Why Won’t Scorsese, De Niro Decry ‘Goodfellas’ Trigger Warning?

“Goodfellas” actor Frank Sivero isn’t a household name, but this week he shamed his famous peers. The veteran actor came to the defense of the 1990 mob classic starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and the late Ray Liotta. Director Martin Scorsese’s film is considered one of his film canon’s highlights, on par with the greatest mobster stories ever told.     AMC added a trigger warning to the film and several others in 2020 during the rise of Black Lives Matter. News of the “Goodfellas” warning went viral earlier this month. “This film includes language and/or cultural stereotypes that are inconsistent with today’s standards of inclusion and tolerance and may offend some viewers.” Sivero, who plays mob enforcer Frankie Carbone in the drama, lashed out at AMC during an interview with TMZ. “I’m kind of a little bit perturbed in a way, that AMC that even, AMC even cuts the movie completely, you don’t hear the language, they delete the language, so why are they so upset?”  “I’m a little perturbed because thank God I was able to do my job by improvisation. I created that, I made those moments real, to take the tension away from those gruesome moments.” He’s right, of course, as Andrew Klavan recently noted in a blistering satire on the subject.     So where are De Niro and Scorsese? We know where the “Raging Bull” actor is these days. He’s on the streets of New York City ranting about a second Donald Trump presidency. It’s embarrassing on many levels, including why an A-list actor’s views on the presidential race warrant outsized attention.   De Niro has gone full Travis Bickle. However, now 80, it came across as De Niro screaming at the courthouse for Trump to get off his lawn. https://t.co/O9CDQPwUPw — Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 29, 2024   Why won’t De Niro spare a syllable about “Goodfellas” and an artist’s right to offend? It’s not for a lack of microphones around him.  The same is true for Scorsese. He’s weighed in on more trivial subjects in the past, including his alleged disdain for Marvel movies. He’s 81 and still a feisty, formidable talent. Shouldn’t he be rising up to defend his film? If not him, who else? Doesn’t he realize the chilling effect trigger warnings have on the arts? Apparently not. Or, even a film legend knows defying the woke bylaws that control modern Hollywood isn’t good for business. His in particular.

Adam Carolla Shreds Schwarzenegger, Stern for Insane COVID Rants

Adam Carolla is doing a victory lap, and it’s hard to blame him. The “Mr. Birchum” star took to X Sunday to remind everyone what he said during the recent pandemic. Don’t believe Dr. Anthony Fauci Airline masking rules make no sense The virus overwhelmingly affects the old and immunocompromised The media wants to scare you For that he was tarred and feathered in the public square. And, as we now know, he was right on all of the above. Carolla shared a 2020 article from the liberal TheWrap.com that noted his unwillingness to “apologize” for sharing those views at the time. He’s not willing to forgive and forget. Read this and tell me what I got wrong and as far as the celebrity’s that spoke out. Let’s hear what you have to say now you cowards please speak up. you were willing to speak out then how about now cowards   Read this and tell me what I got wrong and as far as the celebrity’s that spoke out. Let’s hear what you have to say now you cowards please speak up. you were willing to speak out then how about now cowards https://t.co/gFvlZe5Mpl — Adam Carolla (@adamcarolla) May 19, 2024   Bottom of Form Carolla and longtime broadcasting partner Dr. Drew Pinsky have led the way in exposing pandemic lies, overreach and misdirection on “The Adam and Dr. Drew Show.” One example? Carolla routinely harped on airlines insisting fliers “mask up” between bites and sips. Did the virus take a knee while passengers snacked on trail mix, he asked. The comedian also targeted the King of All Media on X, someone who many fear for his ability to counter-punch like few others. Like Jerry Seinfeld. Earlier this month, Seinfeld slammed and then swiftly apologized for suggesting radio superstar Howard Stern wasn’t a top-tier comic. Not Carolla.   Read this and tell me what I got wrong and as far as the celebrity’s that spoke out. Let’s hear what you have to say now you cowards please speak up. you were willing to speak out then how about now cowards https://t.co/gFvlZe5Mpl — Adam Carolla (@adamcarolla) May 19, 2024   The podcaster targeted Stern and Arnold Schwarzenegger for their extreme pandemic rhetoric. The “Predator” star famously said, “screw your freedom” when it came to pandemic rules. He later apologized. Stern became a recluse during the pandemic, refusing to leave his home and shunning his social life. He also blasted those who refused to take the vaccine, a medicinal treatment less effective than we were initially told. He got COVID-19 anyway. He lived. Adam Carolla and Howard Stern. It’s … Complicated Carolla previously appeared on “The Howard Stern Show,” but the podcaster said Stern severed their ties during the pandemic. “I’m no longer welcome on the show because I was right about everything COVID. It’s important that I be punished for being correct about everything COVID.” Now, there’s zero chance of a reunion. One duo who won’t be splintered by COVID-19 disagreements? Carolla and longtime pal Jimmy Kimmel. The two met in the 1990s when Carolla brought his Mr. Birchum character to Kimmel’s show on KROQ-FM in Los Angeles. They’ve been thick as thieves ever since, collaborating on both “The Man Show” and “Crank Yankers” through the years. Kimmel’s pandemic rhetoric proved both aggressively left-of-center and misinformed, in retrospect. Carolla has not held that against his chum, by any indication. The two have been able to set aside their political differences to keep their friendship intact.

