I'm sorry I missed it...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
After posting the video trailer for Oliver Stone's new film W., Huffington Post had to shut down and lock the comments section after they had published only 12 (with 8 still pending, presumably never to see the light of day).
(Update: Pay no more attention to this post, Huffington has re-opened comments. Unless you want to comment on the film itself or vote for pie. Not that there still isn't plenty of reason to take them to task for their comments policy anyway.)
What did people have to say, I wonder? Since the Huffington Post actively censors comments it feels might allow conservative bloggers to lambaste them (and seldom seems to bother to avoid publishing insulting and factually wrong comments about liberals... though presumably they do censor the death threats and total wack jobs from the right) one has to wonder what got through the net and how bad the remaining comments were that they felt they had to completely shut down and lock the comments for this post.
Now, granted, I don't plan to see this film (and if I had to, I would bring more than one air sickness bag). No matter how much they manage to tell the simple truth about W., bereft of the hagiography and outright lies we have been exposed to about W. for the last eight years (he's Batman!) watching anything about him at all makes me queasy. I even have to fast forward through the Daily Show when they show Bush video, even when they're laughing at him.
And I can't imagine what Stone thinks he's going to accomplish with his new film, or who he imagines its audience to be. The righties won't go to see it, that's for sure. And how many on the left will drag themselves out to spend $10 for the privilege of seeing George W. Bush prance about for 2+ hours?
No matter what the truth about W. may be, no matter how provably factual the content of the film may be, the right will take umbrage at anything that isn't the utter deification of their God, W. And they will trot out the usual lies and distortions to "prove" the film to be factually false. And how many lefties will go just to see Georgie boy repeatedly upbraided by James Cromwell as 41? We know the story already. The right simply won't believe the truth (such as may be found in the film, who knows what will be in there?). And Stone will be roundly derided and slimed by everyone in the press no matter what, just as he was for Nixon, just as he was for JFK. The coverage will be nothing but "There he goes again, he's a loony."
In fact it will be damaging for the left simply because it will allow the right to command the airwaves for the last week just before the November election (release date October 29), to "set the story straight" about the greatest American president and holy man since God was a teenage boy. Ollie's not doing us a favor with his release date, that's for sure. (Or does he actually think that there will be swing voters who will vote Obama because Oliver Stone opened their eyes about Georgie right before they go to the voting booth?)
Does he see this as a calling? In Stone's mind, do you think, is it his job to tell the stories of our presidents? Or does he just enjoy the abuse?