Melissa Mullins is a freelance writer and public relations professional living in the Washington, D.C. area. 

Latest from Melissa Mullins
May 31, 2015, 5:31 PM EDT

Hollywood sure has a "strange" way of showing they are taking a step in a direction toward more diversity. Case in point? Doctor Strange, set to debut in November of 2016, has a high profile role for an Asian character.  This character is known as “ the Ancient One” – a “mystical mentor to Doctor Strange, of Tibetan extraction and more than 500 years old.  His powers include astral projection, teleportation, and the ability to create energy blasts.”  

Since the beginning, Hollywood has sorely lacked diversity when it comes to providing leading or supporting roles for Asians, so this sounds like the perfect role for an Asian actor, right? Wrong.  Their (almost positive) choice?  Tilda Swinton. Swinton is a white lesbian female actress…not Asian, and not male.  Apparently that counts towards diversity in Hollywood. The same sound came when the new movie Aloha featured a half-Asian woman played by ...Emma Stone.

May 30, 2015, 7:26 AM EDT

Amy Zimmerman recently wrote an article for the Daily Beast on the “Right-Wing War on Lena Dunham.”  Somehow this article landed in the Politics section of the liberal news website.  If anything, it should be an opinion piece since Zimmerman chooses to brush off undisputed facts over an alleged rape as well as written passages in Dunham’s book Not that Kind of Girl where she basically describes the molestation of her little sister.

Zimmerman claims that “right wingers obsessively document and chastise her every move.”  I beg to differ.  Those of us who write about Ms. Dunham aren’t obsessed with her, rather, we do what the mainstream media does not – we write about her hypocrisy and lies.

May 29, 2015, 8:52 AM EDT

For its June 5 magazine issue, The Hollywood Reporter features a story on “Six of TV’s most provocative female comedians” that discussed everything from sexism, sex scenes, and pay equality.

With the likes of HBO star Lena Dunham and Comedy Central star Amy Schumer being two of the six comedians, it’s a safe bet to say the story would be a raunchy one. They didn’t disappoint. “I stopped wearing the nude patch after the first season of Girls…There’s not one guy who works on that show who hasn’t seen the inside of my vagina."

May 27, 2015, 4:38 PM EDT

It looks like ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos isn’t the only one affected by his Clinton Foundation donation scandal.  His wife, author and actress Ali Wentworth, is cancelling appearances to promote her upcoming book Happily Ali After and Other Fairly True Tales.

Tweeting excitement just days before her scheduled appearance on Bravo’s goofy-barroom late-night show Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Wentworth bailed at the last minute, forcing the show to find another replacement.  Her excuse?  She wanted the interview to coincide with the launch of her book on June 9, not because of her husband’s recent scandal. Sure. 

May 26, 2015, 8:04 PM EDT

This has to go down as one of the most idiotic comparisons of all time.  On Sunday, Reuters posted a story trying to link the Texas biker gang shootings to the peaceful patriotic bikers making their way to the Rolling Thunder event held in Washington D.C., as they have done each Memorial Day weekend since 1988.

The story headline reads, “Thousands of bikers gather in Washington to honor vets.”  Sounds innocent enough, right?  Wrong. Check out the opening paragraph:

May 25, 2015, 7:33 PM EDT

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews once famously said that Obama sent a “thrill up my leg,” and even announced on air that it was his job to make sure Obama succeeded.  With news that his wife, Kathleen Matthews, is expected to run for Maryland’s 8th District congressional seat, who’s to say he won’t use his status and show as a platform to do the same for her campaign?

Politico reporter Dylan Byers reported that Matthews has been involved with his wife’s campaign meetings, which have focused on campaign planning and strategy. Let's guess who does most of the talking...

May 24, 2015, 5:24 PM EDT

Rose Byrne (who recentluy starred in Bridesmaids, Neighbors, and Annie) is the latest actress to speak out about the “age” old issue of gender discrimination in Hollywood.

Byrne, who was busy promoting her new movie Spy, told PrideSource that women have long been discriminated against and are still intentionally discriminated against in film and television.

May 22, 2015, 3:27 PM EDT

"[W]e in journalism need to come to a place and realize that when you make mistakes you need to own up to them immediately and apologize." -- Jake Tapper

May 21, 2015, 6:12 AM EDT

On Monday, New York Times national political correspondent Jonathan Martin took a dig at Republicans and their distaste of Hillary Clinton’s silence toward media by tweeting the following:

"All the Rs mounting a high horse now about press access & Hillary will side w/the press when an R candidate starts dodging press, right?"

May 20, 2015, 8:11 PM EDT

The Clinton cohorts are out to defend Hillary, and their maxim is that no Democratic scandal is really a scandal. Former Obama spokesman Bill Burton was on Fox News Channel’s The Kelly File Tuesday night, where he was pressed by Megyn Kelly on the “cloud of corruption that follows” Clinton everywhere she goes.

