As the culture wars have made a battleground of the Oscars, the Daily Wire continues to rely on lies to further their perspective.
Oscar season is just around the corner, and conservative commentators like Matt Walsh and other Daily Wire pundits have complained about the Academy. Walsh, the self-labeled “Theocratic fascist,” predicted that his favorite movies of 2022 (“All Quiet On The Western Front” and “The Northman”) would be snubbed due to only starring white men.
“‘All Quiet On The Western Front’ won’t win anything because it only stars white men, but it was clearly the best film of the year. Only The Northman competes with it, but it also won’t win anything for the same reason,” Walsh tweeted on Jan. 24.
The tweet has nearly 9,500 likes and many comments in agreement with Walsh, so it begs the question: What makes these people feel this way?
To start crafting an answer, we need to look back to 2020 when the Academy announced new representation and inclusion standards for Oscar eligibility. They established four new standards to get consideration for Best Picture. Meeting these thresholds will not be a requirement for Best Picture consideration until next year’s ceremony.
The four new standards — two of which the Best Picture winner will need to meet starting next year — encompass several spheres of the film industry and do not necessarily punish studios for producing content without a certain level of on-screen representation. The standards were labeled as follows:
Standard A related to on-screen representation, encouraging casting to become more diverse and representative of audiences as well as having themes surrounding diversity.
Standards B, C and D focused on providing opportunities and representation behind the camera. These standards ranged from giving apprenticeship and internship opportunities to underrepresented groups to giving underrepresented groups representation in marketing, publicity and distribution as well as having diverse teams in creative leadership positions.
Instead of paying attention to what can be read in the contents of the new standards, Daily Wire commentator Ben Shapiro claimed that movies like “1917” would not be eligible for Best Picture.
While one might first feel these “new, woke guidelines” are far too exclusive toward war movies like “1917” or “All Quiet On The Western Front,” it turns out that — while not meeting on-screen requirements — these movies have an opportunity to meet two of the three other standards for eligibility. This means they would not have to rule out a movie like “All Quiet On The Western Front” from being eligible.
While viewers of the Daily Wire leave comments remembering a time when “movies and actors won awards based on talent,” it becomes increasingly obvious that conservatives are unaware of the history of the Academy.
The Oscars have always had identity politics at play, but Matt Walsh’s tweets and Ben Shapiro’s comments do not take the Oscars’ long history of race and gender conflicts into account.
Over the past decade, 89% of nominations went to white people, and women only received 28.9% of the nominations. To receive her nomination for best supporting actress in “Gone With The Wind”, Hattie McDaniel had to accept her award from a segregated hotel. These disparities are not something we’ve seen Matt Walsh or other Daily Wire commentators concern themselves over.
By distorting the truth about the changes being made in the Academy and neglecting to acknowledge severe disparities in the history of the Oscars, the Daily Wire is not demonstrating that it cares about fostering a diverse and inclusive industry.
The academy has problems with representation, and with context, these new standards are not as dramatic as the Daily Wire is trying to make them seem. Rather, they demonstrate an effort to improve representation and inclusion in the industry. Even with these changes, the Academy has faced criticism from those who feel the rules are not doing enough — some progressive critics of the standards feel the Academy is making the standards too narrow.
It is concerning to see the Daily Wire present these new standards as something completely different from what they are. These new standards are not threatening to all-white casts, but the Daily Wire still wants its audience to feel angry about something. It is presenting a disingenuous narrative, and it is obvious to anyone who has read the standards that the Daily Wire is merely attempting to agitate people into being anti-inclusion.
There is room for improvement, but listening to the Daily Wire will not bring us any closer to ensuring equal opportunities for all at the Oscars.
Edited by Scout Hudson | shudson@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Ashley Dickey, Lauren Courtney and Grace Knight