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Hello Cranker Darlings,

This week’s edition will be an abbreviated one, because I’m on a mini vacay in Florida to see the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (review to follow next week). I’ve had some choice words about Spielberg hand-picking JJ Abrams to reboot a long-dormant franchise. Abrams running both Star Trek and Star Wars is like Coke and Pepsi merging and being managed by a single, mutant-corporate operative.

star-wars-first-order

Still, Abrams *is a talented filmmaker, and has said that CGI will be at a minimum in The Force Awakens. Color me skeptical, especially since Jar Jar Binks nearly ruined the franchise with one babbling, unintelligible, CGI sentence.

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Graphic source: Reddit

Star Wars: TFA has been lauded for its inclusivity and reflecting what today’s society looks like—not just some movie-executive suit’s idea of it.

But what’s been missed by our uncurious media is that Star Trek bridged this cultural divide long before it was fashionable, and during a time when racial awareness and ethnicity acceptance was still in its infancy. Just look at the casting of Let. Uhura and her canoodling other Starfleet members as inter-racial heresy in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

uhuras

And before producers and directors congratulate themselves about diversity, they should stop fat-shaming Carrie Fisher. From the Variety piece:

 

“My problem is they talk to me like an actress but I hear them like a writer… We treat beauty like an accomplishment and that is insane.”

 

Fisher’s revelation echoes her recent comments to “Force Awakens” co-star and franchise newcomer Daisy Ridley. “You should fight for your outfit,” Fisher said in a conversation with Ridley for Interview Magazine.

 

“Don’t be a slave like I was… I am not a sex symbol, so that’s an opinion of someone. I don’t share that.”

All the time this: “We treat beauty like an accomplishment and that is insane.”

 

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Kate McKinnon’s Angela Merkel returned to Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, and all was right with the world.

 

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At its core, the craft of journalism is about news judgment. And consensus media has shown an astonishing level of coverage bias in favor of The Donald. Enter Grasswire, a news outlet I admire… and I have the utmost respect for folks who refuse to feed Donald Trump’s ego:

“Grasswire will not cover incendiary political rhetoric.” yes. Like crying “Fire!” in a crowded theater, spreading dangerous messages makes the media complicit in whatever the fallout is.

 

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There’s a reason why I don’t subscribe to any one religion. This experiment in Germany where sidewalk interviewers disguised a bible in a Quran dust jacket is epic and so telling… with a h/t to The Daily Edge on Twitter, have a look:

 

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Sen. Ted Cruz, republican candidate for president, recently invoked Flashdance in a Trump tweet bomb.

 

Weird, right? My response to that is…

 

That’s it from me this week, Cranker Darlings. See you right back here next Thursday at 2.

 


Will Pollock is a cranky New York City escapee living in Atlanta. He’s a freelance multimedia journalist and author of two books (Pizza for Good & Leaving Triscuit), with more on the way. Sign up for the mailing list, follow him on TwitterFacebook and Instagram—and check out the book links below.

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