http://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/2014/02/fearless-speech-vs-hate-speech.html
I usually do not pay attention to news about biblical movies. The Bible has been a subject of film for well over a century, logging in literally hundreds of titles. Although filmmakers know there is a wealth of stories to lift from the Bible, the ones that make it to the big screen are relatively few. The only difference between them lies in the progress of special effects, winding up today with computer generated images to create miracles and swell the sizes of the crowds and to add other technological icing. If you’ve seen one Ten Commandments or Ben Hur or The Robe, you’ve seen them all.
When Hollywood runs out of new takes on zombie plagues, alien invasions, capitalist conspiracies to take over the world, and catastrophic “climate changes” that dehydrate or drown the globe, there are always Red Seas to part, waters to walk on, and loaves and fishes to multiply. Jesus himself has undergone a number of make-overs during the film industry’s century-plus history, from handsome hunks preaching love on the hill to crowds of extras to a rockin’ Super Star.”
Anyone for Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson as Moses? Or as Mohammad? After all, we have Russell Crowe gallomping around as a pious but Ark-ready Noah.
A character in “House of Cards,” Secretary of State Catherine Durant, played by Jayne Atkinson, too strongly resembles former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. I think that was intentional. Durant is a frumpy and dumpy white-haired Southern gal, as well, and is Frank Underwood’s policy poodle, ready to tailor her diplomatic spiel to Underwood’s. Will Hillary’s publicity agent protest the characterization? Likely not; it’s advisable not to call attention to the similarities between Hillary and Durant when a real life, alleged candidate is already having image and truth problems.
But suppose handsome George Clooney was picked to portray former president Bill Clinton in some improbable “docudrama”? Would his publicist crank out a protest? Absolutely not, not even if Bill Clinton as president were depicted espousing free market principles, siding with the Serbs, nailing bin Laden on the first try, and keeping his roaming hands off of his interns’ tushes.
But all it takes is someone’s whisper to get the ball rolling to a politically correctness-governed scandal, and the media, for lack of anything else to do, will lap it up and grow it to tabloid headline size.
For example, I chanced upon this February 17th story by Jeff Sneider from MSN: