Posted on 09/24/2012 2:26:18 PM PDT by Da Bilge Troll
Full Title: Filmmakers Behind '2016: Obama's America' Claim Piracy and Disinformation Campaign Are a Coordinated Attack
The movie showed up on YouTube over the weekend as rumors spread it would also be shown free on the Fox News Channel.
The filmmakers behind 2016: Obama’s America are claiming a coordinated attack engineered by supporters of Barack Obama to suppress the box-office results of the movie, which is a critical look at the president.
our editor recommends '2016: Obama's America' Filmmaker Calls White House Attack 'Clumsy,' 'Bizarre' (Exclusive Audio)Emmys 2012: 'Homeland' Stars on Their 'Hugely Validating' Fan, President ObamaThe film, the second-highest-grossing political documentary in U.S. box-office history, has made $32 million domestically since opening in mid-July but took in only $852,000 during the recent weekend for a per-screen average of $852, down 21 percent from $1,080 per screen in the previous weekend.
VIDEO: '2016: Obama's America' Commercial
While such a drop isn't unusual for a movie during the course of a week, filmmakers say box-office results were artificially depressed for two reasons: a disinformation campaign spreading the false rumor that Fox News Channel would be showing the movie in its entirety Sunday and a pirated version of the film showing up on YouTube this weekend.
“Starting Saturday morning, I started getting e-mails from groups and individuals either warning me about the piracy of 2016: Obama’s America or thanking me for allowing the movie to go online,” said Randy Slaughter, president of Rocky Mountain Pictures, the film’s distributor.
Filmmakers said they notified the FBI that the movie was available illegally and that they asked YouTube to take it down.
AUDIO: '2016: Obama's America' Filmmaker Calls White House Attack 'Clumsy,' 'Bizarre'
“We take this issue very seriously and are in contact with the FBI to investigate the parties that placed this on the Internet,” said John Sullivan, who co-wrote and co-directed the movie with Dinesh D’Souza.
Concerning the prospect of the film airing on FNC, some websites including SmartGirlPolitics.com, apologized for being a conduit for misinformation.
“Last night we were made aware that someone posted an erroneous blog post on our user blogs regarding the movie 2016 being shown on Fox News,” wrote the website's president, Stacy Mott. “It was immediately taken down, but unfortunately, a handful of people had already responded to it through Twitter. This was not, in any way, something posted by Smart Girl Politics or any member of our team.”
Over the weekend, there also were mass e-mails making the claim that Fox News was about to air the movie for free.
STORY: President Obama's Campaign Trashes '2016: Obama's America'
“Fox News is going to air the documentary Obama 2016. To all Americans, Democrat, Independents, right or left, heads up for this Sunday night,” one email reads.
“Important. Looks that Fox News is going to air the documentary Obama 2016. Heads up for this Sunday night 9:00 p.m.,” reads another.
Sullivan said he estimates “hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Americans” received the false information that the movie was to air on Fox News.
A spokesperson for Fox News confirmed the cable channel has no plans to air the movie.
“The reports of the movie appearing on Fox before the election are completely untrue, and we strongly suspect that they are the result of dirty tricks by our opponents who spread this rumor in order to confuse the general public and keep them from going to their local theaters," said D’Souza.
Separately on Monday, Lionsgate Home Entertainment said it will release the movie Oct. 16 on DVD and Oct. 12 on pay-per-view.
It is still doing well in the theaters, though...moved into the #4 slot ALL-TIME box office receipts among ALL documentaries.
I think the film should now be made generally available in order that choir members be able to send the link to those who don't like obama but are too apathetic to vote and to those who wouldn't support obama if only they knew where he really is coming from.
And if they tuned in at that time they got to see Hannity airing 10 minutes worth of Obama ads instead. Worst Hannity ever.
This one would probably do better after having seen both. It explains a lot that 2016 didn’t:
www.ourcommunistcommanderinchief.com
When your movie gets pirated, then you know You’ve Arrived.
So are folks who viewed the YT online.....will they get into trouble?
>> When your movie gets pirated, then you know You’ve Arrived.
Not unless a malicious move to kill revenue.
No. Only maybe the uploader.
But that is up to them. It is their property. And the last line in the article mentions a DVD release.
If this is just a PR Campaign for the film, I like it. I think the movie can actually gain in popularity as more people start paying attention to the Election..
I agree. I think that it might reach an important audience.
But, I understand if they want to continue to collect the revenue, from theaters, DVD sales and rentals, etc.
If true, Obama supporters are dumb as bricks. Strike back at the makers of a film critical of their hero by making the film more widely available on the Internet? I hope he has more friends like that.
Take a look at the critic’s v. the public’s opinions of the movie: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/2016_obamas_america/
Younger Americans simply cannot relate to a world without the Internet and free communication between free people. Imagine what this election would look like without the Internet.
Gatekeepers would spin the news telling us what to think and what was happening. Imagine that Reagan had passed vouchers two decades ago. Obama wouldn’t have ever been elected. Without consistent and persistent indoctrination of children our nation’s long nightmare would have ended already.
If you wanna see some REAL anti-Obama stuff that will piss you off, find "Dreams from My Real Father - A Story of Reds and Deception"
The whole thing WAS online here this weekend (but now the site says it's offline until Sept 25.
No, but I wish I had 90 minutes of my life back.
Seriously though, I saw nothing controversial or denigrating to Obama. As documentaries go, it laid out an overview of Obama and his socialistic back ground. I was glad that there was no ‘grand conspiracy’ stuff in it to put one off.
Youtube had a line at the top about how it was unlisted, and only the people with the link would be able to watch it. Were the rats collecting IP addresses and and watching who sent it to who?
Says website down until 9/25.
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