Culture critic: Gone With ‘Gone With the Wind’
At The Washington Examiner, Philip Klein sees HBO’s decision to yank “Gone With the Wind” from its streaming service as “yet another troubling step toward erasing American cultural heritage.” It’s “essential,” he argues, “to preserve the film, not in spite of the fact that it runs counter to our current attitudes, but precisely because it does.” True, by today’s standards, and, “in some cases, even at the time,” the Civil War epic can be jarring — particularly its portrayal of race and slavery. But erasing the film only “makes it harder for people to understand how American perceptions of race” have changed. If “other iconic films” were to follow suit, it would be “impossible to have any enduring American culture.”
Foreign desk: Lefty Britain’s Weird Priorities
“Protesting the racial crimes of American policemen seems an odd thing to do on the streets of London,” quips British scholar Carl Trueman at First Things — especially “in view of what is happening” in Hong Kong. Britons, after all, have a special responsibility for the Chinese territory. Given the Beijing regime’s betrayal of its “one country, two systems” promise, “it is fascinating that young British people . . . have chosen the horrific death of George Floyd as the issue on which to take to the streets.” Apparently, “fighting for democracy in the West is simply not as trendy as it was in the days of the Cold War.” And that’s cause for worry: “If the underlying cultural forces behind protests indicate an impatience with democracy,” then “the horizon reveals a dark cloud.”
From the left: Gray Lady’s ‘Chilling’ Censorship
Steven A. Holmes loves The New York Times and disagrees with Sen. Tom Cotton’s op-ed in the paper calling for military intervention in the recent riots — but, he sighs at CNN, the decision to disown the Arkansas lawmaker’s piece is “chilling” nonetheless. The Times’ defense of its publication before backpedaling, for starters, suggests it “capitulated” to pressure. Times editors furthered that impression by offering “facile” reasons for their decision, including the claim that “Cotton’s essay was unduly harsh” — even though “generating strong feeling is the point of op-ed columns, not their defect.” Holmes says he writes his criticisms “more in sadness than in anger.” The Times may be “the best newspaper” in the world. “But my love [for it] does not prevent me from calling it out when I think it is wrong.”
From the right: Colin Powell’s Backward Claim
As “a distinguished soldier-statesman,” Colin Powell deserves our “continual, unbroken respect,” but not, chides The Washington Post’s Hugh Hewitt, “his own definition of the Constitution.” On Sunday, Powell claimed that President Trump has “ ‘drifted away from’ the Constitution,” though he “almost certainly” had no grounds for the charge. The retired general really should have criticized Democrats, who have “embraced a number of anti-constitutional positions,” and “Beltway elites,” who “launched a blatantly unconstitutional attack on the 2016 presidential election.” Trump, meanwhile, has “patiently defended” governors’ powers to respond to crises, “as the Framers envisioned,” and appointed “Constitution-honoring” judges. Powell’s charge is “incendiary” — and obviously “erroneous.”
Media watch: Hiding the Real Threat to Blacks
Chicago saw 18 people killed on May 31 alone, yet none of the deaths involved police, observes Jason Riley in The Wall Street Journal, so don’t expect “massive protests” over them. Yet such “carnage” in inner cities is all too typical: “Law enforcement has next to nothing to do with black homicides.” The problem: “Journalists break down police behavior by race,” but not criminal behavior, distorting the picture. The New York Times reported that Minneapolis cops used force against African-Americans at least seven times as often as against whites during the past five years — but left out the rate at which whites and blacks there commit violent crimes. Such omissions to “push a predetermined narrative are not only misleading but harmful, especially to blacks.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board