I wasn’t going to address this because it has nothing to do with awards season and is so inside baseball no one really gives a crap, but what the hell, Jeff Wells has libeled our very own Ryan Adams and something has to be done about it.
Ryan has been banned from making comments over at Hollywood-Elsewhere and if I make one on his behalf it’s deleted. He’s a good friend, someone whom I can count on to keep the site running so that I can occasionally go out to the market, walk the dog or have anything resembling a social life. Before he came on board, I could never leave this site. I am grateful to him, appreciative of his kindness, his hard work and his friendship. He’s done nothing but have my back since 2006. He does not deserve to be called a “wee man,” or to have his character assassinated by a Jeff Wells rage spiral gone wrong and a lot of people who are too scared to use their real names but must lash out savagely under the comfortable cloak of anonymity, otherwise known as “mama’s skirt.” Really tough there, like spitting on people’s heads from a bridge where no one can see you.
In his distorted rundown of our podcast Jeff Wells casually throws around the word ‘racist.’ In our discussions of how Selma has been dinged this awards season never once did we use the term “racist.” The focus of the discussion has been mostly around the portrayal of LBJ in the film. It has become a nearly insurmountable story. It is a film ABOUT racism. What we’ve said was that the people who dominate the conversation, who fall too easily into the trap Oscar season sets for contenders – a system that is very easily manipulated by savvy publicists – tend to be white men. Does that mean they’re racists? No. I don’t think this effort to sink Selma IS about racism. But it is about the cultural identity of white men and their defensiveness of that identity and their dominance of the media — purely and simply. There are so many “white men” and the defensiveness of some in the white male voice that dominates the media. So many great reviews and defense piece – like this must-read in Vulture.
We don’t throw around the word “racist” casually.
