Have to wonder how much this "rule change" exists to protect Michael Moore from criticism as Oscar night approaches. What happened to "free speech"?
Other documentary filmmakers are not permitted to question the honesty in presenting a "best documentary award" to a fraud?
Too bad the Academy can't convince its members to show the same level of respect and honesty when talking about the sitting President of the United States.
Perhaps.
But as someone who tracks the Oscar races regularly, there has been PLENTY of mud slinging over the last few years amongst major nominees. A Beautiful Mind was bashed heavily right before the Oscars in an attempt to bring it down, there were feeble, thinly veiled competing studio attempts to bring down The Return of the King (campaign quips like "Mystic River's only special effect is brilliance"), and there was the mentioned incident regarding Zellweger. This has been an issue for a while, in major categories (Best Picture, the acting categories) especially.