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Why Mainstream Critics Are Panning Clint Eastwood's Latest Film, Richard Jewell
American Thinker ^ | 12/23/2019 | T.R. Clancy

Posted on 12/23/2019 2:58:44 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Not every mainstream movie critic hates Clint Eastwood's highly affecting Richard Jewell.  But the critics who hate it hate it an awful lot. 

The story of how an out-of-control FBI and a "completely irresponsible press" ruined the life of the heroic security guard whose quick action saved many lives during the 1996 Centennial Park bombing is legitimately viewed as Eastwood's take on what's happening in America right now.  The irony that the movie was released the same week as the I.G. report exposing the FBI's lawlessness in Crossfire Hurricane must be particularly galling for mainstream journos who staked their reputations on the Russia collusion hoax.

Just how timely Eastwood's morality tale about government abuse may turn out to be is proved in the abysmal disconnect of NPR reviewer Chris Klimek's question: "Why might he have chosen, at this perilous moment in our history, to make a movie that depicts not just the press but also the FBI as fundamentally corrupt and uninterested in the truth?"  Why, indeed.

The negative reviews of Jewell cite Olivia Wilde's portrayal of Kathy Scruggs, the real-life Atlanta Journal-Constitution police-beat reporter who broke the story that the Feds were targeting Jewell.  In the movie, Scruggs trades sex for a tip from an FBI agent (played by Jon Hamm), who divulges that they suspect the good-old-boy security guard of planting the bomb just so he could play the hero by discovering it.  The film's detractors say the idea that Scruggs would trade sex for a scoop is unimaginable.  Katie Walsh at The Morning Call fumes that "[screenwriter Billy] Ray and Eastwood lean into the ugly stereotype that female journalists are drunken floozies who get their tips through sex."  Vox grumbles that the character was "written as an over-the-top bitch in heels."  


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2020election; billyray; chrisklimek; clinteastwood; collusion; crossfirehurricane; defundnpr; defundpbs; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; election2020; fbi; film; jonhamm; kathyscruggs; katiewalsh; mediawingofthednc; npr; oliviawilde; partisanmediashills; pbs; presstitutes; richardjewell; russia; smearmachine; themorningcall; vox
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To: billyboy15
I’ll go a bit further. I’ll watch it when it shows up on my “On Demand” movie list and is free.

I highly doubt that this movie will ever be picked up by any ON-demand or cable channel. Because they're controlled by leftist schmucks who don't want anyone to see it. It will have it's run at the theaters and that's about it. So if you really want to see it, just plunk down the $12 and go. I certainly will.

41 posted on 12/23/2019 4:34:09 PM PST by Bullish (My tagline ran off with another man)
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To: BradyLS

I think it could be prosecuted even though the reporter is not bound by the rules concerning classified info. It’s a quid pro quo.


42 posted on 12/23/2019 4:43:33 PM PST by Brilliant
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To: ConservativeMind

Saw it yesterday at matinee pricing, I’m a cheap skate. At the end when the credits started to roll, an elderly lady in front of us stood up and yelled “just like they’re railroading Trump” a younger man grabbed her arm and said “not here mother” brought a smile to both me and da wife!

Really good movie. The press and media were the FIB lapdog even back then!Grrr


43 posted on 12/23/2019 4:51:36 PM PST by The FIGHTIN Illini (Wake up fellow Patriots before it's too late)
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To: SeekAndFind

>>The film’s detractors say the idea that Scruggs would trade sex for a scoop is unimaginable.

Whether SHE traded sex for a scoop is not unimaginable. There was a NYet Times ‘journalist’ who sexed several government officials for inside scoops.

What’s unimaginable is how the media smeared President Trump for YEARS with Comey’s off color “pee pee video” rumor.

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3661701/posts
Ali Watkins’ past tweets come back to haunt NYT reporter amid leak case
foxnews 6-8-18 Alex Pappas

New York Times reporter Ali Watkins’ past tweets are raising eyebrows after revelations she had a three-year romantic relationship with a Senate Intelligence Committee aide now accused by federal prosecutors of leaking sensitive information to journalists, including herself.

(Snip)

In an April 2013 tweet, Watkins also tweeted about the fictional Netflix television show “House of Cards,” where a young reporter has an affair with an older member of Congress.

“I wanted to be Zoe Barnes...until episode 4,” she tweeted. “Sleeping with your source- especially a vindictive congressman? #badlifechoice #


44 posted on 12/23/2019 5:12:52 PM PST by a fool in paradise (Recall that unqualified Hillary Clinton sat on the board of Wal-Mart when Bill Clinton was governor)
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To: Cuttnhorse

Exactly. F them. F their lifetime pensions.

