A reader writes:
I have to take some issue with slapping the Moore Award onto Whoopi Goldberg’s quote. While I find the Hollywood pile on in favor of Polanski’s release to be so morally occluded as to not have any place whatsoever in a matter of law, I really don’t see how Goldberg’s comment qualifies as any of the below:
“The Moore Award – named after film-maker, Michael Moore – is for divisive, bitter and intemperate left-wing rhetoric.”
Have I missed something? Outside a self-selected elite within the film making community (and, well, France), how has defending Roman Polanski become “left-wing rhetoric” beyond the fact that many of those who do so self-identify as left wing? You’ve already cited the vilification of Polanski by red meat conservatives Kate Harding and Ta-Nehisi Coates. But is there a pro-Roman Polanski thread on Daily Kos or any other left wing site of note?
Another reader:
There are people of the political left who support Polanski's detainment and extradition (see Scott Lemieux, TNC, and just about every feminist blogger). Unfortunately, others on the left are calling for his release. It hardly follows that defending Polanski is in and of itself a left wing viewpoint. Cultural relativism could be considered a liberal construct, true, but I would argue that not everyone who recognizes the shifting values and mores between cultures supports rape and pedophilia. I certainly do not (Moreover, I think cultural relativism is an anthropological construct rather than an explicitly liberal one, but that's a different subject altogether).
If The Moore Award's description were, "divisive, bitter and intemperate rhetoric by someone of the left," her comments would qualify (she may not be my kind of liberal, but she's a lefty for sure). But, as it is, I don't think they do.
The Dish 