A Hollywood Hit Job on Clarence Thomas

The above title is from an article by Stuart Taylor Jr. (author and non resident senior contributor to the Brookings Institute). He talks about the HBO offering “Confirmation” focused on the 25th anniversary of the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas for SCOTUS.

“Despite the a surface appearance of fairness, “Confirmation” makes clear how it wants the hearings to be remembered: Ms. Hill told the whole truth and Mr. Thomas was thus a desperate, if compelling liar. Her supporters were noble; his Republican backers were scheming character assassins.” Quoting the article.

I guess it is OK to make a movie purported to be factual when it is not, “The Butler” comes to mind, anything by Oliver Stone, Roger Moore, etc. Why is it that our media, which includes Hollywood, determines it is OK to put out stuff that is so biased as to be actual lies, or just selective in which facts it presents and feels OK to say, “based on a true story” as their license.

Dramatic license doesn’t give anyone the right to misrepresent the facts of a case.  If you are going to make a movie, or show, about a factual event please tell us your bias, as noted above, or make it a documentary and present both sides.

The article last year about a rape at U. Va. is an example. A young, needy woman created a story in order to attract the attention of a young man, and Rolling Stone then proceeded to blow her insecurities into a giant story.  The magazine is being sued, as well they should be as Columbia School of Journalism even agrees they were negligent.  The reporter, Ms. Erderly, is still writing for the magazine.

“Rolling Stone publisher Jann S. Wenner told The New York Times the article was flawed, but “represented an isolated and unusual episode.” Wenner told the Times that Erdely would continue as a freelance writer and that Managing Editor Will Dana, the article’s editor Sean Woods and the fact checker, who was not named because she had no decision-making ability on publication, would not be fired.
Breaking News at Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/erdely-reporter-apologize-university-of-virginia/2015/04/05/id/636540/#ixzz49O1JyWsJ ”

The young woman “Jackie” was not prosecuted for slander, libel, etc. The fraternity has suffered mightily, The University has gone through massive turmoil. “Jackie” has walked away from the consequences, even Michael Smerconish recently spoke about her culpability.

Has our media learned anything?  Probably not. We need to be our own fact checkers!  Facebook just this last week has been accused of bias in reporting the news.  Everyone is aghast. Well don’t be, everyone is biased, some do a better job of trying to present both sides, most don’t.

 

 

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