RUSH: Northern Mississippi is next. This is Bob. I’m glad you called out there, Bob. Welcome on up here, the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, it’s an extreme pleasure to talk to you today.
RUSH: Thank you much. I appreciate that.
CALLER: You were talking at the beginning of the show about Oprah being snubbed in the Oscars.
RUSH: Big time.
CALLER: Which made me remember back to The Color Purple, and I told Mr. Snerdley that I thought there were no Oscar nominations for The Color Purple, but there were nine, but they were all shut out, everybody lost.
RUSH: Yeah, nobody won.
CALLER: No Whoopi, no Steven Spielberg. I think we need to have an investigation as to why this happened.
RUSH: You know what it is? I’m gonna tell you something. I think it’s very, very curious, because folks, old Bob calling up in here is absolutely right. The Color Purple, nine nominations, snubbed. Oprah Winfrey shocked the world, it literally shocked the world. Everybody thought, “Oprah? It’s The Oprah.” And this was before she’d lost the weight a bunch of times, The Oprah in her real essence. Zip.
And then “Selma.” Story here from Breitbart.com: “Race-Hoax Backlash: ‘Selma’ Earns Only Two Oscar Noms.” I mean, the Color Purple got nine. This thing got two. “Oprah WinfreyÂ’s ‘Selma’ took a pretty harsh beating Thursday morning as nominations were announced for the 87th annual Oscar nominations. The civil rights drama was blanked in every major category, including Best Actor, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, and Score. ‘Selma’ did win what can only be interpreted as a also-ran Best Picture nomination, something it almost certainly would not have if the Academy hadnÂ’t expanded its number of nominations past 5 a few years ago.”
This is really an insult article. “Race-Hoax Backlash: ‘Selma’ Earns Only Two Oscar Noms.” And one of them probably wouldn’t have even happened if they hadn’t expanded the number of potential winners from five to nine. I mean, this is slice and dice here. “After being snubbed for a number of other awards, ‘SelmaÂ’s’ poor showing at the Oscars was also no surprise. The film has faced withering criticism for its defamatory depiction of President Lyndon Johnson. ‘Selma’ portrays Johnson as Martin Luther KingÂ’s chief antagonist when history proves he was the civil rights leaderÂ’s partner when it came to encouraging the march in Selma and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“This isnÂ’t the first time producer Winfrey has found herself involved in a scandal surrounding false charges of racism. Just last year her racial drama ‘The Butler’ was found lacking in historical accuracy. The powerful media titan also launched what many believed was a false charge of racism against a helpless Swiss store clerk.”
Do you remember that? Oprah went into a fashionable store in Switzerland. It was a recognizable brand, I just can’t remember what it was. It was handbags or something. And the clerk didn’t recognize The Oprah and thought that The Oprah was in the wrong store, could simply not afford items in that store and said something to that effect. And The Oprah went out and made a big deal out of this, subtly. It was masterful the way she did it. Made it look like others were actually doing it. And then there was a peacemaking, a peace pipe smoking, and all was well. But I have a theory behind all this. And Roger Ebert. He got shut out, too.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay, before I give you my theory as to why Oprah keeps getting snubbed at the Oscars and why Roger Ebert got snubbed. Roger Ebert, folks, you would be amazed at the number of young journalists who think Roger Ebert is the end. Does that shock you, Mr. Snerdley? (interruption) I mean, you probably never thought about it, right? Robert Ebert, did his TV show with Gene Siskel, reviews movies. Roger Ebert to young, faux journalists, aspiring journalists, bloggers, Roger Ebert, to some of these young leftists, is it. And I’m telling you, they’re gonna be devastated that he got shut out.
There was a documentary made about his life called “My life,” I think was the name, his book, “Life Itself.” Anyway, I have a theory. I’m gonna get to the theory in just a second, but it’s the class system. Oprah and Ebert are downstairs people. They’re the media. The actors, the stars, the real stars, the producers, the directors, they’re upstairs. They’re not gonna give media people Oscars. Oprah’s show is where you go to promote your movie or book. They’re not gonna give somebody, a pretend actor, an Oscar. They’re not gonna corrupt these awards by giving it to somebody in a media, or a critic? For crying out loud, a critic, we’re gonna give an Oscar to something about a critic?
