On Tuesday afternoon, we posted our latest Special Report on religion and the news media, titled The Trashing of the Christ: Contrasts In Media Treatment of The DaVinci Code and The Passion. Both films received an extraordinary amount of network TV news attention before they were released, but we found that much of the Code coverage was gooey and giddy, with lots of talk from network stars about how they "couldn't wait" to see it.
Da Vinci Code
By Mark Finkelstein | May 23, 2006 | 8:20 AM EDT
Sometimes you just want to throw up your hands. Interviewing another big oil exec this morning, Katie Couric's proposed solution to high gas prices was to repeal the laws of supply and demand . . . just a little bit.
Whereas Matt Lauer took a while in his interview of another oil exec to get around to his price-cutting point, Katie wasted no time. Interviewing Shell Oil President John Hofmeister, Katie's opening salvo was
By Greg Sheffield | May 22, 2006 | 2:18 PM EDT
Right up there with "dog bites man," the news that Mel Gibson doesn't like "The Da Vinci Code" should come as no surprise. The creator of the film "The Passion of the Christ" thinks it could mislead some.
Reports Digital Spy:
Mel Gibson has slammed The Da Vinci Code for attacking his religious beliefs.
The Aussie actor is concerned that people may take both the book and the recently released film as fact.
By Warner Todd Huston | May 21, 2006 | 5:52 PM EDT
The New York Times seems to be quite confused by all this DaVinci Code stuff. All this focus on religion must be too much for them. The latest is a May 21st article by Laurie Goodstein titled “It's Not Just a Movie, It's a Revelation (About the Audience)” that claims, among other misleading things, that Gnosticism is said to be somehow new on the Christian religious scene.
By Tim Graham | May 21, 2006 | 5:31 PM EDT
If you would like to see the range of opinion among film critics on "The DaVinci Code," one very nice inventory of major-media reviews can be found at metacritic.com. It earned a 48 out of 100, well below this weekend's new cartoon, "Over the Hedge," which averaged out to 67.
For a comparison, you can see that "The Passion of the Christ" averaged just about the same, a 47.
By Dave Pierre | May 21, 2006 | 2:22 AM EDT
The headline to today's Los Angeles Times' "Regarding Media" column (Sat. May 20, 2006), penned by the perpetually clueless Tim Rutten, is "Media should stop and say, 'It's only a movie'." The movie he's talking about is the Da Vinci Code.
Like most of his
By Mark Finkelstein | May 18, 2006 | 8:49 AM EDT
After a couple days in which the only people offered the opportunity to comment on the controversy surrounding the Da Vinci Code were the movie's director and cast members, this morning's Today show finally gave an outside expert and Catholic officials their shot. The result was an oddly ambivalent reaction in which the movie was simultaneously praised as offering an opportunity to teach about the Church - and condemned as filled with lies.
By Brent Bozell | May 17, 2006 | 5:01 PM EDT
When Mel Gibson introduced "The Passion of the Christ" into the public conversation, Hollywood had a lot to say about it. Now Hollywood is offering its response with the upcoming release of "The DaVinci Code," inviting commentary not on that movie, but on Hollywood itself.
By Tim Graham | May 17, 2006 | 4:08 PM EDT
It's not enough for "DaVinci Code" star Ian McKellen to make cracks about Bible disclaimers. MRC's Michael Chapman passed along that in an interview with Reuters, he took his wisecracks directly to the Catholic Church:
By Greg Sheffield | May 16, 2006 | 10:39 AM EDT
Chris Weinkopf writes at American Enterprise Institute Online that if Hollywood had made a movie about all of Islam being a sham, with a murderous sect that kills all those who try to reveal the true secret, the media would have denounced the movie as hate speech, sure to inflame the terrorists and defame a major world religion.
By Mark Finkelstein | May 16, 2006 | 8:29 AM EDT
Let's be clear: the Da Vinci Code portrays Christianity as a fraud and the Roman Catholic Church as a murderous conspiracy.