and are we misunderstanding him?

No, we were told, he's a vapid idiot and the national party isn't behind his Senate run for that reason.  They're also bothered by his stance as 'anti-war' when it's really just Afghanistan.  He didn't just get stationed to Iraq, he was part of the team stateside thinking up and implementing Bully Boy Bush's Iraq War program.

You'd think something like that would force a person to explore themselves and their actions.  Hasn't happened for Matty.

Maybe someday.

But right now, he is worthless.  He wants a left media where everyone says the same thing and, most importantly, falls in line.

Let us be the first to say this to him: F**k the hell off.

There are numerous programs right now, claiming the left, that are bringing on registered sex offender Scott Ritter.  We will never go along with that.  These host present a convicted pedophile as someone to listen to.  They're apparently not aware of legal implications should Ritter act again.  If he gets his hands on an underage girl then he's not just responsible.  A lawsuit can be brought against Jimmy Dore, Jackson Hinkle, Danny Haiphong, Richard Medhurst, THE CONVO COUCH and assorted others who have glorified Scott Ritter on YOUTUBE while refusing to tell their audiences that Ritter is a convicted and registered sex offender.

They've promoted a sex offender and, yes, should a victim sue, that victim can also sue them.

We'll never go along with promoting a pedophile as someone to listen to.

And look as these same programs -- they make time for Scott Ritter, it's just men of color and all women that they don't make time for.  Danny Haiphong would rather chat on YOUTUBE with a convicted pedophile than with an African-American woman.  Despite this, he gets a paycheck from BLACK AGENDA REPORT.

No we do not need one media for the left and we certainly do not need one that all 'falls in line.'  We need more voices not less.

If Matthew had his way, the media he wants would not only fire Katie Halper, it would work to make sure that the reason for her firing was never known.

Again, he glorifies AIR AMERICA RADIO.  

Lizz Winstead created their programming models.  In addition, she co-hosted UNFILTERED with Chuck D and Rachel Maddow.  One day, Lizz and Rachel were called in and informed the program was ending in one month and Jerry Springer would be replacing them.  Lizz rightly walked out.  Suck up Rachel stayed.

For a month on air, Rachel lied to listeners, insisting Lizz was sick and that's why she wasn't on.

That's the kind of media the left would have if Matthew Hoh were king of media.  

Though Hoh is new to media criticism, media criticism is nothing new.  On the left, for decades now, the biggest critique of the media has been over consolidation and how it results in less and less differing voices.  Maybe if Matthew brushed up on  a topic before 'discussing' it, he wouldn't be so stupid as to propose that we do what has already been identified as the problem?  The.  Problem.

Mary Evans has noted how reinventing the wheel -- or, worse, the mistaken belief that you've just invented the wheel -- has been a setback for feminism repeatedly.  To really build on what came before, we have to know that history.  And if you actually want to be a media critic and make any kind of an impact, you just can't drone on in front of a camera. You need to know the issues raised long before you were paying attention.  You need to know the work of media critics like Nora Ephron, like Edward S. Herman, like Michael Parenti, like Eric Deggans, like John Stauber, like Sheldon Rampton, like Margaret Kimberley, like Bethonie Butler, like George Seldes, like Alice Walker, like Ellen Willis, like Susan Faludi, like . . .  There's a long, long history.  Matthew Hoh is a problem because he thinks he's intelligent enough to ignore all the work that came before.  No one is that intelligent.