‘Melania’ Gets Review Bombed (And Media Outlets LOVE It)
Same scribes who blame bad reviews on bigoted audiences fall silent (or cheer)
Review bombing: When an uber-woke movie or TV show draws intense backlash from the public.
The phrase became commonly used in recent years when progressive titles hit the marketplace. When select audiences cried foul, media outlets rushed in to defend the title. They suggested or outright alleged the bad reviews were due to bigotry or hate, not quality concerns.
There’s likely a soupcon of truth to the situation. Some fans will see forced diversity or overtly progressive themes and rush to denounce a title, sometimes sight unseen. Many others, though, simply rejected woke storytelling that failed to entertain.
It’s a very unscientific categorization, but it’s one the media is all too eager to exploit.
Why? Reporters must defend DEI-style programming at all costs. Sound cynical? Maybe.
Well, if review bombing is a terrible practice, why aren’t any Legacy Media outlets denouncing it following the “Melania” rollout?
The FLOTUS documentary scored big at the box office over the weekend, snagging north of $7 million, a coup for a nonfiction film. Reviews have been brutal, with some critics stooping so low as to blast the film as Nazi-esque propaganda.
General audiences at Rotten Tomatoes, which does what it can to certify users have seen the movies in question, raved about “Melania.”
Others didn’t, though.
Forbes magazine noted the jarring chasm between legitimate “Melania” patrons and those who wanted to savage the film, sight unseen.
Yet the words “review bomb” never appear in the Forbes article. Weird. Others did.
- Queerty.com cheerfully uses that phrase, but the framing is all positive. Now, suddenly, it’s a good thing to “review bomb” a film. As long as it’s the correct film to bomb, apparently.
- The far-Left Mother Jones lamented that fake reviews have been scrubbed from the Letterboxd film review site.
- The far-Left Daily Beast also cheered on the review bombing and criticized sites for attempting to put a stop to it.
So which is it? Is review bombing the scourge of our digital age or a necessary part of The Resistance?
The Left’s double standards are on full display. Again.