CNN media critic Brian Lowry, who focuses largely on entertainment, took issue with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat’s critique of two popular films while managing to show how little he actually knows about the industries he covers.
Fittingly, he would get a ready assist from CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter.
Douthat penned a column titled, “What ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and ‘The Northman’ Mean for the Movies,” suggesting that the films may just save the movie industry and Lowry responded in a tweet to blather: “Once again suggesting film critics should promise not to write about politics if NYTimes oped columnists will promise not to do … whatever this is.”
Once again suggesting film critics should promise not to write about politics if NYTimes oped columnists will promise not to do … whatever this is. https://t.co/wK4ecXvpPu
— Brian Lowry (@blowryontv) June 19, 2022
Stelter would give his colleague a boost by including a snippet of his analysis in his daily newsletter, in which Lowry says “news-based columnists choose to dapple in politics, a beat where (much like sports) everyone presumes that they are an expert..”
The only problem being that Douthat IS a film critic and has been for some time, as social media was quick to remind the CNN boobs.
He’s been the film critic at @NRO National Review for almost two decades, you ignorant cretin.
— Will Collier (@willcollier) June 20, 2022
Dude. 😂🤪 go Google Ross and films. He has a “bit” of experience with this subject Brian!
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) June 20, 2022
I bet you thought this was very clever when you wrote it. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/62bxdbTcCq
— FriendsofCharlieCoyle (@TerriersFan) June 20, 2022
Then again, what Douthat had to say about the films is very likely the real fly in the ointment for Lowry, as seen here:
This is not to rule out a more secular and political interpretation of the story, where “Top Gun: Maverick” is about American power poised among nostalgia, decline and possible rebirth. Indeed, to the extent that America is a formerly Christian society uncertain about its own religious future, the two interpretations complement each other. And to the extent that a kind of pagan revival offers one potential post-Christian future for American society, the moral-theological contrast between “Top Gun” and “The Northman” makes their shared aesthetic success that much more striking.
But now I’ve weighed them down with too much baggage, when it should be enough to say that both work terrifically well, both surprise and entertain — and from such simple goods and basic achievements, the movies as we knew them might yet be born again.
New York Post columnist Kyle Smith, a critic-at-large at National Review and a film critic in his own right, posted a scathing indictment of Lowry and his “amazing face-plant,” sharing Stelter’s newsletter snippet as well:
Truly amazing face-plant by Brian Lowry of CNN when he says @DouthatNYT should stick to politics and not write about film. Ross has been the film critic for National Review magazine for nearly 15 years. pic.twitter.com/ei87LtJaR5
— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) June 20, 2022
Smith proceeded to unload on Lowry for being “completely unacquainted with the basic facts of people he writes about” and on both Lowry and Stelter for their “total lack of professionalism”
Ouch.
“I won’t bother to dissect this column but I assure you my dissection would be amazing, take my word for it.”
— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) June 20, 2022
And of course Ross has been writing film reviews longer than he’s been an op-ed columnist for NYT but CNN media team just unaware of stuff that happens in media
— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) June 20, 2022
Total lack of professionalism that no one even bothered to check this before hitting send, but really it’s the sheer stupidity that sticks out.
— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) June 20, 2022
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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