Fox Blames “Liberal Critics” For The Box Office Failure Of 13 Hours Film
Eric Bolling: “The Politics Got Injected By The Left”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
From the January 19 edition of Fox News' The Five:
GREG GUTFELD: Since Friday, liberal critics have been claiming that other movies outsold the Benghazi film, 13 Hours. Gawker, the blog for failures, noted that Ride Along 2 did way better than Michael Bay's quote fan-fiction, which made 20 million dollars that weekend. How odd, left-wingers are now interested in profit to gauge success. Wasn't seeking the almighty dollar evil, which is why they prefer plotless independent films that star James Franco? More important, if this were a film that bashed capitalism or was exposing the homophobia of middle America, would the media be focused on receipts? Imagine a liberal blogger heralding the financial failure of that movie about transgender issues, The Danish Girl, that person would lose his or her job. Suddenly for 13 Hours it's way different because it's the one film in Hollywood out of thousands that escaped their grubby little progressive paws. If the flick had been an indictment of America, then profit wouldn't have come up. But they hate that a movie with western sympathies actually exists, so they delight that a movie chronicling the deaths of four Americans was outsold by crud. True the Benghazi movie didn't make as much money as others. But let's use that metric of success on the sad lefty blogger, you're still at home in your stained sweats, eating top-ramen over the sink, waiting for the next comic book blockbuster to rescue you from your finger-sniffing misery. And finger-sniffing it is. Hey, you know who is going to be on Bill O'Reilly tonight? Michael Bay. Let's show that clip, America.
[...]
GUTFELD: Eric, he makes a point that politics got in the way and that's what happened with these lefty bloggers. They can't see the movie.
ERIC BOLLING: He didn't put politics in the movie, he put no -- he didn't even mention Hillary Clinton's name in that movie. It was an account, he recreated the account that he got from Michael Zuckoff, is that his name, Zuckoff? Which was written with the help of five people who were there on the rooftop defending the C.I.A. annex and the Benghazi consulate. The politics got injected by the left, only when it suits their narrative. -- They were worried it would be too honest, too sincere and too documentary-like, but see the movie.
[...]
JUAN WILLIAMS: Wait a second. The left introduced politics? Funny, I mean my experience of it, is that the right made it out, everybody should go see this film because then you will be more aware of Benghazi and the failures and it was supposed to be an indictment of Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration?
GUTFELD: But Juan, don't you think that conservatives, we are just desperate for finding an objective firm about history, that's not Oliver stone, that's not Michael Moore? Does it hurt that we're grateful?
WILLIAMS: No I would appreciate it -- This is not a documentary. Let me just tell you. But I would agree with you --
BOLLING: Michael Bay put no politics in this.
WILLIAMS: This thing has been so politicized by the right, when you have Tom Cotton -- when you have Trump, and the other guys, buying tickets, telling people to go, come on of course it's politicized.
Previously:
Media Matters ' David Brock Explains Why 13 Hours' Benghazi “Myths” Won't “Stick”
Review: Michael Bay's 13 Hours Is A Coded Message To Benghazi Conspiracy Theorists
How Fox News Plans To Use Michael Bay's Benghazi Film To Sink Hillary Clinton's Presidential Run