The War on Jerry Seinfeld, Explained

Some stars float on a bed of pure adulation. Dolly Parton comes to mind, as do Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock and Betty White before her passing in 2021. Jerry Seinfeld just got bumped from that list. The 70-year-old comedian is best known for his self-titled sitcom, a sensation still felt in 2024 thanks to the streaming revolution. He’s worked sporadically since then, both on “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” and the stand-up circuit. That all changed when he gave a blunt interview to The New Yorker’s podcast.     Seinfeld, now starring in the Netflix comedy “Unfrosted,” blasted the “extreme Left” for hurting comedy. The comments immediately drew the media’s ire, although the think pieces aimed at rebutting his charge fired blanks. All his critics could do is say he’s too old, too white or too out of touch. Imagine lecturing Jerry Seinfeld on comedy. Bottom of Form Yes, there’s something wrong with that. His statement changed the way media outlets viewed the New York-based comic. The press adulation faded. In its place, a brand “reassessment.” The Hollywood Reporter fretted that Seinfeld’s new, outspoken mien could hurt his career, something John Nolte rightly noted is never mentioned when a star veers to the Left. CNN cranked out a think piece centered on the author’s “growing unease” over the clean comic. Slate worried aloud with a piece dubbed, “What’s the Deal with Jerry Seinfeld?” …he’s even started embracing his Judaism more publicly, and in December traveled to Tel Aviv to visit the families of Hamas hostages. Who can fault a Jewish celebrity for calling attention to the dead and missing of Israel? Yet he’s notably not commented on the Netanyahu government, condemned the war, or discussed the suffering of Gazans… Funny, nearly every celebrity not named Rapaport, Heaton, Messing or Schumer continues to ignore the Israel hostages held by the terrorists in Hamas without any Slate-approved hand-wringing. But we digress. That Slate piece wouldn’t exist had the comedian not accurately mocked the “extreme Left” for hurting comedy. The latest attack on the genial comic speaks volumes of today’s culture. Roughly 30 pro-Palestinian students protested Seinfeld’s Duke University commencement address Sunday. The walkouts got plenty of media attention, but they didn’t stop Seinfeld from sharing some advice to those about to enter the “real world.” “Whatever you’re doing, I don’t care if it’s your job, your hobby, a relationship, getting a reservation at M Sushi,” the comedian said. “Make an effort. Just pure, stupid, no-real-idea-what-I’m-doing-here effort. Effort always yields a positive value, even if the outcome of the effort is absolute failure of the desired result. This is a rule of life. Just swing the bat and pray is not a bad approach to a lot of things.” Why protest Seinfeld? The comedian is Jewish and he supports Israel’s right to defend itself against the worst terrorist attack in decades. The documentary “Screams Before Silence,” mostly ignored by film critics, captures the Oct. 7 atrocities by the Hamas terrorist group/government. For that, select students felt Seinfeld wasn’t an appropriate choice to greet the graduates. And it’s not the first time Seinfeld endured heckling for his pro-Israeli views. Protesters shouted at him when he left a New York event in February featuring The Free Press founder Bari Weiss. Seinfeld remains a beloved figure to many. They’ll always appreciate the laughter “Seinfeld” brought into their lives. Others embrace a comedian who sticks to his squeaky-clean image in our troubled times. Seinfeld still isn’t political by nature, and his off-screen life rarely intersects with the Beltway. That doesn’t matter. Like J.K. Rowling, he’ll never be viewed the same way by the hard Left and the press, two groups with sizable overlap. For Rowling, defying the trans movement earned her a Scarlet Letter of sorts for her former defenders. Seinfeld’s willingness to pin comedy’s decline on the far-Left similarly stained him with that movement. Rowling, once revered for her progressive views and positive impact on children’s reading habits, is now a pariah on the Left. That won’t change unless she attempts an extended apology and becomes an “ally” for the trans cause. And the author isn’t budging. Neither she nor Seinfeld will be treated as a beloved icon again, at least in certain quarters. The Daily Beast dredges up an embarrassing chapter from Seinfeld’s past to keep the attacks. coming. The comedian’s romance with a 17-year-old “resurfaced” on social media, and the far-Left Beast happily amplified the narrative. The comic was 38 at the time, and while the courtship fueled the gossip pages it wasn’t the worst attack on him. That came courtesy of Howard Stern. The shock jock invited folk singer Janis Ian on his show to sing an updated version of her hit song “At Seventeen” to mock Seinfeld.