To hell with them all. Then the judges next.


45 posted on 12/23/2019 5:16:57 PM PST by Fledermaus (Horowitz was a waste of time and money, Barr and Durham better not be.)
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To: Fledermaus

One reason VA is coming for guns is to encircle DC with a safe zone


46 posted on 12/23/2019 5:19:20 PM PST by combat_boots (God bless Israel and all who protect and defend her! Merry Christmas! In God We Trust! Hi)
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To: SeekAndFind

Saw it last night. They HATE that journalists in general were the bad guys here. They were portrayed as essentially a pack of wolves. The Scruggs character was portrayed as mean spirited, win at all costs, competitive biotch.


47 posted on 12/23/2019 5:21:59 PM PST by DouglasKC
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To: hecticskeptic

thanks, I’ll read it!


48 posted on 12/23/2019 5:29:28 PM PST by spacejunkie2001
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To: MayflowerMadam

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is squealing like a stuck pig over this movie. They’ve had their lawyers send cease and desist orders to Warner Brothers and Clint Eastwood over the depiction of their reporter trading sex for a story (tips for tips?).

First I’m sure Clint and WB are quaking in their boots. Oh, wait, maybe not, maybe they just had their lawyers send back a similarly sternly worded response. At least that’s what I expect has happened.

Second, the AJC proves themselves idiots by making a big deal over it. They’d have been smarter to ignore it and let it blow over.


49 posted on 12/23/2019 6:31:39 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Cuttnhorse

Agreed; pure bullsh!t, I have said ever since PRESIDENT TRUMP was elected, he should fire every body in the FBI, STATE, CIA, NSA and any and all OBUNGHOLE appointments or promotions.


50 posted on 12/23/2019 6:54:30 PM PST by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: combat_boots

I agree, but I think you have the wrong thread


51 posted on 12/23/2019 7:55:47 PM PST by Swirl
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To: Steve_Seattle
it never occurred to me that they get their tips through sex

The leftist media, lobbyists, and spy agencies use interns and young people frequently. For one recent example 22 year old reporterette Ali Watkins practically slept her way to a Pulitzer Prize. She told the New York Times about her affair with Senate Intelligence Committee member James A. Wolfe that leaked classified info to her and they not only were ok with it, they recognize it as standard practice.

How an Affair Between a Reporter and a Security Aide Has Rattled Washington Media

52 posted on 12/23/2019 8:24:27 PM PST by Reeses (A journey of a thousand miles begins with a government pat down.)
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To: SeekAndFind
The irony that the movie was released the same week as the I.G. report exposing the FBI's lawlessness in Crossfire Hurricane must be particularly galling for mainstream journos who staked their reputations on the Russia collusion hoax.

Journos are on the wrong side of history on this one...

53 posted on 12/23/2019 9:24:47 PM PST by GOPJ (The press protects white liberal elites and their pet victim groups... the rest of us get the finger)
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To: MrEdd
Richard Jewell isn't a documentary on news-gathering procedure or a biography of Kathy Scruggs; it's not even a biography of Richard Jewell. It's a parable of what happens when news organizations are willing to ditch their principles to become enablers of powerful people with police powers who've misplaced theirs, too.

I can see why liberal 'elites' hate this movie... especially in today's world.

54 posted on 12/23/2019 9:33:26 PM PST by GOPJ (The press protects white liberal elites and their pet victim groups... the rest of us get the finger)
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To: Brilliant

I saw the movie. Best line—Lawyer asked if Richard had any guns. His answer was “This is Georgia.”


55 posted on 12/23/2019 10:32:08 PM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound ovil.f the guns!)
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To: bray

#31. using your characterizations of the “corrupt FBI and media” as a starting point, let me add some real-life anecdotes here about both (as I worked with the FBI as an undercover operative in communist organizations and was an accredited reporter in the US and Vietnam).

The guys from the FBI I worked with were professionals, dedicated agents who worked to defend America from both visible and invisible enemies, both domestic and foreign. I met both when I was undercover. I reported to one of the top counter-intelligence Assist. Directors of the FBI on my findings (which were eventually published by Congress), and the head of the Wash. Field Office of the FBI, now known as Trump Hotel, DC. The latter, a finer man I’ve never met.

I’ve also worked on an Organized Crime Task Force where FBI, DEA and IRS agents, a few under deep cover, risked their lives to bring down John Gotti, the Gambino family, Persico, Gigante, Hoffa, etc. A few were one bullet away from death due to their undercover work. You can learn some of who they were and what they did by watching the old A&E TV shows on organized crime, esp. about John Gotti.

