Media
MH370 pilot's daughter accuses British tabloid of inventing her quote that he was 'troubled'
The daughter of MH370's pilot has accused a British tabloid of "making up" an article in which the paper quoted her saying her father was unstable before the flight, a report said Monday.
The Daily Mail, whose coverage of the three-week-long missing-plane crisis has been questioned before, said in a report Sunday that family members described captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, as "disturbed."
Authorities are closely investigating the backgrounds of Zaharie and his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, over the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight on March 8 with 239 people aboard. Malaysia says it was deliberately diverted.
But Aishah Zaharie, the captain's daughter, said the Daily Mail report was bogus.
"Dear Daily Mail, You should consider making movies since you are so good at making up stories and scripts out of thin air," she said in a posting late Sunday on her Facebook page, according to news portal Malaysian Insider.
"May god have mercy on your souls. You can bet your ass I will not forgive you," the 28-year-old added.
AFP could not confirm the comments due to the restricted-access settings on Aishah's Facebook page. She did not immediately respond to an AFP message seeking comment.
The tabloid had said Zaharie was "on the brink" of divorcing his wife of 30 years.
Quoting a "source close to the pilot's family", it said Zaharie's wife Faizah Khanum Mustafa Khan told investigators that he stopped speaking to her in the weeks before the flight and "retreated into a shell."
Aishah was quoted as saying: "He wasn't the father I knew. He seemed disturbed and lost in a world of his own."
Malaysian police have questioned the families of Zaharie, co-pilot Fariq and other crew, and seized a flight simulator from the captain's house. No evidence has emerged to implicate anyone.
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had previously criticized an earlier Daily Mail report that described Zaharie as a fanatical supporter of Anwar.
Just hours before MH370 took off, Anwar was convicted of sodomy -- illegal in the Muslim-majority country -- in a controversial case that he said was fabricated to ruin his political career. Anwar, who faces five years in jail, is appealing the verdict.
A Facebook tribute page called "Friends of Captain Zaharie MH370" and set up by a schoolmate of the captain also expressed outrage at the Daily Mail article.
It had attracted more than 25,000 followers as of mid-day Monday.
Zaharie's family has shied away from the media, but his 26-year-old son, Ahmad Seth, dismissed speculation his father may have intentionally diverted the plane for sinister purposes in an interview with Malaysia's New Straits Times last week.
Other friends and colleagues have also come to the defence of Zaharie, who flew for Malaysia Airlines for 33 years and was a respected senior pilot.
Watch this video tribute to Shah by his family posted online by Ay's Vlog:
Steven Seagal favors Putin over Obama and says he may emigrate to Russia
Action movie star Steven Seagal said in an interview with the Moscow Times that he is in favor of Russia's military action in Crimea and that he may someday emigrate to the former Soviet Union.
According to Atlantic magazine's The Wire blog, Seagal called Putin "one of the great world leaders" and said he "would like to consider him as a brother."
While the action star's fortunes have faded somewhat in this hemisphere, in Russia, Seagal is still a huge star. Of late, he has befriended wealthy Russian oligarchs who have convinced him to support Putin's aggression against Ukraine.
In an interview on the set of a movie he was filming in Romania, Seagal told Russian media that he backs Russian President Vladimir Putin's "desire to protect the Russian-speaking people of Crimea, his assets, and the Russian Black Sea military base in Sevastopol...is very reasonable."
Seagal called the current U.S. policy in the region "idiotic."
Putin and the American actor reportedly bonded over Putin's love of martial arts. Seagal told the Times that he will assist the Russian leader in a Soviet-style initiative promoting physical fitness in Russia called "Ready for Labor and Defense."
When asked if he would ever consider relocating to Russia, Seagal said that "sometime" he may apply for Russian citizenship.
The one-time box office champion has seen his ability to fill stateside movie theaters slump in recent years. The ponytailed actor has carved out a niche for himself as a conservative provocateur, penning columns for "Birther" conspiracy hub World Net Daily and making appearances on behalf of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has been charged by the federal government with unfairly targeting Hispanics and immigrants in the name of enforcing immigration laws.
