President George W. Bush remained silent as a steady stream of documentaries attacked both him and his administration during his eight years in office.
Bush quietly acknowledged the filmmakers' right to speak their minds, ignored their cinematic attacks and kept on working.
President Barack Obama, in comparison, simply couldn't sit still while "2016: Obama's America" continues to smash box office records.
"2016" takes a withering look at the president's formative influence, connecting the dots between his radical past and today's public policy.
Bush quietly acknowledged the filmmakers' right to speak their minds, ignored their cinematic attacks and kept on working.
President Barack Obama, in comparison, simply couldn't sit still while "2016: Obama's America" continues to smash box office records.
"2016" takes a withering look at the president's formative influence, connecting the dots between his radical past and today's public policy.
Bush himself never responded to it but I'm sure at some point some in his administration called that movie a joke....and rightfully so.
Hey maybe we can start a new trend in this country of just trashing our presidents with bad documentaries that have to take huge leaps of faith and connect every dot they can find to tell a story that people wanna hear. Makes you proud doesn't it?
“Their original strategy was to lie low and hope this goes away, but now they’re launching a full-scale attack,” D’Souza told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. “And this is one of the most bizarre, clumsy and ineffective attacks I have seen in politics. Half of the stuff they talk about isn’t even in the film, like the Lockerbie bomber. These guys are referencing a Columbia Journalism Review article that’s two years old and is about my book, not about the film.”
STORY: President Obama's Campaign Trashes '2016: Obama's America'
The president, through his BarackObama.com campaign website, challenges D’Souza’s credibility by saying he has a “long history of attempting to add a veneer of intellectual respectability to fringe theories, conspiratorial fear-mongering and flat-out falsehoods.”
The campaign’s response to 2016: Obama’s America was posted last week, just before the film, released July 13, crossed the domestic box-office threshold of $26 million, making it the second most successful political documentary in history.
The entry at the president’s campaign website cites four specific errors in the movie, though D’Souza takes issue with all of them. Example: “D’Souza falsely asserted that President Obama funded $2 billion in Brazilian oil exploration,” reads the entry at BarackObama.com.
PHOTOS: Hollywood's Campaign Contributions: 15 of the Best Election-Themed Movies
But, says D’Souza: “The fact is, not only has Obama funded $2 billion in Brazilian oil exploration, I say in the film he has funded drilling in Mexico and Colombia, too, and I have the press releases to prove it. Policy for government agencies is set by the White House, so it’s very bizarre to claim that things are going on under their watch but that they’re not responsible for them.”
Listen to a two-minute portion of D’Souza’s Tuesday interview above.
“The four alleged errors in the White House critique are bogus. There are no errors in the film,” D'Souza said. “My guess is they have been strategizing what to do, and finally someone said, ‘Look, this movie is becoming too damaging, so we have to come out blasting.' So they assigned somebody to write it – anonymously – but you’d think someone very high up approved of it.”
VIDEO: 'Obama's America' Filmmaker Lashes Out at Media
D'Souza also noted that the lengthy entry at BarackObama.com did not address one of the more attention-getting portions of the film -- that being an interview with Obama's half brother, George Obama, who lives in Huruma Flats near Nairobi, Kenya.
"If Mitt Romney had a half brother living destitute in a third-world slum, it would be on the front page of the New York Times and a topic on MSNBC, CBS News and the Sunday talk shows. But this fact is not even reported by those outlets. They just pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s immensely interesting that a guy who has more than 50 times quoted the Bible – “we are our brother’s keeper” – has a half-brother he won’t help at all. That’s not a story?”
Email: Paul.Bond@thr.com
STORY: President Obama's Campaign Trashes '2016: Obama's America'
The president, through his BarackObama.com campaign website, challenges D’Souza’s credibility by saying he has a “long history of attempting to add a veneer of intellectual respectability to fringe theories, conspiratorial fear-mongering and flat-out falsehoods.”
The campaign’s response to 2016: Obama’s America was posted last week, just before the film, released July 13, crossed the domestic box-office threshold of $26 million, making it the second most successful political documentary in history.
