- I always wondered what it would feel like to have my
work distorted by a prominent member of the mainstream news media, and
now I know.
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- On August 4, 2009, CNN.com posted a video segment by
reporter Jeanne Moos entitled "Obama the Joker." The video can
be viewed at the following link (it's the first result on the search page)
- http://search.cnn.com/search?query=joker&type=video&sortBy=date&intl=false
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- The topic is the recent broad distribution of posters
featuring President Obama with Joker makeup and the words "Why So
Socialist?", apparently in reference to Obama's health care plan.
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- Moos features clips of brief interviews with supposedly
random people on the street, all of whom express disgust over the posters.
At around the fifty second mark, she introduces a brief clip of my video,
"Joker Says, Thanks for the Blue Pills," with the words, "Shame
doesn't seem to be inhibiting critics." Moos concludes her two minute
piece with an eight second clip of me duplicating Ledger's iconic Joker
laugh.
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- My video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVTw5ocpz5U
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- But I have news for Jeanne Moos: My video had nothing
-- zilch, zero -- to do with the infamous Obama/Joker posters. In fact,
when I posted my video on YouTube on July 24th, I HAD NEVER EVEN HEARD
OF THE OBAMA/JOKER POSTER. As I specifically explained in the video description
box, my video was a satire aimed directly at Obama's apparent reference
to the movie The Matrix with his remark: "the blue pill works better
than the red pill", with the blue pill representing his health care
plan (HENCE THE TITLE OF THE VIDEO). My verbatim video description reads:
"The Joker has actually seen The Matrix. And he says, 'You are getting
VERY....SLEEEEEPPPYYYYY.....' (NOTE: For those of you who don't know or
have forgotten, in the movie The Matrix, the Red Pill will awaken and liberate
you, and the Blue Pill will put you back to sleep. LINK to the President's
comment endorsing the 'blue pill': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNLp0GRPJt4
)
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- As many on the Internet know, I have been portraying
the Joker for MANY months, beginning in February of 2009. My previous YouTube
account CometStardust1975 featured three Joker videos, but was inexplicably
suspended in March of this year. I reposted one of my Joker presentations
on a new YouTube account on March 28, 2009, as you can see for yourself
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da8hdLlX1h4 . And my latest YouTube account
GoodspeedActing features around a half dozen Joker videos, with the earliest
posted on June 13 -- again, long beore I (or probably anyone else) had
ever heard of the "Why So Socialist" posters.
-
- So let me repeat: I clearly explained the point of my
video in the official description box, and it had nothing to do with the
Obama Joker posters, nor did I ever label Obama or his health care plan
as "socialist." In fact, I find the posters more than a little
creepy and disturbing. My video was a mild and APOLITICAL satire, inspired
by THE MATRIX. I simply found the President's choice of words funny, given
the iconic significance of the red pill/blue pill scenario. I'm not a right
wing critic, as your news report clearly implied. And no, I don't feel
any shame over my performance, Jeanne Moos, because I've nothing to be
ashamed of. But a journalist who wittingly distorts another person's work
and viewpoint certainly does.
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- Trust me Jeanne -- the red pill (reality) isn't nearly
as scary as you think.
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- It is absolutely critical that we AMERICANS reaffirm
in one another our absolute sacred right to criticize public officials
in a manner that SOME might find tasteless. Jeanne Moos' report is nothing
more than brutal psychological bullying. She uses the tired pseudo-journalist's
trick of interviewing the "common man and woman" on the street
to express the viewpoints that she and her network so desperately seek
to inject into their viewers. Moos plainly advocates that anyone who criticizes
or makes fun of Obama should feel "shame." The irony is that
I am an apolitical person who long ago denounced the false dilemmas of
Republican vs. Democrat and conservative vs. liberal, yet Moos blatantly
lumps me in with Rush Limbaugh and other right wing critics. And the mainstream
news elitists wonder why so many millions of discerning Americans have
stopped watching their networks and now rely EXCLUSIVELY on the Internet
for information.
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- youtube.com/goodspeedacting
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