[image of Steven Seagal via Shutterstock.com]
'Top Gear' host Jeremy Clarkson accused of using anti-Asian slur during season finale
Somi Guha's lawyers complain to BBC that use of the word 'slope' is the kind of casual racism 'constantly brushed aside'
The BBC has received a formal complaint over an allegedly racist remark made by Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson during one of the show's Burma specials.
A law firm acting on behalf of actor Somi Guha, who appeared in 2006 sci-fi film Children of Men, has written to the BBC claiming Clarkson's use of the word "slope" -- which can be used as a derogatory term for people of Asian descent -- contravened the Equality Act 2010.
Guha, who has also featured in The Bill, is seeking an apology and disciplinary action against Clarkson.
In the latest Top Gear series finale, which aired earlier in March, Clarkson and co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May were tasked with building a bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand.
At the completion of the task Clarkson said "that is a proud moment, but there's a slope on it", just as an Asian man can be seen walking towards him on the bridge.
Hammond replied: "You're right, it's definitely higher on that side."
In the formal complaint, sent to the corporation's management and the BBC Trust, law firm Equal Justice wrote: "Casual racism in the media by established BBC stalwarts is constantly brushed aside. Discrimination within the industry is accepted.
"Racial profiling of roles is accepted and expected. I find it offensive that Jeremy Clarkson refers to people of different races in pejorative terms."
The letter sent on behalf of Guha added that the show "must be censured to ensure that another race or nation is not targeted", and that the BBC should give "due consideration to not re-commissioning Top Gear until these matters are addressed".
A BBC spokeswoman declined to comment about the incident on the show, which attracted 10 complaints from viewers.
Equal Justice stated in its letter to the BBC that if it did not hear back within 28 days it would take its complaint to media regulator Ofcom.
Lawrence Davies, an Equal Justice solicitor, who has also represented viewers over racism allegations over the Shilpa Shetty/Jade Goody incident on Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother, said legal action would also be considered if the BBC failed to take action.
"We are looking for Mr Clarkson and those responsible to be disciplined proportionately," he said.
"Clarkson is one of their biggest stars and the question is where does the BBC draw the line on making money and how it goes about it. The BBC has never really taken him to task."
In 2011 viewers of a Top Gear India Christmas special complained about Clarkson making a string of jokes about Indian food, clothes, toilets, trains and the country's history.
In February of that year the BBC was forced to apologise to the Mexican ambassador after Hammond joked that Mexican cars reflected national characteristics, saying they were "just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat".
Angry conservative Twitter mob and RNC lash out at 'Ebony' editor over 'racist' mistake
A scrum of conservative bloggers, media figures, and now Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus have targeted Ebony magazine Senior Editor Jamilah Lemieux over a supposedly racist error she made in an argument on the social medium Twitter.
Lemieux accidentally called RNC staffer Raffi Williams a "white dude" when he attempted to address a remark she made in a tweet on Thursday. Williams -- who is African-American -- is the son of Fox News commentator Juan Williams and current director of the RNC's youth and minority outreach program.
The discussion began over conservative commentator Ben Carson's plan to start a magazine for black conservatives.
"I have drinking games in mind already," quipped Lemieux, regarding Carson's tendency to communicate in outrageous talking points, like his comment that Obamacare is or when he said that women need to .
Someone asked Lemieux if she didn't want to know more about the publication, to which she replied, "I 100 percent do not want to know more, I wish I knew less!"
Then Williams -- who wears his hair in loose waves and poses in front of a painting of Pres. Ronald Reagan in his Twitter profile photo -- tweeted at Lemieux, "Wish you knew less? Hoped you would encourage diversity of thought."
"Oh great," Lemieux replied, "here comes a White dude telling me how to do this Black thing. Pass."
The faux pas set off an immediate firestorm among users of the conservative Twitter aggregator Twitchy.com and other conservative media outlets, who branded Lemieux a racist and proceeded to hurl insults and invective.
"I hear you like to judge people by the color of their skin," wrote one.
"'Go away?'" said another, "I think you're confused about how this twitter thing works. Also, you're a racist."
RedState.com commentator Aaron Gardner wrote, "This morning a news editor from Ebony decided to show her ignorance and racism to the world."
