A battle rages across the internet… the problem:
There’s an editor in Niagara Falls who won’t publish movie reviews that he doesn’t like.
Imagine that- an editor exercising editorial control. But as you may have guessed, editorial control is not the real problem. The real problem is that Frank Parlato won’t publish reviews of movies that he finds morally objectionable. In his own words:
In an interview with the Star, Parlato repeated that he did not support “gender-bashing” of either sex. “I’m in favour of strong men and strong women. I don’t think that they have to be in competition or one has to be belittled in order to elevate the other,” he said.
and
“It is the right of Hollywood to market promiscuous sex, violence and profanity, not only to adults but to adolescents,” he said. “I operate a small newspaper in Niagara Falls and it is my right not to review Hollywood movies.”
and
“I might remind the reader that the email does not say I would not consider reviews of films where men and women are both shown in an inspiring light. I am simply not interested in films that demean men, or men of a particular race. I am also equally uninterested in publishing reviews of films that demean women,” he wrote.
“The email” in question is one which Parlato sent to his personal acquaintance, Michael Calleri. Parlato wouldn’t publish Calleri’s review of Snow White and the Huntsman or Headhunters, because Parlato thought these two movies demeaned men. Calleri then published Parlato’s (private) email through Roger Ebert’s column in the Chicago Sun-Times, under the title: ‘Reactionary Men Who Fear and Hate Strong Women’.
A more appropriate title would have been, “Reactionary Critics Who Fear and Hate Opinions Not Their Own”. Naturally, Jezebel and all the other acolytes smelt a chance to prove their ‘revolutionary’ (in truth, conformist) credentials by drawing knives for Editor Parlato. Their charge: Frank Parlato is attacking freedom of speech and women’s rights.
With that logic, any time an editor refuses to publish something, he’s attacking free speech. Any time a feminist viewpoint is challenged, society is in danger of reverting to something like Afghanistan.
The hysteria coming from outlets like Jezebel, Backlot Bitch (and others that rank way, way lower in my Google search) reminds me of a witch-hunt or the Inquisition; both events that feminists should be sensitive to repeating, because they involved silencing people with opinions that did not mirror those of the powerful. Are you listening? (I bet Backlot Bitch is just happy to be included in that sentence.)
What possessed you, Ebert, to lend your name to this small-town squabble? Not only do you have egg on your face, but you’ve showed your profession to be one filled with hypocritical, dishonorable shills, who’ll do anything to lick Hollywood’s rear? You’ve unmasked the machine- that’s bad for you. A paper with a circulation of 20,000 is bucking the Tinseltown monolith- are you really that scared?
Clearly Ebert, and the people who made him, really are that scared.
What justification did Frank Parlato give for his decision not to print Calleri’s work?
Michael; I know you are committed to writing your reviews, and put a lot of effort into them. it is important for you to have the right publisher. i may not be it. i have a deep moral objection to publishing reviews of films that offend me. snow white and the huntsman is such a film. when my boys were young i would never have allowed them to go to such a film for i believe it would injure their developing manhood. if i would not let my own sons see it, why would i want to publish anything about it?
snow white and the huntsman is trash. moral garbage. a lot of fuzzy feminist thinking and pandering to creepy hollywood mores produced by metrosexual imbeciles.
I don’t want to publish reviews of films where women are alpha and men are beta.
where women are heroes and villains and men are just lesser versions or shadows of females.
i believe in manliness.
not even on the web would i want to attach my name to snow white and the huntsman except to deconstruct its moral rot and its appeal to unmanly perfidious creeps.
i’m not sure what headhunter has to offer either but of what I read about it it sounds kind of creepy and morally repugnant.
with all the publications in the world who glorify what i find offensive, it should not be hard for you to publish your reviews with any number of these.
they seem to like critiques from an artistic standpoint without a word about the moral turpitude seeping into the consciousness of young people who go to watch such things as snow white and get indoctrinated to the hollywood agenda of glorifying degenerate power women and promoting as natural the weakling, hyena -like men, cum eunuchs.
the male as lesser in courage strength and power than the female.
it may be ok for some but it is not my kind of manliness.
If you care to write reviews where men act like good strong men and have a heroic inspiring influence on young people to build up their character (if there are such movies being made) i will be glad to publish these.
i am not interested in supporting the reversing of traditional gender roles.
i don’t want to associate the Niagara Falls Reporter with the trash of Hollywood and their ilk.
it is my opinion that hollywood has robbed america of its manliness and made us a nation of eunuchs who lacking all manliness welcome in the coming police state.
now i realize that you have a relationship with the studios etc. and i would have been glad to have discussed this in person with you to help you segue into another relationship with a publication but inasmuch as we spent 50 minutes on the phone from paris i did not want to take up more of your time.
In short i don’t care to publish reviews of films that offend me.
if you care to condemn the filmmakers as the pandering weasels that they are…. true hyenas.
i would be interested in that….
Frank
I’m an educated woman with a degree in Applied Math. I don’t find Frank offensive, I think that he makes a number of good points. However, I’ve made my opinion known already, after I got my fingers burned with Brave.
The real story here is about one man with conviction who is bucking the trend; a David who has taken on the Media/Marketing/Movie-Making Goliath. Calleri and Ebert’s freakout shows just how precarious they feel their position is; after all, how do you defend the indefensible? How do you claim to be progressive and forward-thinking, while at the same time using your power to crush people whose opinions you don’t like? How do you keep your sanity while living a life so rife with hypocrisy? Booze and busy-work, probably.
To Mr. Parlato and his advertisers: The Niagara Falls Reporter now has a circulation of 22,000 + 1.
And guess what? I’ll stop reading Niagara Falls Reporter when and if I find it lacking. Because as little-guy readers, we all have that power, which maybe is what Ebert and his ilk are really afraid of…