Late Night Shame: ‘SNL,’ Colbert Can’t Condemn College Antisemitism

“Saturday Night Live” had a second chance to address the raging antisemitism on today’s college campuses. Swing, and a miss! The new skit, inspired by the violent protests at Columbia University, proved as toothless as the last one. The former, targeting the Ivy League presidents who couldn’t condemn antisemitism on their campuses, trained its firepower on the GOP politician grilling them.     The just-released sketch shows parents of college students grappling with the latest round of protests. Veteran “SNL” player Kenan Thompson draws some chuckles as a Columbia University parent, but the material sidesteps the violence and morally warped behavior engulfing the New York campus.     It gets worse. The show’s “Weekend Update” segment soft-pedaled both the antisemitism on display at Columbia University and the unchecked violence which trashed a campus building.   🚨#BREAKING: Protesters have just stormed and overtook the Hamilton Hall at Columbia University Sparking Riot as They Barricade Inside and Break Windows⁰⁰📌#Manhattan | #NewYork⁰⁰At this very moment, hundreds of students and pro-Palestine protesters have just forcefully… pic.twitter.com/PbU04sHSI9 — R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) April 30, 2024   Co-anchor Michael Che tut-tutted said violence during his comments Saturday night. Officials at Columbia University complained that protesters broke windows and destroyed property …But, so what? College kids also do that when they win the Final Four … Also, if you don’t want students to freak out, stop telling them the truth. No word about the Jewish student beaten by protesters earlier this month. Che and co-anchor Colin Jost also couldn’t be bothered to trace the liberal dark money behind the protests, the promotion of Hamas talking points and other toxic campus trends. The show couldn’t mock viral videos showing how clueless many protesters are throughout the country.   The anti-Israel protesters at UCLA just held a press conference where they said they were victims of a “life threatening assault” at the hands of “Zionists” last night. They complained that police didn’t do enough to intervene, however, their demands include “abolish policing”. pic.twitter.com/bt5aQY3NZf — Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 1, 2024   Also ignored? The Jewish student blocked by pro-Palestinian protesters from attending his own college. And that doesn’t include the pro-violent chants, students praising North Korea and other moral indignities. “SNL” failed on every level. And they had company. Late-night comedians are also doing their best to ignore the raging protests. Nothing to see here. Move along. They’ve been doing just that for months, even when Jewish students were told to hide in the attic during one violent protest. Nothing. Stephen Colbert finally addressed the raging anti-Israel protests in his backyard last week on CBS’s “The Late Show.” He suddenly found himself caring about free speech on college campuses following the Columbia University riots. Colbert yawned when conservative after conservative got shouted down, canceled or physically attacked on campuses nationwide. Now, with some college protesters getting arrested for illegally occupying buildings and destroying property, suddenly Colbert found his “Truth to Power” voice. And it’s not just at Columbia. Yesterday, cops arrested at least 100 protesters at UT Austin. This morning they arrested at least 30 protesters at UNC Chapel Hill. Yes, college administrators are using the classic de-escalation tactic of sending in heavily armed police and threatening to call the National Guard. Seth Meyers wasn’t much better. The former “SNL” star attacked the police summoned to quell the riots, not their violence or antisemitic nature. As a New Yorker, I just want to say I really appreciate knowing that this is where my tax dollars are going: using drones to round up co-eds rather than, say, keeping libraries open or building affordable housing or making sure the F train isn’t a total piece of s*** Now, imagine if a single black student was beaten by Pro-Life protesters. Or, even worse, MAGA hat types. Would late-night comics be similarly silent? Of course not. When Jewish students are targeted, harassed and attacked, late-night comedians can’t rally to their defense. Why? Wrong party. The protesters are uniformly Left-of-Center, and the Democrats need them to vote early and often come November. Yes, they’re chanting “Genocide Joe” today, but they won’t support GOP candidates up and down the ticket. And, if properly coddled, they’ll likely return to the Democratic camp. It’s why President Joe Biden waited so long to finally stand up for Jewish students on campus, knowing his far-Left friends in Michigan may not rally to his side if he defends Israel or its people. This is the same president who based his 2020 campaign run on the Fake News that Donald Trump called Nazis “very fine people.” Actual Nazis now stalk college campuses. This also explains late-night’s morally warped response to hate, violence and more from the far-Left. It’s all about politics. Period.

