Topic: Media Research Center
If you hate transgender people, the Media Research Center will automataically love you and immediately memory-hole any previous criticism of you. We saw that with Ricky Gervais and J.K. Rowling when they turned transphobic, and now we're seeing it with comedian Dave Chappelle. Back in 2019, the MRC rushed to defend Chappelle after he was caught ttelling mean-spirited transgender jokes, and they're rushing to defend him again after a new round of transphobic humor.
In an Oct. 7 post, Matt Philbin mocked an NBC News article on Chappelle, sneering that the complaints came from one transgender person with only a thousand followers and "some other LGBT something something activist." But the complaints turned out to have more staying power than Philbin planned, so he did another mocking post the next day:
The woke left has reached peak absurdity. Yesterday, I noted that NBC got the vapors because Dave Chappelle spoke sense on his new Netflix special, “The Closer.” Today, Variety ;has more on the fallout of Chappelle saying “Gender matters.”
Jacklyn Moore, who was a writer and showrunner on Netflix’s Dear White People, is angry, and vows not to work with Netflix again. On Instagram, Moore said the streaming platform is “promoting and profiting from dangerous transphobic content.”
They’re jokes, but never mind. Variety said “Moore transitioned during the pandemic, a journey she has chronicled across her social media platforms.” Like ya do. Sounds more like a career move than anything else.
Funny, the MRC never gives the "they're jokes" defense to comedians when they make jokes about conservatives.
As criticism of Chappelle increased, so did the shrill MRC posts defending him. Alex Christy groused in an Oct. 11 post:
Irony died during Monday's edition of At This Hour on CNN as guest host Boris Sanchez and "transgender D.J. and actress" Lina Bradford urged viewers to reconsider their Netflix subscriptions in the aftermath of Dave Chappelle's latest comedy show, where he took on cancel culture and woke gender theory.
[...]
In his show, Chappelle said that he didn't care if he got dragged on Twitter, "because Twitter is not a real place." In his next show, maybe he can throw in a joke about not caring that CNN was trying to cancel him, because CNN was not a real news organization.
In an Oct. 13 post, Scott Whitlock could have given Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos for credit for saying that "We don’t allow titles on Netflix that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe The Closer crosses that line" -- but instead he ranted that Sarandos waslying because "Netflix produces shows encouraging hate against Christians routinely and without remorse or the same level of uproar." Whitlock, however, cited only two examples of such from the dozens of shows Netflix has produced.
Right-wing movie critric Christian Toto ran to Chappelle's defense in an Oct. 16 post while also lashing out at critics of right-wingers like himself who like to say "woke" and "cancel culture" a lot:
Call it a polite bullying, or more proof that the journalist (or editor in charge) wants to embarrass the star even more. An industry aghast at Cancel Culture would do no such thing. Today’s news editors behave otherwise.
And we’re seeing it again, courtesy of Dave Chappelle. The comedy icon released his latest Netflix special, “The Closer,” Oct. 5 on the streaming giant. The special lets Chappelle explain, and by most measure double down, on jokes deemed beyond the pale by woke activists. His critics dubbed the material “transphobic,” just like they did two years ago when he uncorked similar barbs on “Sticks & Stones.”
Note many of the same outlets will deploy the scare quotes around terms like “woke” and “Cancel Culture” as if neither may only exist in the minds of their critics. It’s laughable.
The media attack against Chappelle came in several waves. Sometimes reporters weaponize a modest number of social media posts – as little as three – to build the narrative that the comedian had stepped out of bounds.
Toto doesn't explain how that's any different from how right-wingers attack non-conservative content they disagree with.
Jeffrey Lord used his Oct. 16 column to warn of "organizations with staffers who are in reality leftist totalitarians. Totalitarians with zero regard for the free speech that in fact is what enables their respective institutions do what they were created to do, whether that means producing TV specials and movies (Netflix) or reporting the news of the day and various opinions on that news of the day." Lord went on to give the praise for Sarandos that Whitlock denied him: "Three cheers for Netflix in standing firmly behind Dave Chappelle. Co-CEO Sarandos is refusing to be bullied into silencing the comedian."
Lord added: "The real problem here is that the fight for free speech, even - especially even - offensive free speech, is raging across America. Giving in and appeasing the bullies, no matter where they show up, is never the answer." He didn't mention that shouting down free speech they don't agree with and acting like bullies is the MRC's entire reason for existence.
