'The Undefeated': The Atlantic's Phony 'Empty Theatre' Meme Falls Further Apart

As John Nolte pointed out, Connor [sic?] Friedersdorf, Atlantic’s resident conservative who spends most of his time trashing conservatives, set out to investigate how audiences are responding to the new Sarah Palin documentary “The Undefeated”. Curiously, he chose to go to a midnight showing in Orange County, CA at the precise moment of the long-anticipated premiere of the final “Harry Potter” film.

I planned on doing the same thing. I planned on going to the movie theatre in Orange, CA (AMC 30 at The Block) and report back to the Big Hollywood readers how Palin was being accepted in the county that Ronald Reagan described as “where good Republicans go to die.” Now Coner [sic?] is a real journalist, as he often reminds us. And I’m just a Breitbart blogger, so what do I know, but it seemed to me that the best time to go check out the audience reaction was during the DAY of the release, not at the midnight showing last night.

Connner [sic?], being the brilliant and reliable “capital- J journalist” that he is, reported to the intellectual readers of the Atlantic that he was the only person in the theatre at midnight last night – along with two young girls that he creepily interviewed for his column (hey there, I’m a JOURNALIST, want to tell me your name and what brings you here to this dark theatre after midnight?). He also claims that the manager wouldn’t tell him how many tickets had been sold for the film.

Funny, the manager I spoke with the next day had no problem telling me (more on that later). Maybe the guy Connnor [sic?] talked to was creeped out about the guy who was still lingering in the cinema after 2:00 AM after seeing a movie about Sarah Palin and after scaring two teenagers out of the place. (That’s just conjecture, I have no proof that Coonor’s [sic?] odd inquisition of the teenagers is what led them to leave the movie early, but it’s strange that it didn’t occur to him that a guy sitting all alone in a movie theatre after midnight showing a movie about Sarah Palin might not be the first person two teenage girls from out of town would want to talk to, and maybe THAT’s why they left early and didn’t want to hang out with him).

I can tell you that at 10:45 this morning, the theatre was about 1/3 full and the audience sat riveted. I stood on the side and watched the audience more than I watched the film. They skewed a bit older, I’d say 47-ish was the average age. But remember that this was at 10:45 in the morning on a work day. Most good conservatives are working at that time and aren’t able to go catch a flick. Not one of them looked at their watch. Not one left to use the restroom. The only movement was of people turning to their friend or spouse in reaction to the action on the screen.

At the end of the film when the titles began to appear, the audience did something I rarely see, especially at a documentary. They applauded … all of them did. Long, sustained and loud applause. I felt that they weren’t just applauding the film, they were applauding Palin.

I spoke with Joan Maltese from San Diego afterwards (yes, San Diego. She drove two hours to see the movie, Connnnor [sic?]. She said that she’d always loved Palin but after seeing this movie she hoped more than ever that she would get into the race. She told me how she feared what the media would do to her, but as Tammy Bruce says in the film, Palin is “like a Marine. She goes into the line of fire” where others would run.

I explained that the greatest danger that Palin faces is not from the left and the elites in the media, it’s from the establishment Republicans and so-called conservatives in the media who seek instant credibility by auto-bashing Palin for no good reason other than to feed the beast that is the MSM reward system. Bash Palin and get celebrated. I’m talking to you, Conur [sic?], tell Kathleen Parker I said “hi.”

I suspect that the 10:45 AM showing will be the lightest attended of the day. Reuters is reporting that a theatre in Texas has been sold out. But, I doubt the midnight showing do any better tonight in Orange than it did last night.

Although, that screening didn’t even do as poorly as Conor reported. He says that he was the only one there, then he concedes that two teenage girls were there, by mistake. He then claims the manager would not reveal actual figures to him. I spoke with Aaron at 12:10 PM at the very same cinema. He told me that there were six tickets sold to the midnight showing that Conoor[sic?] reported on. Six, not three and not one. Six.

To me, six tickets sold to a political documentary showing at midnight without any advertising on the same night as the biggest film premiere of the year is kind of astounding. But, maybe that’s the difference between a conservative like me and a conservative like Con-ner [sic?]. I see the glass half-full, and he sees the glass half-full of piss.