The Onion and Ben Collins: A Perfect Fake News Marriage

It’s hard to remember a time when The Onion was synonymous with “funny.” The humor site once had the field all to itself, creating Fake News stories that made us laugh and think. The Onion came out in printed form, and its attacks on the political class could be withering. That was then. Today’s online-only Onion is comedic in name only. The outlet’s hard-Left politics have all but stripped away its comic potential, from the woke handcuffs placed on liberal satire to how it protects Democrats… …much like today’s late-night TV landscape. So if you want to read something funny about President Joe Biden, for example, you’d never type “the onion” into a search engine. You go to The Babylon Bee.   To Save Time, The Babylon Bee Will Now Just Republish Everything Biden Says Verbatim https://t.co/KDHEZAjgU7 pic.twitter.com/O4ZfgGrc8P — The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 18, 2024   That site leans to the Right, but it’s unrelenting in its humor and ability to smite both sides. It’s everything The Onion isn’t – topical, fast, bold and hilarious. And, sadly, The Onion might soon be even worse. The site just got picked up by new owners, and former NBC journalist Ben Collins is the platform’s CEO moving forward. Ostensibly charged by the Peacock network with overseeing so-called “disinformation,” Collins proved inept at the gig. We’re still waiting for him to weigh in on the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, the “Very Fine People” hoax and more. Here’s how Collins described Libs of TikTok, the social media journalist who exposes the far-Left’s extremes. “Fox News’ favorite aggregator of LGBTQ teachers they don’t like the look of.” The latter part of the sentence feels slanderous, no? What’s his proof that Libs of TikTok is bigoted. Does he share any? Collins, formerly with the far-Left Daily Beast, also got exposed by The Federalist for carrying water for the hard-Left. Consider: NBC’s leftist reporter Ben Collins, meanwhile, arguably offered the most laughable response to Soros backing Bragg. Quoting a CNBC story, Collins says Soros can’t back Bragg because the two never met. Journalist Steve Krakauer slammed Collins for his social media-heavy methods that often occur without actual journalism. Collins seems to spend his days endlessly opining on social media about the state of journalism – like his frequent attacks on the New York Times. But one thing Collins does not appear to be doing very much anymore is journalism. Collins hasn’t written an article for NBC News in more than 100 days. His last one, published in early October, was on one of his favorite targets, X owner Elon Musk. Before that, you have to go back to May 22 to find his previous byline, a short piece about a “fake picture of an explosion” at the Pentagon that had gone semi-viral. He’s also wary of transparency. I asked Collins and NBC News if he was still a full-time employee of the media outlet, and neither responded to multiple requests for comment.  Does this sound like the person to shake The Onion from its hard-left shackles? It gets worse. Collins was one of many mainstream news reporters who got the infamous Gaza hospital story wrong. Collins is treated as an expert in the burgeoning field of countering the spread of misinformation. Yet his error rate is noteworthy…. Did Collins soberly wait for these facts to come in? Nope. The award-winning disinformation expert helped circulate the inaccurate claims of the Palestinian authorities. When other voices on social media recommended caution, Collins chimed in to assert that any delay in reporting the horrific casualty numbers represented a profound moral failing. It’s Disinformation 101, and he fell for it. That he recently won a Walter Cronkite Award for journalism speaks volumes about today’s Fourth Estate. Collins’ rage against free speech advocate Elon Musk found him making more mistakes, according to Reason. Collins’ reporting often contains basic errors that suggest he doesn’t particularly understand the right-wing forces he’s denouncing. His most recent article alleges that Musk’s plans for Twitter were shaped by a far-right former Trump administration staffer, even though it’s fairly clear the staffer wasn’t actually telling Musk what to do, but rather warning about what would happen to Musk if he offended “the regime.” Collins even raged against the release of The Twitter Files, which exposed the platform’s extensive censorship regime against right-leaning voices. He did so without calling out any errors in Matt Taibbi’s reportage. He just used ad hominem attacks on the left-leaning Taibbi. So The Onion’s return to its funny, bipartisan roots is even more unlikely today. Still, the two parties may be perfect for one another.