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'Melania' Panned by Critic Who Did Not Watch

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Feb 02, 2026
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Anti-Social Media – HOLLYWOOD PRESS

  • Your job description means you literally have “one job.”

This weekend saw the release of “Melania” in theaters, a documentary about the First Lady returning to the White House. It was known well ahead of time that the critics would savage this one, as they always predictably do with any film that carries a conservative bent.

One film critic in particular managed to stand out, however. He was typically scathing about the movie, as expected, but he did so in original fashion: He boldly declared he refused to watch the film, and then proceeded to write a negative movie review.

Gilded Reframe – ABC NEWS

  • “Let’s just focus on the legal decisions I like, thank you…”

On This Week With George Stephanopoulos, the titular host had on Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to discuss the arrest of Don Lemon. George started off with a question on the matter, setting it up that before he was taken into custody, judges had ruled he should not be arrested:

Just this week Don Lemon was arrested. The journalist Don Lemon was arrested along with another independent journalist. And he was- this was despite the fact that a magistrate judge and an appeals court refused to approve the request. And the chief federal district judge Patrick Schultz wrote that there was no evidence that Mr. Lemon engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so. So when do you believe that Mr. Lemon crossed the line from reporting on what was going on to criminal activity?

To his credit, Blanche was not playing along. As we have seen over the past year with members of the Trump administration, they always become rather rude guests by delivering narrative-busting facts:

Conveniently missing from what you just showed, George, is the appellate court and a judge on the appellate court who said just a few days later there was clearly probable cause and it wasn't even a close question. So- and by the way, a grand jury, which is what our system has set up to determine whether probable cause exists, concluded that there was probable cause. That indictment is now public. Everybody in this country can pull it up and read for themselves and see what the grand jury found that Mr. Lemon did.

Pre-Written Field Reports – CNN

  • When you look for how you want things to be, Dana, rather than how they are, this is the result.

Blanche also sat in with State of the Union, and he calmly and coolly dismantled all of the preset questions delivered by Dana Bash. She approached the Lemon arrest with a variety of skewed and incomplete assessments, and Blanche was primed to unravel each one.

First, she went with the lower court judgments, which he brushed off as easily as he did with George. Next was the attempt to pick and choose elements from the indictment that suited her cause, and Blanche disrupted her with the pertinent aspects from the same indictment, then she tried to save face that Lemon hid details of the movement that day, as if he was preserving a source.

She then attempted to close by saying the arrest was a personal retribution from President Trump, when attacking the church had nothing to do directly with the president. This was an abject failure by Bash.

News Avoidance Syndrome – NBC NEWS

  • This certainly seemed the smarter play on the topic of Lemon.

While George was tripping over that narrative, on Meet the Press, the gathered journos took a different approach to the story of Don Lemon’s arrest. That is to say, they did not want to approach it. At all.

At the start of things, hostess Kristen Welker tabled several issues about Minnesota, including Lemon’s arrest, but guest Jonathan Martin sidestepped the issue. The rest of the panelists never touched the topic, and Welker did not bring it up at all for the balance of the episode.

Both Kinds of Standards – CNN

  • Now those boldly boycotting are being denied work?

The announcement was made today that the Kennedy Center was going to close down for two years to undergo renovations and improvements. Is this due to the rash of performers who have lodged cancellations and low audience turnout to this point? It is very likely.

But after months of the press gleefully reporting on every instance of artists who loudly declare they will not play at the Kennedy Center, now that Trump announced it is closing down, THAT is the complaint. Now he will be denying artists the chance to perform there. Brian Stelter delivers this paradoxical approach within the scope of a solitary report.

Low-Octane Gaslighting – THE DAILY BEAST

  • Another case of critics of the Church being experts on faith.

The Beast has a report that they sell as damaging to VP JD. According to the outlet, the vice president has been boldly condemned about his faith from what they describe as “a leading Catholic newspaper.”

It sounds like a severe condemnation, until we learn they are referring to the National Catholic Reporter. This would be the publication that the Catholic Church has disavowed since the 1960s, and went so far as to instruct the outlet to strike “Catholic” from its masthead, as it does not ascribe to Catholic doctrine.

But sure… "leading”...

Border-Line Obsession – Minnesota Star Tribune

  • That this is only regarded as bad news reveals so much.

The favorite newspaper of Tim Walz (published by an acolyte of his) has the gripping story of a family that is self-deporting. Everything about their experience is cast sympathetically, with nary an inquisitive question about their plight to be found.

How did they enter the country? How did both parents manage to find work in the area without Social Security numbers? What about the businesses employing them? None of those topics appears to be valid. But we do get a closing quote from the father:

“I understand this hate is not from the people, it’s from the federal government,” Segundo said. “Every country has good and bad people. When people do bad things, good people suffer.”

Apparently, entering the U.S. illegally and taking jobs from citizens are not the actions of bad people, we have to believe, but a nation enforcing its laws is “hate.”

Editor's Note: The original version of this column excluded the entry on the film "Melania." That entry has been placed at the top of the piece.