Greg Mitchell | The Nation

We had wondered when she would explain herself more fully—rather than ignore or downplay the charges—but after a loss at the Golden Globes (but an Oscar for Best Picture still at stake), Kathryn Bigelow, director of Zero Dark Thirty, has finally written an op-ed, for today’s LA Times. I’ll analyze it below, but for now here it is.

Nice that she thanks her film-making team for getting the picture made, without crediting crucial help from the CIA. And revealing, “As a lifelong pacifist, I support all protests against the use of torture, and, quite simply, inhumane treatment of any kind,” does not get to the point of the criticism of her film, does it? Most critics have suggested that maybe she did not mean to show that torture works, but did not recognize that she was conveying that very message.

Once again she goes out on a limb and backs the First Amendment, and makes the ludicrous charge, as an artist, that critics don’t know “depiction” does not equal “endorsement.”  Everyone understands that. What she doesn’t own up to is that her “depiction” of the usefulness of torture in the film is often not based on facts—and, in fact, the film endorses the view that torture was crucial in helping to get bin Laden. (See a brief clip from key scene here.)  In the op-ed, she admits that she and screenwriter Mark Boal chose to accept the disputed view that torture did play a role in nailing bin Laden. So much for the claims of her defenders who state that their film does no such thing.

(AP Photo.)

UPDATE:  As I predicted, Jon Stewart responded to Paul Krugman's slams on The Daily Show tonight, details here.

A couple years back, I conducted a very unscientific (though more valid than a typical Fox focus group) survey here on Nation readers’ most admired media hosts, commentators and writers. Two who finished near the top, no surprise, were Jon Stewart and Paul Krugman. Now the two left/liberal favorites may be feuding—and it’s all because of a small shiny object.

It was another revealing, if tragic, day in the current gun control debate in America, which has often been played out in the media. Even as President Obama met, to no avail, with guns-for-all advocates in DC—who claimed he was out to destroy the Second Amendment—there was another school shooting, this time in California.

Then there was this: A school district in Ohio voted to arm its custodians (what could go wrong?).  A national coalition of groups upped the anti-Obama rhetoric around its upcoming national Gun Appreciation Day. A man in Ohio carried out a particularly gruesome murder/suicide—killing himself only after shooting his son, age five. Ted Nugent compared gun rights advocates today to Rosa Parks.

This morning, Media Matters reports that NBC Sports—home of Bob Costas—is co-sponsoring the largest US gun show, produced by that leading gun industry group based in (wait for it) Newtown, CT. The event is, distastefully, known as SHOT, for the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show.

When the first news of the passing of writer Richard Ben Cramer, at the age of 62, flashed across Twitter on Monday night it inspired dozens of mini-tributes from well-known authors, political journalists and sportswriters, marking his influence on their lives and media careers. Yesterday longer tributes and detailed obits appeared.

Always highlighted, and justly so, were his epic book on the 1988 race for president, What It Takes, and his 1980s profile of baseball hero Ted Williams for Esquire, considered by many one of the best articles to appear in that magazine. Often mentioned were other magazine pieces, such as his account of Bobby Sands’s funeral in Ireland, other baseball writings, and his years as a newspaper reporter, covering the Middle East, for which he won a Pultizer Prize.

Rarely mentioned, or if noted only in passing, was his most recent book, from 2005: a brave, and tough, critique of modern day Israel titled How Israel Lost: The Four Questions. Cramer, who was Jewish and raised to fully support Zionism, knew that region well and roundly condemns the Israeli occupation policies. What It Takes has quickly shot up the Amazon bestseller charts, but much-overlooked How Israel Lost is not following. It’s ranked 224,000 right now.