Thursday, March 16, 2006
HuffPost: One Stop Shopping For Fake, But Accurate Blog Posts
I will...not...laugh.
OK, I lied. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!
I'm glad we got that over with. Sadly for us, we're told Clooney's faux post has been airbrushed from the HuffPo. Whatever happened to the blogging convention of leaving up one's mistakes, annotated with the appropriate mea culpa or correction, we snarkily wonder?
"It's not a misunderstanding, it's misrepresentation," he said. "She knows what she was doing. She was saying to people that she had George Clooney's blog and was printing it. George Clooney does not make statements. He answers questions."
Rosenfield said Clooney had requested an addendum of clarification to the posting.
Glad we cleared that up. But thanks to the vaguaries of syndication and the heroic efforts of VC's snarky and underpaid labor force of itinerant Eskimo typists (the Caribou apparently not being in season this time of year), you can read it here, at least for now:
I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I'm proud of it.
Too many people run away from the label. They whisper it like you'd whisper "I'm a Nazi." Like it's dirty word. But turn away from saying "I'm a liberal" and it's like you're turning away from saying that blacks should be allowed to sit in the front of the bus, that women should be able to vote and get paid the same as a man, that McCarthy was wrong, that Vietnam was a mistake. And that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda and had nothing to do with 9/11.
This is an incredibly polarized time (wonder how that happened?). But I find that, more and more, people are trying to find things we can agree on. And, for me, one of the things we absolutely need to agree on is the idea that we're all allowed to question authority. We have to agree that it's not unpatriotic to hold our leaders accountable and to speak out.
That's one of the things that drew me to making a film about Murrow. When you hear Murrow say, "We mustn't confuse dissent with disloyalty" and "We can't defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home," it's like he's commenting on today's headlines.
The fear of been criticized can be paralyzing. Just look at the way so many Democrats caved in the run up to the war. In 2003, a lot of us were saying, where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9/11? We knew it was bullsh*t. Which is why it drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, "We were misled." It makes me want to shout, "F*ck you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic."
Bottom line: it's not merely our right to question our government, it's our duty. Whatever the consequences. We can't demand freedom of speech then turn around and say, But please don't say bad things about us. You gotta be a grown up and take your hits.
I am a liberal. Fire away.
From your lips to Gaia's ear, sir. Sadly Mr. Clooney is now encarcerated without right of habeus corpus in some dank airless cell in Gitmo while female servicemembers rub their large American breasts all over him while reading subversive literature from Federalist Society meetings, all to the accompaniment of scratchy Mel Torme CDs.
But freedom isn't free, is it? Even in Amerikka.
6 Comments:
By 
TigerHawk, at
Thu Mar 16, 09:31:00 AM:
I don't agree with Clooney, but in general he is a more articulate and intelligent spokesman for the lefty side than virtually all the other politically vocal Hollywood types.
Now, on to the substance of my comment: I'm glad it was you, rather than me, that first wrote "large American breasts" on this blog. Otherwise, there would have been hell to pay... to you!
By Cassandra, at
Thu Mar 16, 10:53:00 AM:
What I found rather funny about this was the cattiness and pomposity of the Clooney's PR guy:
"Mr. Clooney doesn't make statements...he answers questions."
Ummm. right. What about his movies?
And oh, by the way, how about the fact that he APPROVED the post w/no changes?
Hmmm.... the whole thing is typical schizoid HuffPo bizarreness. Wallow in the schadenfreude - the water's fine.
By Gordon Smith, at
Thu Mar 16, 12:27:00 PM:
Meanwhile, in the other world:
Bush administration continues to approve of torture.
Bush administration and Congressional Republicans raise the debt ceiling - Again.
Bush's poll numbers in the toilet.
Domestic spying continues unabated.
Republicans continue to announce that Fear of Death outweighs basic humanity.
You just keep covering the Hollywood beat, Cass. We loony lefties will take care of the other stuff.
By Cassandra, at
Thu Mar 16, 02:25:00 PM:
Screwy, you're slowing down :)
I figured you'd be all over this. 3 HOURS???? For God's sake, man. I am going to have to come down there and put some megavitamins in your beer.
By Gordon Smith, at
Thu Mar 16, 05:42:00 PM:
Yes, I know. It's been hard work all this bloggin'. I'll have to get my rapid pesponse slave to monitor this blog more often.
By Cassandra, at
Fri Mar 17, 03:27:00 PM:
