Breitbart: Roger Ebert's 'Raw Contempt For Middle America'

For good reason, Big Hollywood’s normally critical of the Los Angeles Times. But writer Scott Collins deserves kudos for mentioning our Retracto post that caught Roger Ebert trying to feign ignorance of what the term “teabagger” meant. Collins could’ve easily ignored that part of BH’s dispute with the once universally beloved and respected film critic, chose not to, and his decision adds an important layer of context.

Today’s Los Angeles Times:

Andrew Breitbart, publisher of several influential conservative blogs including Big Hollywood, defends Ebert the new-media user while attacking Ebert the political thinker. Breitbart says that Ebert’s Twitter posts reveal a patronizing view of tea party adherents that serves as a “caricature of the liberal mind-set” and that the critic brims with “raw contempt for Middle America.”

What especially irked some conservatives was that Ebert used a nickname for tea party followers that has also long been slang for a sexual act. When Ebert tweeted that he was unaware of the term’s pornographic connotation, Big Hollywood countered that he had referred to such a context in past movie reviews.

But Breitbart adds that the current fracas ultimately proves how much power has tilted to new media and away from mainstream outlets such as newspapers, where Ebert has reviewed movies for more than 40 years.

“I am a proponent of Roger Ebert using Twitter to express his point of view,” Breitbart said. “It’s a testament to the new media. Where is he having a bigger impact, in the Twitterverse or doing his reviews of movies?”

Read the full piece here.