Theoretically, conservative pundits should embrace everything about American Sniper. The film celebrates a member of our military. It was made by one of their own in Clint Eastwood. And the movie has been cleaning up at the box office en route to Oscar eve, where it took home one statue for Best Achievement in Sound Editing. That wasn’t enough for the hosts of the Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends, and now Jon Stewart is taking them to task.
During a lengthy rant on The Daily Show about how Conservatives often get angry because things aren’t Conservative enough, Stewart eventually rolled around to the reactions to American Sniper not winning ALL of the Oscars. When trying to figure out if Sniper was snubbed by the largely Liberal Hollywood system because it was directed by Clint Eastwood, one pundit on Fox News guessed, "Probably." Which set Stewart off:
Clint Eastwood’s been a conservative icon for years! Oscar’s already awarded him with Best Director and Best Picture during that time. The left-wing loons in Hollywood made the fucking movie in the first place, and nominated it for Best Picture! Fine, Hollywood didn’t give Best Picture to American Sniper, so it must hate America. No! They didn’t even give Best Picture to the best picture. Oh, so good. Boyhood is so good.
Jon Stewart’s rant feeds into the point he was trying to make earlier in the clip (which I’m including below). Both sides of the political debate often need to find fault in something – in anything -- to keep the 24-hour news cycle going. We all need something to talk about. Were the hosts at Fox News seriously offended that American Sniper lost Best Picture? They didn’t appear to be. As Stewart rightly points out, the movie was greenlit, it received multiple Oscar nominations. If the Liberals are out to get it, they are doing a terrible job.
The American Sniper convo starts around the 7-minute mark. But really, the whole thing is worth a listen:
At least Jon Stewart used his time wisely – to plug his own movie, Rosewater, which apparently you can now stream on iTunes.