The entry at the president’s campaign website cites four specific errors in the movie, though D’Souza takes issue with all of them. Example: “D’Souza falsely asserted that President Obama funded $2 billion in Brazilian oil exploration,” reads the entry at BarackObama.com.
PHOTOS: Hollywood's Campaign Contributions: 15 of the Best Election-Themed Movies
But, says D’Souza: “The fact is, not only has Obama funded $2 billion in Brazilian oil exploration, I say in the film he has funded drilling in Mexico and Colombia, too, and I have the press releases to prove it. Policy for government agencies is set by the White House, so it’s very bizarre to claim that things are going on under their watch but that they’re not responsible for them.”
Listen to a two-minute portion of D’Souza’s Tuesday interview above.
“The four alleged errors in the White House critique are bogus. There are no errors in the film,” D'Souza said. “My guess is they have been strategizing what to do, and finally someone said, ‘Look, this movie is becoming too damaging, so we have to come out blasting.' So they assigned somebody to write it – anonymously – but you’d think someone very high up approved of it.”
VIDEO: 'Obama's America' Filmmaker Lashes Out at Media
D'Souza also noted that the lengthy entry at BarackObama.com did not address one of the more attention-getting portions of the film -- that being an interview with Obama's half brother, George Obama, who lives in Huruma Flats near Nairobi, Kenya.
"If Mitt Romney had a half brother living destitute in a third-world slum, it would be on the front page of the New York Times and a topic on MSNBC, CBS News and the Sunday talk shows. But this fact is not even reported by those outlets. They just pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s immensely interesting that a guy who has more than 50 times quoted the Bible – “we are our brother’s keeper” – has a half-brother he won’t help at all. That’s not a story?”
Email: Paul.Bond@thr.com
6 Denied meeting Saddam bagman Auchi; now admits he was at his dinner but does not remember talking to him
5 Denies using his church for politics: IRS disagree
4 Claims he was unaware of Pastor Wrights 911 comments: NYT proves he lied
3 Claims his father was a goat-herd; actually he was a man of privilige
2 Claims not an active muslim as child; Indonesian paper proves he lied
1 Claims father linked to Kennedys; Washington Post proves he lied
5 Denies using his church for politics: IRS disagree
4 Claims he was unaware of Pastor Wrights 911 comments: NYT proves he lied
3 Claims his father was a goat-herd; actually he was a man of privilige
2 Claims not an active muslim as child; Indonesian paper proves he lied
1 Claims father linked to Kennedys; Washington Post proves he lied
I think the only people who are racist are the people who constantly bring the subject up.
If it would not be for people like you who bring racism into every topic it would not even be a subject I think about.
Which means that im the least racist kind of person in the world.
Only people who can go an entire day not even thinking of the subject unless reminded of it can call themselves non racist.
Apparently you are the one who is racist.
Because if you can twist something up so ridiculously to the point that someone cant comment about a movie without being called racist by you makes me think your the racist.
When I think about Obama, his color is literally not one of the top 20 things I think about.
Apparently thats one of the first things on your mind when it comes to him.
For I have to be reminded by people like you what color he is, otherwise it would not even enter my mind.
My comments have nothing to do with the movie.
I did not see the movie.
And I probably never will.
I have learned that movies like this normally are full of shit.
It’s not every day that a guy provokes the rage of the President of the United States.
Now the President has launched a ferocious attack against me and my film "2016: Obama’s America." Posting his comments on barackobama.com, Obama calls the film “an insidious attempt to dishonestly smear” him by engaging in “subterranean conspiracy theories and false, partisan attacks.”
For weeks the President tried to ignore the film, no doubt hoping that it would go away. Unfortunately for Obama, the film has continued to gain momentum. It has been seen by more than 2 million people, earned more than $27 million, and become the second biggest political documentary of all time
Now the President has launched a ferocious attack against me and my film "2016: Obama’s America." Posting his comments on barackobama.com, Obama calls the film “an insidious attempt to dishonestly smear” him by engaging in “subterranean conspiracy theories and false, partisan attacks.”
