Saturday, July 03, 2004

No Whoopsie For Me

Disregard my previous post, I was right about the muzzling of Richard Roeper's blurb ("Everyone in the country should see this film") on Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" print advertisements.

But I might have been wrong about the reason for the change.

Originally, I surmised that pressure from the right may have compelled The New York Times to cut the quote to "...see this film" so that the McCain-Feingold Act (the campaign finance law that prohibits soft money from being used just before an election) would not be violated. But it wasn't the fault of the government or the Media. It was the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) that objected to Mr. Roeper's comment because the film was branded with an R rating. Perhaps the quote should have been "everyone in the country should see this film but the MPAA won't let 'em."

Of course, Mel Gibson's "The Protocols of the Christ" also received an R rating and much has been written about the grassroots campaign that elicited the support of churches and religious organizations. ""The violence is necessary to understand the sacrifice Jesus made," says First Family pastor Jerry Johnston. His Baptist church has rented out a half-dozen theaters in Kansas City, Kan., and has reserved auditoriums the night of Feb. 27 for children 11 and older." (USA Today "Kids will see R-rated 'Passion'" by Scott Bowles, Feb 17 2004) I guess no one in the MPAA cared about that "kiddie crusade."


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