Lemieux apologized to Williams, but for Gardner that wasn't enough.
"Quite frankly, Lemieux can take her apology and cram it," he wrote. "I find it hard to believe that Lemieux’s apology was from the heart considering she is the daughter of a former Black Panther."
By Thursday morning, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was joining the fanned-up outrage and demanded an apology on Williams' behalf from Ebony. Williams appeared on Fox News, complaining about how he'd been treated by Lemieux.
Thursday afternoon, even as Lemieux supporters kicked off an #IStandWithJamilah hashtag on Twitter, Ebony complied, issuing a stiffly-worded apology for what the publication called Lemieux's "lack of judgment."
The right's heated reaction to the Twitter spat strikes some as spectacularly overblown and more than a little bit hypocritical. Clutch magazine's Britni Danielle wrote, "The hypocrisy of Fox News, Reince Priebus, and several Conservatives is astounding. While many Right Wingers have no problem pandering to extremists in their party like Ted Nugent who regularly spew on racially charged rhetoric (i.e. calling President Obama is the “Food Stamp President” or a Kenyan-born Muslim Socialist or a “subhuman mongrel”), the moment someone, particularly a Black person, does not subscribe to their views (or chooses to not engage as Lemieux did when she told Williams she wasn’t interested in anything he had to say), they cry reverse racism and cloak themselves in victimhood."
Conservatives launched a purported boycott against Ebony last September for its series of covers in the wake of the verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed unarmed teenager in 2012. The publication's covers featured black male celebrities and their families dressed in the type of "hoodie" sweatshirts that Martin was wearing when he died.
The magazine's sales figures rose in the wake of the conservative initiative. As Daily Banter blogger Bob Cesca said, "You can't boycott something you've never purchased."
[image of Jamilah Lemieux via Twitter.com]
Evangelical activist calls for Bill Maher to be flogged or hanged over Noah 'blasphemy'
An evangelical activist laments that no one will defend God’s honor against the blithe blasphemy of an atheist talk show host, reported Right Wing Watch, and he spent a few minutes on Wikipedia to bolster his call for severe punishment.
Tristan Emmanuel, a Canadian evangelist, published a column Friday morning on the anti-LGBT website BarbWire asking, “Does Bill Maher deserve a whipping for slandering God?”
Emmanuel quoted a couple of recent remarks by Maher, who referred to God as “a psychotic mass murderer” for flooding the earth to punish sinners in the biblical Book of Genesis and suggested the Almighty was even more of a “dick” than famously disagreeable actor Russell Crowe.
The evangelical activist said Maher is known for his anti-religious views, but Emmanuel said “this time he’s gone too far.”
“He may have protection under the First Amendment to say whatever slanderous thing that comes out of his toilet bowl brain, but that does not mean Christians should turn the other cheek,” Emmanuel said.
He agreed with the Psalms 14 passage that questioned the character of anyone who would believe in his heart there was no God, suggesting Maher and outspoken atheists Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens had much in common with the Devil.
“I don’t know Maher. And I have no reason to hate him,” Emmanuel said. “But I do know God. And Maher’s public vilification of God is the most offensive and slanderous thing I have ever heard. Frankly, if a Christian doesn’t have a gut wrenching reaction about this, I’ve really got to question him.”
He said Christians should “unanimously” condemn Maher and compared today’s believers unfavorably with their ancestors.
“Back then Maher would have faced stiff penalties for his slanderous crimes against God and country,” Emmanuel said. “And the reasons were clear: slander the ultimate authority of a nation — God — and you ridicule the very foundation of its laws, values, public institutions and leadership.”
Then Emmanuel asks why it’s acceptable to “slander and profane” God but not President Barack Obama.
“I, for one, don’t believe in his presidency, like Maher doesn’t believe in God,” Emmanuel said. “And, I also think Obama is immoral, perhaps even a lunatic???”
He goes on to approvingly list a bunch of laws from colonial Massachusetts that prescribed harsh corporal punishments for blasphemy, as listed on Wikipedia.
