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W E D N E S D AY, J A N U A RY 2 5 , 2 0 0 6BBC's Shoddy Reporting On "New" Movie AwardsThe BBC ran a story about a new movie award based on "moral values"and launched by a US filmmaker. It's called the American ValueAwards. Now technically, the BBC sort of got it half right. Theyheadlined the piece "Lauded Films See One-Man Backlash." It certainlyis the creation of one man, Michael Class. But he's not a filmmaker, hehasn't really "launched" a new movie awards (all he did was add a pageto his own negligible web site which has zero traffic), and the entireevent is so un-newsworthy that simply filing the story gave it muchmore legitimacy than it deserves. Frankly, the guy's home townnewspaper shouldn't cover. If I add a page to my web site andannounced a new awards show, would the BBC write a story on it?They shouldn't.Turns out the crank self-published a children's book with theexplanatory title "Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame: The Story ofthe Boy Who Traveled Through The Past By Stepping Through ThePicture Frame On His Bedroom Wall." (That sure takes care of the needto ask "What's it about?") He's got it on sale at Amazon.com, wherefour reviews all give it five stars and the reviewers (whom I'm sure theauthor has never met) say things like "I've never seen such a reaction toa book before!"Class's own website mostly promotes the book, though it brieflymentions his desire to promote movies that deserve it more than liberalfare like "Brokeback Mountain," "Syriana," and "Munich." His choices?"The Chronicles of Narnia," which celebrates pagan creatures like thecentaur; "Harry Potter," which encourages children to dabble in blackmagic and other Satanic practices; "Star Wars Episode III," which is athinly veiled attack on President Bush; and "Millions," an Irish filmwhich makes a mockery of religious saints. Some values!POSTED BY MICHAEL IN NEW YORK AT
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3 C O M M E N T S :Michael Class said...Hello.Next Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G . C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: BBC's Shoddy Reporting On "New" Mov...http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/01/bbcs-shoddy-reporting-...
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POPSURFING.COM: BBC's Shoddy Reporting On "New" Mov...http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/01/bbcs-shoddy-reporting-...
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