I read both FBI 302 summary reports on Mafia surveillance operations as well as th4 actual Gotti wiretaps. A really great job done by all the feds involved. The Clintons and AG Reno screwed up, deliberately, the indictments of the Mafia and let their leaders get away literally scot free (millions of dollars of Mafia-controlled labor union money to the Clintons and Democrat Party/operations, just might have been an important factor in this Clinton corruption, jut maybe). See “The American Spectator, April 1997, Byron York, “Let’s Be Friends” for all the details of the Clinton criminal clan operations and the Mafia.

Re the media. I’ve known the best and worst, from at least 4 Pulitzer Prize winning writers of the old school (1917-70’s) to communist scuzz embedded in major US newspapers (Wash. Post, NYT, ABC, CBS, etc). Exposed at least 4 of them and got them basically dropped from “prime time” positions.

However, when my undercover work was published by the Senate (it was embargoed re release for a few days but reporters got advanced copies, even before I did), I got a phone call from a leading “conservative” writer/later top editor of the Wash. Evening Star. This was at 9:00 AM on a Saturday morning, two days before the public release of my testimony, and he asked me a series of almost irrelevant questions about my work and what I had found (most of it never appeared in his article).

Instead, out of 120 pages of testimony (including information from another undercover agent - probably PD, since I later met the guy), this “crack” reporter focuses in on the most innocuous item, something said almost in jest by a leftist radical re inviting Pres. Nixon to speak at an anti-Vietnam rally).

This is what the reporter wrote about, not my detailed documentation about communist (several parties involved) control of the anti-Vietnam major national protest organizations.

Now this SOB took a qualifying sentence of mine and CUT IT IN HALF, leaving out the key part wherein I said that I was not an “expert” on communism (I was becoming a major student of it), “nor do I claim to be”.

Well, I got pissed and went to the headquarters of the newspaper, stood in the middle of the main news writing room and said, “Who do I see about suing the newspaper for liberal?”.

You never saw so many people duck under their desks since the old atomic bomb attack drills of the 1950’s. Finally a more honorable editor came out and discussed my complaints about the deliberate omission of a very important statement I had made.

Well, they did a second rewrite of the original article, did add in one key statement about additional documentation I found to buttress my testimony (govt hearings), but it still left me feeling like they had cut one nut off instead of two.

Newer Letters to the Editor editors later gave me 18 months of literally uninterrupted publishing of my letters to the paper, which was a very decent thing to do. I even got a letter from Sen. Bob Dole (R-Ks) thanking me for publishing a list of key books on communism for the papers’ readers to know about, and my original letter was reprinted in the Congressional Record.

It was this incident that made me realize that if even so-called conservative reporters couldn’t get the facts/stories straight from the original sources, then I was going to do it, and did. Ten months later I was in So. Vietnam and Cambodia for Human Events weekly, spending perhaps the best time of my professional career researching and writing the truth about the war, warts and all, but as a pro-American citizen first, then as an honest and accurate journalist as I could be.

Still writing after 50 years and loving it. The mainstream media today is as corrupt as it has ever been, as anti-American as it has ever been, as Marxist as it has ever been, and as great a danger to America as it has ever been.

My friends who were soldiers in Vietnam and Iraq (including my son and son-in-law), are still writing too, and are telling the truth about what happened and why we weren’t allowed to win in Nam (by the Democrats of LBJ), but why we were winning on the ground and in the villages.

I guess we will all die at our keyboards but, hell, that’s the way it should be, if we love America, our family, and our Constitution.


56 posted on 12/23/2019 10:42:23 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper (Figures)
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To: SeekAndFind

His next film should be “George Zimmerman”


57 posted on 12/23/2019 10:54:35 PM PST by faucetman (Just the facts, ma'am, Just the facts)
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

You are talking about the old FBI, not the PC Barak version.


58 posted on 12/24/2019 5:26:14 AM PST by bray (Pray for President Trump)
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To: Cuttnhorse
B.S. The entire organization should be dissolved and replaced.
59 posted on 12/24/2019 5:30:55 AM PST by Sirius Lee (They are openly stating that they intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

SPOT ON.
(IMO, the FBI & the vast majority of the other 80 plus federal agencies that have police need to be ABOLISHED & the BEST federal agents combined into 2-3 federal LE agencies.)

The USA needs over 80 federal Law Enforcement agencies (many of which have overlapping jurisdictions) like we all need an aggressive cancer.

The movie also points out clearly how often that the so-called “mainstream press” simply/routinely LIES.

Yours, TMN78247


60 posted on 12/24/2019 6:16:46 AM PST by TMN78247 ("VICTORY or DEATH", William Barrett Travis, LtCol, comdt., Fortress of the Alamo, Bejar, 1836)
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