“’If any person shall presume willfully to blaspheme the holy Name of God, Father, Son, or Holy Ghost; either by denying, cursing or reproaching the true God; his Creation or Government of the World: or by denying, cursing, or reproaching the holy Word of God,’” he quoted, “’everyone so offending shall be punished by imprisonment, not exceeding six months, and until they find sureties for good behaviours; by sitting in pillory; by whipping; boaring thorow the tongue, with a red hot iron; or sitting upon the gallows with a rope about their neck; at the discretion of the court.’”
Emmanuel lamented that the 1952 Burstyn v. Wilson case, also listed in the same Wikipedia entry, prohibited laws against blasphemy.
“America is hanging on by a thin thread of longsuffering divine justice,” Emmanuel warned. “The pugnacious degenerate Bill Maher may think blasphemy is a laughing matter. The nation of America may think it can hide behind the First Amendment. And Christians may falsely think they are demonstrating Christlike love by remaining quiet in the face of profligate profanity.”
“But mark my word, a day of reckoning is coming,” he continued. “If we are unwilling to hold blasphemers accountable, the almighty judge of the world will.”
If you prefer to listen to Emmanuel read the column out loud, he's posted it online:
Fox's Geraldo Rivera: Crooked politicians on the Democratic side 'tend to be ethnic'
As a Twitter debates whether to #CancelColbert, Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera may have sparked a similar hashtag of his own.
Rivera made his own offensive remarks Friday morning during a "Fox & Friends" debate on media coverage of recent political scandals involving Democratic public officials.
“Usually, the politicians who are robbing on the Democratic side tend to be ethnic politicians, as in these cases,” Rivera said.
He claimed the media had downplayed the ethnicity and party affiliation of California state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), who was indicted this week on weapons charges, and Mayor Patrick Cannon, of Charlotte, N.C., who was arrested on bribery and extortion charges.
“You know, the Asians, the Chinatown guys taking money from the Chinatown boss in San Francisco, the black mayor of Charlotte, you know, so there’s another politically correct reason to step over their real identification as Democrats, there’s no doubt and it is undeniable,” Rivera said.
Rivera argued this was part of a larger effort by liberal members of the media to promote the Democratic Party at the expense of the Republican Party.
“There is an instinct among the liberal, probably mostly Democratic mainstream media to portray Republicans as hypocrites,” Rivera said. “Anytime they sway from the churchgoing, family-loving, you know, U.S. of A. boostering, they get skewered by the liberal in the press, where Democrats they tend to avoid the party label.”
Co-host Steve Doocy said other networks had failed to identify either elected official by their party identification, and Rivera said his preceding comments were part of the conservative news channel's appeal to viewers.
“That’s right, we are the antidote to that particular problem,” Rivera said.
Watch a video clip of the segment posted online by breakingnews48:
'Noah': Twitter conservatives outraged that film deviates from Bible's original English
Devout Christians are up in arms this morning about Darren Aronofsky's film Noah, despite the fact that the majority of them haven't seen it. They're upset because, in the words of one person on Twitter:
“Noah” was directed by an #Atheist and was purposely made secular... Just letting you all know... https://t.co/bzF12sY6l9
— JEFF!! (@IAmKingParks) March 28, 2014Aronofsky's script deviates from the biblical account, and many on Twitter are happy to point the curious to the "real" story:
The #NoahMovie is not based on the Bible. Read about the real #Noah. (Genesis 6:5-9:17)
— JerimeyeRN (@KingsRep) March 28, 2014Many churches have encouraged their congregants to retweet the following, line breaks be damned!
The Noah Movie is a
FRAUD,
BLASPHEMOUS
and
NOT BIBLICAL!
BOYCOTT the NOAH MOVIE!
BOYCOTT @NoahMovie
.
