23 May 2004 J’accuse, They Said, Ironically

The British left-wing newspaper the Guardian apparently thinks Americans give a damn about the opinion of effete Old Europe filmgoers.

A story titled “J’accuse” to this effect carries an astonishing sub-headline asserting that an Cannes film festival award to Michael Moore’s anti-Bush film “may have changed the course of history.”

How many divisions does the Cannes film festival have?

The article calls the award to Moore’s film “…a spectacular rebuke to Republican and corporate America, a stunning exocet of scorn launched from the epicentre of old Europe.”

They are a little full of themselves. This award represents a bunch of movie people from Europe restating something they say all the time: They don’t like us, they don’t like our values, and the really don’t like us when we stand up for our values.

American moviemakers mostly don’t like America. We sure as heck don’t expect anything different from the French.

But before I end this, a note about the irony of the piece’s headline:” J’accuse.” For those who don’t know history (let’s include the Guardian here), this is a title of a famous newspaper piece condemning one of very many examples of French anti-semitism. Yet the Guardian uses the term against the USA’s foreign policy — which it despises in part because it believes we’re too pro-Israel.