May 19, 2015, 6:42 AM EDT

On Saturday, actor and comedian Ed Helms delivered the commencement address to the University of Virginia’s graduating class of 2015.  Famous for his comedic roles on The Office and The Hangover movies, Helms had the audience laughing from the many jokes he told, but also took the time to discuss serious matters, like the fake Rolling Stone campus-rape expose.  

“I know the UVA community has some experience with being defined by outsiders. It has been said that a rolling stone gathers no moss. I would add that sometimes a Rolling Stone also gathers no verifiable facts or even the tiniest morsels of journalistic integrity.”

May 17, 2015, 8:23 AM EDT

Instead of the British Broadcasting Corporation, I’m beginning to think BBC stands for the “Barely Believable Crap” channel, after comments were made by its Home Affairs Editor, Mark Easton, comparing radical Islamist/terrorist/hate preacher Anjem Choudary to the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. They were all seen as "extremist," Easton proclaimed.

May 14, 2015, 5:04 PM EDT

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell is trying to get ratings for his show (which only has a few viewers to begin with) by throwing rocks at Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren for statements she made Sunday on ABC during This Week.

Van Susteren was part of a panel to discuss Jade Helm 15 – a military training exercise taking place in Texas.  There’s been a conspiracy theory, most notably by InfoWars’ Alex Jones, that Jade Helm 15 was actually the beginning stages of initiating martial law in the United States.

May 13, 2015, 2:49 PM EDT

This past Sunday,  John Oliver thrilled liberals again with his HBO show Last Week Tonight when he decided to politicize Mother’s Day as another way to bring up the “war on women.” There’s a reason he doesn’t say he’s a “journalist.” He’s a televised activist. He "slams Mother's Day hypocrisy," oozed the Daily Beast.

This was his topic sentence: “You can’t go on and on about how much you support mothers and then fail to support legislation that makes life easier for them.” Obviously, if you cut a mother’s taxes, that would not be on Oliver’s little liberal list. It’s all about mandates:

May 12, 2015, 7:22 AM EDT

Chris Rock was interviewed by Hadley Freeman at The Guardian last week, where he spoke on everything from his divorce, to new Daily Show host Trevor Noah, and of course, racism.

Rock seems to think that police violence is just a part of everyday life for young black men, and that “white kids” are never victims of police brutality:

“It’s not that it’s gotten worse, it’s just that it’s part of the 24-hour news cycle. What’s weird is that it never happens to white kids

May 9, 2015, 6:52 AM EDT

Love her or hate her, Pamela Geller has been getting a lot of buzz with the fallout of her "Draw Muhammad" contest. Apparently, the people at Politico are shocked that Fox News is living up to its “Fair and Balanced” slogan, claiming that the network personalities “…have seemingly been at odds all week over Pamela Geller.”  Oh my. Two different views – that’s almost unheard of!

They even allowed Geraldo to say "every time I see her on television, I want to take a shower."

 

May 5, 2015, 4:13 PM EDT

Oh-so-sensitive CNN journalist Chris Cuomo went on his Facebook page to address the recent anti-cop quotes that he says were taken out of context. He got in some hot water for saying police officers, “you know how they are.”

Cuomo misquoted himself, saying "that's how they are." He didn't want anyone to think he had an anti-police "animus."

April 30, 2015, 10:16 PM EDT

By now, most of us have seen "Baltimore Mom" Toya Graham take matters into her own hands when she saw her son participating in Monday’s rioting in Baltimore.  The video of Graham going after her 16-year-old son went viral, making her somewhat of a celebrity, others would say hero.  Many have applauded Graham and her actions, while some in the media – particularly in liberal outlets like Salon.com and The Washington Post -- have condemned those who praise Graham for having "chased down, cursed and beat her 16-year-old son in the middle of a riot."

April 29, 2015, 11:28 AM EDT

Given all the feminist hype for HBO star Lena Dunham, what she recently said about music is making her sound more like vintage Tipper Gore than a modern-day Gloria Steinem.

Dunham was speaking at Variety’s Power of Women 2015 lunch when she made the following comments attacking music (most notably hip-hop and rap), which she says, “celebrates the exploiters and hides the exploited.”

April 26, 2015, 7:34 AM EDT

Sounds like the folks over at CNN are upping the ante over climate change. In addition to climate change being blamed for cute and cuddly polar bears becoming endangered (which has been debunked) and giving children nightmares, they are now trying their hand at scare tactics, specifically, frightening people into believing in climate change by focusing on a mere two degrees Celsius.

By embracing the “Two Degrees Celsius” initiative, CNN has given its reporter and recipient of an award by the American Society of News Editors for public service journalism, John Sutter, the next eight months to report on the insurmountable destruction that could occur because of these two little degrees.