— NoKing But KingJesus (@NoKingButJesus) March 28, 2014But just in case it was raining too hard Sunday morning for them to make it to actual church, they can ask their backup pastor:
#Noah is about worshiping the creation not the creator Will not waste my money @foxandfriends @kilmeade
— Lock&Load (@Iron_Woman2) March 28, 2014And they don't disappoint:
Kevin McCarthy informs Brian Kilmeade of Fox News viewers' worst nightmare: "the movie is not a documentary," meaning the fact checkers will be out in full-force:
FUN FACT about the movie #Noah which is false - the movie claims that Noah's Father died when he was younger - READ: Genesis 5:30-31
— Rae-Lynn (@RaeLynnZiegler) March 28, 2014Not that some people out there aren't happy with the creative license Aronofsky exercised:
.@russellcrowe good luck with that new movie of yours. I've heard it's even better than the book ;)
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) March 27, 2014But the professional comedians aren't the only ones weighing in on the alterations to the biblical original. Conservative film critic Debbie Schlussel -- who has actually seen the film -- wrote that the film should be called "'Game of Thrones Noah,' 'The Noah-dashians,' 'Dysfunctional Family Noah.' Or just plain, 'NOT Noah.'"
Erick Erickson at Red State surveyed all of the deviations from scripture, declared "boy howdy!" and then proceeded to remind his readers that he "is not kidding" eleven times.
We are not kidding.
Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro objected, repeatedly, to the film's depiction of humanity as the planet's designated caretaker, and one of his followers agreed, pointing Twitter-followers the biblical verses in their original English:
@benshapiro People cannot watch a liar's movie and know God's word. Laziness will be rewarded with hardship, READ the NASB version (or NKJ).
— Turner (@TurnerEchols) March 28, 2014Which isn't to say all of the responses to the film have consisted of ignorant trolling. Ever the self-promoter, Lars Von Trier used the occasion of the film's release to remind people that he's got one coming out too:
... And then Hermione uses the time traveling spell and everyone is saved. That's how #Noah ends, now go and watch #NymphomaniacVL2
— Lars Von Trier (@LVon_Trier) March 28, 2014["Russell Crowe" on Shutterstock]
New York college offers course on Miley Cyrus and 'the twerk heard round the world'
A university in New York state has announced a course on the sociology of Miley Cyrus. Assistant professor Carolyn Chernoff will use the twerking pop star as "a lens into cultural conflict", exploring race, class, gender and the "core issues of intersectionality theory".
As of yesterday, only three students had registered for The Sociology of Miley Cyrus: Race, Class, Gender and Media at Skidmore College, the Schenectady Daily Gazette reported. But Chernoff has high hopes for this summer class, which will consist of three two-and-a-half-hour sessions each week. "Miley Cyrus is a surprisingly complicated cultural moment," she explained. "I created [the course] as a creative and rigorous way of looking at what's relevant about sociology and sociology theory."
The idea was born last summer, following Cyrus's controversial performance at the MTV VMAs. This was "the twerk heard round the world", Chernoff said. "All of a sudden, my students who claimed to be not that interested in Miley Cyrus had so much to say." From there, Chernoff drafted a lecture for Skidmore's Centre for Sex and Gender Relations, presented in January, titled The Rise and Fall of Miley Cyrus.
According to Chernoff's course description, Cyrus is not just a chart-topping, tongue-flaunting, occasionally "degrading" 21-year-old: she is also a locus for discussions of appropriation, queerness, gender stratification and the "hyper-commodification of childhood". "Miley is sometimes seen as a wild, terrible she-beast," Chernoff told the Saratogian. Like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, her fellow former Disney stars, Cyrus has "had to rebrand [herself] as [a] wild, crazy, sexual being" … This ties into the whole virgin/whore dichotomy."
If it isn't already obvious, Chernoff has no intention to let lazy Miley fans breeze through her class. "Sorry, dudes, but this is sociology," she said. "Learn to twerk on your own time." Other schools have already offered rigorous courses on Beyoncé and Jay-Z, and universities have a long tradition of teaching students about older "pop" stars, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Duke Ellington. Still, Miley seems different – if only because she is so young and so contemporary. Perhaps, like Kanye West, she will drop in for a guest lecture. "She may well find out [about it]," Chernoff said. "We'll see what happens."
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2014
[Miley Cyrus via JStone / Shutterstock.com]
Daily Show on Princeton Mom: 'Men are terrible creatures -- get one while you can!'
Jon Stewart mocked the news media for giving so much airtime to “Princeton mom” author Susan Patton.
The “Daily Show” host pointed out Thursday night that women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man, but he doubted Congress would do anything about it.
