It's amazing that ABC broadcast an overlong Academy Awards show where no one mocked President Trump by name. There were just a few snarky remarks about walls, but that's pretty much it. It's equally bizarre that the Oscar for best picture went to "Green Book" -- about overcoming segregation in the South -- and the leftists came away angry!
What makes this amusing as well as amazing is that Hollywood votes on these awards. This isn't the People's Choice Awards. It's an insular Tinseltown popularity contest, and they've worked hard to add minorities to the Oscar electorate.
The networks announced that "Green Book" is a "controversial" choice. ABC's Chris Connelly explained that racial uplift is the problem: "Well, time was when some movies featured black characters who have to show they are much better people than their white counterparts in order to be deemed worthy of being treated as equals. Problematic, you might think." Jenni Miller at NBCNews.com underlined the animus, writing, "this movie was written, directed and produced by white people for white people."
Horrors!
Liberal Twitter went viral with a video clip of "Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman making a disparaging face, since "Black Panther" was also nominated. Twitter user Nerdy Wonka wrote, "Chadwick Boseman is all of us when 'Green Book' was announced as Best Picture."
Somehow, America is still backward, which raises the question: How in the blazes did "Black Panther" manage to gross $700 million at the domestic box office?
Then there was director Spike Lee, as spoiled as he is left-wing, who reacted to the best-picture pick by pitching a fit and reportedly trying to storm out of the theater. He returned to his seat and rudely turned his back on director Peter Farrelly during his acceptance speech, for having bested his film, "BlacKKKlansman." Later, he complained that "the ref made a bad call," a reference to tantrums he throws in the front row of New York Knicks games.
The hot hashtag used to be #OscarsSoWhite. That's not at all what the winners list looked like this year. Best director went to Mexican Alfonso Cuaron for "Roma," which many expected to win best picture. Cuaron's film also won for cinematography and best foreign language film. Mexican directors have won five of the last six best director awards.
Best actor went to Rami Malek, the son of Egyptian immigrants. The best supporting actor and actress, Mahershala Ali and Regina King, are both black. The best animated film, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," featured a half-black, half-Puerto Rican teenager as Spider-Man, voiced by Shameik Moore. "Black Panther" won for costume design and production design; black women held both Oscars.
Spike Lee actually won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay, and he used the spotlight for an anti-Trump rant (without using the name): "Before the world tonight, I give praise to our ancestors who have built this country into what it is today, along with the genocide of its native people. ... The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let's all mobilize. Let's all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate."
As National Review movie critic Kyle Smith asked, "Who throws a hissy fit because he wins only one Oscar?" And he predicted, "Lee's crybaby act pretty much guarantees he'll win an Oscar if he ever again makes a film that is a hair better than mediocre."
These award shows no longer reward talent. They reward their very own brand of self-centered idiocy.
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org.
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