These people are some of the most class-conscious people in the world. You know what I mean by downstairs people? The servants. Damn right, that has to be what this. It has nothing to do with race. Oprah will think it is ’cause, you know, Oprah, everybody bows down. But the Oscar voters never have. And the Oscar voters are made up of actors. I can just see these people sitting around wherever they live, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, talking amongst themselves, “Does he really think we’re gonna give some critic on a syndicated TV show out of Chicago an Oscar? What do they think we do here? I don’t care that he battled courageously. He was a critic, for crying out loud. Media! Not gonna give these people Oscar? They’re not even in our business. They wish they’re in our business. They’re on the fringe of our business. They have us in as guests, they go to openings with us, and they really want to be us, but they’re not us. They’re media. We’re not gonna give them any award here.”
That seems to have been the case. The best you can do is to be asked to host the Oscar telecast, but even then you’re downstairs and they’re upstairs. That’s my take on it, anyway. (interruption) Big box office — well, that’s simple. Snerdley, “Why do big box office movies never win?” Something that has broad appeal where all demographics, all age-groups, including conservatives and young people like it, can’t possibly have been artistically any good. Real art has to make people mad. The fewer people that see it, the more artistic it is. Of course it’s elitist.
How about all these documentaries on PBS that win awards and nobody’s ever seen ’em? You have something with broad appeal, like this program. This program’s looked down on. Look at who the audience is. Average Americans. Yet, MSNBC, with no audience, still respected because of who watches it. The 25 or 30 people that watch it are big-time political players. So it matters. Don’t believe that the casts or class system in this country doesn’t exist. It exists in the ruling class in droves, and it exists in the entertainment industry. It exists in books, movies, literature, it’s everywhere. Why do you think Downton Abbey is so damn popular? Because these people are watching themselves. Make no mistake about it.
All right, now, audio sound bite time. This is about The Oprah snub. This is on Good Morning America today, the cohost Robin Roberts speaking with People magazine editor, Jess Cagle, who will also never win an Oscar. Are you kidding me, somebody at People? Hell, they’re sycophants. They sit around kissing our butts on Oscar night as we walk past ’em on the red carpet. They’re gonna win an Oscar? Srew that, we’ll be nice to ’em for a couple of times, but they’re a bunch of yokels, we use them. Same thing with E! Entertainment TV.
One guy has made the jump, Greg Kinnear. Greg Kinnear went from E! Entertainment network and hosting one of those shows to an actor. Greg Kinnear, one guy that’s done it. Okay, anyway, editor Jess Cagle and correspondent Chris Connelly, they drag this guy out every now and then. He’ll show up on ESPN. He’ll show up on Good Morning America. He’ll show up usually where there are women, start asking questions. Robin Roberts says, “So what jumps out at you, I guess, as the nominations have been announced?” This is the People magazine editor here.
CAGLE: I’m disappointed that the director of “Selma,” Ava DuVernay, did not get nominated, because she would have been the very first African-American woman to be nominated in the directing category, and it was because David Oyelowo for “Selma” was also not nominated. This is a completely white 20 acting nominees. All white group. It’s the second whitewash in the last ten years or something.
RUSH: Folks, I’m saying, the civil rights movement is the reason more Hollywood people are leftist than anything that you could name. If I had the time I would sit here and explain it to you, but just don’t doubt me. That’s why most of them are leftists. A lot of them in sports, too, civil rights movement, and it’s become things it never was in their minds. Many of them were not even there, including these two people that are, “Oh, yes, whitewash, my God, 20 acting nominees, all white, nobody in ‘Selma’? And the director didn’t get it?” Why should the director have? Because it was the first African-American director. That’s reason enough, you see.
If there is legitimacy to this, you know why the director didn’t get it? It’s because they got the portrayal of LBJ wrong. And the director is being accused of being behind getting that portrayal wrong. I haven’t seen the movie. I don’t know if their portrayal of LBJ is wrong or not. I have no clue. All I know is they’re running around saying that LBJ was smeared. Well, if so, it would have been the director who did that, in part. That would be why the director didn’t get a nod. But these white liberals, it’s gotta be race. ‘Cause all the nominees are white. It has to be race, you see. But then the retort, I thought Obama was gonna fix this. And I thought this is what Oprah stood for, was overcoming this stuff.