“Of course they won’t, because in my experience here I’ve found them to be a**holes,” he said. “Seriously, I can’t stand them, even the ones in my own party. I probably shouldn’t be saying this aloud in my weekly address, but I’d like to quit.”
But Stewart said the issue of women’s pay equality was an important one.
“I’m sure our financial networks address this issue with the seriousness that it deserves,” he said.
His producers played a montage of Patton, who has suggested that women prioritize their personal lives over their education or careers by finding a mate in college, appearing on a variety of news programs.
“Or you can talk to that lady about it,” Stewart said.
Patton admitted during one segment that she wasn’t a White House expert, and Stewart was stumped.
“If you don’t have much to say about equality, what are you talking about when you’re visiting CNN’s ‘Newsroom,’ MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe,’ NBC’s ‘Today’ show, Fox Business’ ‘Money with Melissa Francis,’ Fox’s ‘America Live,’ and Fox’s ‘America’s Newsroom’?” he said.
Patton told her hosts that work will wait, but fertility won’t, and she read from her book a suggestion that women find a husband on campus before graduation.
“Yes, I went there,” Patton said.
“You went where? To the 19th Century?” Stewart said. “So apparently the problem women have in your mind is too much equality?”
Kristen Schaal, “The Daily Show’s” senior women’s issues correspondent, said Patton had caused her to question the direction of her own life, lamenting that her “dewy, adorable days (were) in the rear-view mirror.”
Stewart assured Schaal she was still “dewier than the Dewey Decimal System,” and reminded her she was already married.
“Yeah,” she noted bitterly, “to a comedy writer – the lowest of the low.”
She agreed with Patton, who said women were faced with a limited to time to get married and have babies.
“Too many girls have been seduced by the feminist lie that women over 30 are remotely doable,” Schaal said. “The hard truth is that month after month, your precious eggs are just jumping out of your vagina like rats off a sinking ship.”
She reminded Stewart that life was no fairy tale, and pointed out that Patton’s views were “facts, based on opinion,” that women needed to hear.
“Men are terrible creatures,” Schaal said. “Get one as soon as you can!”
Watch the entire episode posted online by Hulu:
Offensive tweet launches #CancelColbert trend, but Stephen Colbert says he's not responsible
Comedian Stephen Colbert is the subject of a Twitter campaign to put him off the air after an offensive tweet, based on a joke from his program, was posted on a social media account linked to Comedy Central.
The satirist poked fun Wednesday night on his “Colbert Report” program at Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who recently created a charity aimed at Native Americans but won’t change his NFL team’s controversial name.
A tweet was posted on the @ColbertReport account just after 4 p.m. Thursday that contained a quote from the previous night’s show, but stripped of its context, the joke attempt offended many fans and others.
“I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever,” read the tweet, which has since been deleted.
By Thursday, the hashtag #FireColbert was trending, as Twitter users weighed in on the controversial comment.
#CancelColbert because white liberals are just as complicit in making Asian Americans into punchlines and we aren't amused.
— Suey Park (@suey_park) March 27, 2014When satire becomes as offensive and hurtful as the thing satirized it is no longer satire. It is simply more injustice. #cancelcolbert
— Arlene Adamo (@ArleneAdamo) March 28, 2014The way some white progressives are ridiculing our outrage shows why we're sick of such humor at our expense & how it hurts. #CancelColbert
— Josh Shahryar (@JShahryar) March 28, 2014Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin helped spark the trend, posting a tweet "co-signing" the comment by @suey_park.
"I'm sick of liberals hiding behind assumed 'progressives,'" wrote Malkin, the author of "In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror."
Colbert responded to the uproar through his personal Twitter account, @StephenAtHome, saying that he had not written the offending post.
#CancelColbert - I agree! Just saw @ColbertReport tweet. I share your rage.
Who is that, though? I'm @StephenAtHome
— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) March 28, 2014The @ColbertReport account is controlled by Comedy Central, according to a tweet posted just before midnight Thursday, and is not controlled by Colbert or anyone from his program.
