Friday, December 1, 2006 (page 2)

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MICHAEL MEDVED TO STAR IN NEW ANIMATED MOVIE: BATSH*T CRAZY!
You'd think a good Orthodox Jewish boy like conservative columnist Michael Medved would know it's not good form to play with the truth. (You'd think Medved would know a lot of things he doesn't, but I digress.) This week Michael's got his knickers all knotted up over the new animated children's movie Happy Feet. Or as Medved calls it Crappy Feet. Is he Oscar Wilde reincarnate or what? I despair of ever being half that witty.

It's not just that Happy Feet dares to have a pro-environmental message that enrages Medved (and the rest of his ilk), but that he detects a pro-gay agenda in it as well. The offensive character in this instance is Mumbles (Elijah Wood), who tells his parents he was born the way he is and can't change. I find it fascinating how much Medved hates the idea of teaching tolerance (unless it's done by animated Christian vegetables hewing strictly to the party line).

Attacking Happy Feet wasn't enough for Medved, however. Still brimming with rage, he spewed his venom over the editorial pages of USA Today where he took on the children's book Tango Makes Three. Tango tells the story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins in New York City's Central Park Zoo who raised a chick together. Here is where Medved starts to play a little footloose with his facts. Says Medved of Silo and Roy's relationship, “it was relatively short”. Hmm, the two penguins were together for six years. The average penguin lives for 18 or so years meaning that Silo and Roy were together longer than many conservative politicians and their wives. Medved also says it was very easy to break-up Roy and Silo. Yeah, that's why they were together for six years.

Medved then links to an article about Roy and Silo as proof of his claims. I guess he didn't read it to closely as the article details how the zoo currently has four other same-sex couples among the zoo's sixty five birds, one of which is the now grown up Tango. (Uh oh!) Medved also conveniently ignores the six penguins in a German Zoo who resisted their reparative therapy. Of course, maybe Medved isn't fibbing. Maybe he's just a crappy journalist.

Medved also criticizes Tango Makes Three for not detailing the end of Roy and Silo's relationship. Says Medved of the break-up, “an outcome never described, of course, in the propagandistic story book for kids”. Let's see, Tango was published in April of 2005 and Roy and Silo split in September of that same year. Does Medved think Tango's writers should buzz back in their time machine and change the book? Or perhaps he wants new editions to have an update? BTW, Medved's attacks on Tango are in support of some Illinois families who want the book, written for 4 to 8 year olds, moved from the library's children section to one for mature readers. He wants this despite the fact that it received a starred review from Booklist and has the complete support of American Library Association.

Because whether it's movies or books, Michael Medved knows what's best for his kids—and yours.

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