CNN was also lamenting the snub, the actor who played Martin Luther King in this movie “Selma” also snubbed, and he should have gotten the nomination because it’s Martin Luther King’s birthday. Well, okay. This is CNN’s “New Day.” This is the counterpart to Good Morning America. Michaela Pereira speaking with Entertainment Tonight correspondent Nischelle Turner about the Academy Award nominations, and this was part of the back and forth.
PEREIRA: Bradley Cooper seemingly knocking David Oyelowo out of the best actor race here because David Oyelowo did not get a nomination this morning for his role as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in “Selma.” Fittingly, it is Dr. King’s birthday today as well.
TURNER: Ooh.
RUSH: What does one have to do with the other? Well, he should have got nominated today because they’re announcing the nominations on the birthday of Martin Luther King and the actor portraying King in the movie “Selma” got snubbed and she said right here, “Fittingly, it was Dr. King’s birthday today,” and the infobabe, Turner, “Ooh,” as though it was a big snub, big controversy. But I’m telling you, I’m telling you, folks, this is class lines being drawn.
Same thing with Ebert. This is from Breitbart: “Oscar Nom Shocker: Academy Snubs Roger Ebert Doc — If Roger EbertÂ’s friends and family thought his legacy would be capped off with an Oscar win for ‘Life Itself,’ the documentary about the famous film criticÂ’s life and career, a bucket of cold water was felt by all after ThursdayÂ’s announcement of this yearÂ’s Oscar nominations. To almost everyoneÂ’s surprise, ‘Life Itself’ didnÂ’t even earn a nomination for Best Documentary.”
Not a single nomination for anything. “‘Life Itself; is helmed by Steve James, the director of ‘Hoop Dreams’ (1994), a documentary Ebert relentlessly championed. ‘Life Itself’ is based on EbertÂ’s auto-biography of the same name. Ebert, who passed away after a harrowing cancer battle in 2013, participated in the documentary, as did EbertÂ’s wife Chaz. Ebert was a film critic, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize winner.”
But he wasn’t an actor, he wasn’t upstairs in Hollywood, and it never had a prayer. The day they start giving Oscars to the media, the day they start giving Oscars to documentaries or movies about media people, that’s the day you’re gonna see a Hollywood revolt. Do not doubt me. And, by the way, if I’m being overheard saying any of this you can count on my being labeled the biggest idiot, stupid, don’t know what I’m talking about guy by the end of the day, proving that I will have nailed it.
One more sound bite. This is going to add insult to injury. We just had Ebert snubbed, “Selma” snubbed, Oprah snubbed, the actor who played Martin Luther King snubbed. Here is, at the Samuel Golden theater, Cheryl Boone, the academy president, announcing the Academy Award nominees for cinematography, and here they are.
BOONE: For achievement in cinematography, the nominees are Emmanuel Lubeski for “Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance,” Robert Yeoman for “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski for “Ida,” Dick Poop — Dick Pope (laughter) for “Mr. Turner.”
RUSH: Dick Poop. She mispronounced it there, Dick Poop. Might as well have said banana hammock. Dick Poop — uh, Dick pope. Poor Mr. Turner. Did you see “The Grand Budapest Hotel”? Yeah, I watched it. I’m shocked. I’m shocked at the nomination. I could never be one of these people, I’m shocked. I couldn’t get through it. It just bored me. It’s almost like a cartoon with humans in it. The sets looked like they’re cartoon.
I don’t know. It’s being said to be great art. I watched it with great anticipation. I love hotels. Stories in hotels are fascinating, murder mysteries and all that stuff in hotels, and this has got some convoluted story about some old lady’s paintings being ripped off, best I remember it, but I don’t know. It seemed like 1920s, ’30s music. It seemed like a 1920s or ’30s movie colorized and audio dubbed in. But what do I know? I’m just a customer.