This is a Comedy Central account, with no oversight from Stephen/show. Here is quoted line in context https://t.co/UFnaFfOSpn #cancelcolbert
— The Colbert Report (@ColbertReport) March 28, 2014Watch the offending joke, which is read at about the 10:00 mark, in an episode posted online by Hulu:
Miss. news anchor: LGBT communities should 'go on gaycation' after making 'too much' news
A longtime Mississippi news anchor has apparently upset his station after an online post complaining about the amount of coverage dedicated to the LGBT communities.
Media blogger Jim Romenesko reported on Thursday that WLOX-TV anchor Dave Elliott (pictured above, center) wrote on Facebook that though he supported the fight for LGBT equality "in every way," it seemed "like they've been in the news too much lately."
"Maybe they should take a short break," he continued. "Go on gaycation ... just for the weekend. Enjoy yourselves!"
The station has not issued a formal statement regarding Elliott's remarks, but did disavow them on its own Facebook page, stating that station management was not happy to receive any "free publicity" on account of Elliott's remarks.
"Our station is committed to covering news that happens in our community, and issues important to our viewers -- that includes the LGBT community," the station posted. "Just this week, we aired several stories about the LGBT community on the coast and a march to the state capitol."
The station also posted links to three stories regarding LGBT equality that it has aired this week, but Elliott did not do any reporting on them, nor was he the anchor who introduced them.
Elliott's bio on the station's website states that he began working for WLOX in 1985, and is the only anchor who appears on-air seven nights a week.
[Image via WLOX-TV Facebook page]
Actor Russell Crowe: Noah movie criticism 'bordering on absolute stupidity'
Russell Crowe has hit out at critics of controversial biblical epic Noah, many of whom he says have attacked the film before even seeing it.
The New Zealand-born actor praised the pope for agreeing earlier this month to meet a delegation from the film, including himself and director Darren Aronofsky, despite the controversies that have raged around the film's loose interpretation of the story told in Genesis. Speaking yesterday on the Good Morning America show in the US, he said: "We've had probably over a year now of very harsh criticism from a bunch of people who have put their name and stamp on an opinion that's not even based on the movie or seeing the movie, just an assumption of what it could be or how bad it could be or how wrong it could be in their eyes, which I think quite frankly is bordering on absolute stupidity. Because now, I think, people are seeing the movie and they're realising how respectful it is and how potent it is."
Crowe said Aronofsky's film created vital discussion of a number of themes surrounding its core story. "You come out of this movie and you want to talk … about our stewardship of the earth, our relationship to animals, what is spirituality, who am I in this world - all these fantastic subjects for conversation," he said, adding: "Art that can do that for people is a wonderful thing."
Of his meeting with Pope Francis, Crowe said: "I think considering the controversy around this movie, it would have been so easy for the Vatican to rescind that invitation and just let it be that way, but the kindness to actually let the invitation stand, I thought it was just so consistent with who he's been."
Noah has been in the spotlight ever since October, when studio reportedly Paramount screened the film for Christian audiences and received a negative reaction. Executives had apparently been hoping for a successor to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which took $611m worldwide in 2004 after US evangelicals flocked to see it. Aronofsky's film, by contrast, views the famous flood story from an environmental perspective and features a segment showing how Darwinian evolution has transformed amoebas into apes.
Yet Aronofsky, director of the Oscar-winning psychological drama Black Swan, revealed in February that he had won a battle with Paramount to screen his own version of Noah in cinemas after around half a dozen alternate cuts also failed to find traction with evangelical filmgoers. The studio had reportedly been so desperate to court Christian audiences in the US that it tested one version that opened with a montage of religious images and ended with a Christian rock song.
Paramount now appears to have given up on its efforts to market Noah to Christians, with the studio issuing a statement in February making clear that the movie is not intended as a direct translation of the bible story. The film has also been banned across large swaths of the Middle East and parts of north Africa for contravening Islamic rules on the depiction of prophets.
Aronofsky's film, starring Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson and Ray Winstone, hits the US this weekend, with UK cinemas to follow on 4 April.
Copyright © 2026 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 |
Masthead
|
Privacy Policy
|
Manage Preferences
|
Debug Logs
For corrections contact
corrections@rawstory.com
, for support contact
support@rawstory.com
.