'Schindler's List' Producer Claims Graduation Speech Censorship

cnredd · #1 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:27 PM

We're tolerant of all people...so shut up...

Quote:

A controversy erupted in a small Montana town after a high school principal prevented Oscar winner Gerald Molen from delivering his planned speech because he's "a right-wing conservative."

Gerald Molen won a best picture Oscar for co-producing Schindler’s List with Steven Spielberg and has produced such Hollywood blockbusters as the first two Jurassic Park films and Twister. He’s a former U.S. Marine and is a sought-after motivational speaker.

So he’s not accustomed to being shunned.

Such was the case, though, when he was invited to speak to the graduating class at a Montana high school. But upon arriving, was told by the principal he would not be allowed to deliver the speech he had prepared.

The reason, he believes, is politics.

Molen is one of those rare conservatives in Hollywood (he’s even making a documentary based on the Dinesh D’Souza book The Roots of Obama’s Rage) and because of that, he says, Ronan High School principal Tom Stack decided to disinvite him -- and he didn’t tell him so until after Molen made the 90-minute drive from his home in Bigfork, Mont.

Unlike Hollywood, Ronan isn’t exactly a hotbed of liberalism (its state representative is a Republican), still, Molen says that Stack told him straight up that he wouldn’t be allowed to address the students because he was “a right-wing conservative.”

“He said some callers didn’t want the kids exposed to that, despite not knowing what my message would be,” Molen told The Hollywood Reporter.

Stack did not return several calls seeking comment, nor did representatives from the Ronan School District.

Molen has spoken at dozens of schools and never accepts a fee. When one is offered, he asks that it be donated to the Shoah Foundation, the nonprofit organization founded by Spielberg and dedicated to the remembrance of the Holocaust.

When speaking to students, Molen’s presentations usually invoke Oskar Schindler, who is credited with saving 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust and is the subject of the Oscar-winning 1993 film that Molen co-produced with Spielberg and Branko Lustig.

For the Ronan students, Molen planned to use Schindler as an example of what courageous individuals could accomplish, and he also planned to ask them to “imagine your future is a movie. Forty years from now, you’re writing a script about your accomplishments. What would that script look like?”

"It was a totally apolitical speech," Molen said.

Molen wrote about being disinvited, and his story was published in the Montana newspaper, The Daily Inter Lake. Now, several Ronan citizens are demanding details.

“It’s shocking,” said Colleen Adler, a resident with three children in the school district who has been trying, unsuccessfully so far, to get an official explanation for the cancellation. “It’s very frustrating.”

rivrrat · #2 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:33 PM

Wow. Too bad 'right wing conservative' isn't one of them there extra special protected classes, eh?

Wonder what would have happened if they'd told him he couldn't talk because he was muslim? Or gay.

Coyote · #3 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:38 PM

"The reason, he believes, is politics."

I wonder if there is more to this than is being presented?

saltwn · #4 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd

We're tolerant of all people...so shut up...

'Schindler's List' Producer Claims Graduation Speech Censorship

Wasn't he in the news for some other reason lately?

He has a controversial film out doesn't he? Or am I mixing him up with someone else?

cnredd · #5 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coyote

"The reason, he believes, is politics."

I wonder if there is more to this than is being presented?

That's the author of the article talking...

Look at what Molen said himself...which is why I put it in blue...

Quote:

Molen says that Stack told him straight up that he wouldn’t be allowed to address the students because he was “a right-wing conservative.”

That's NOT a "belief"...That's pretty clear cut IMO...

Coyote · #6 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd

That's the author of the article talking...

Look at what Molen said himself...which is why I put it in blue...

That's NOT a "belief"...That's pretty clear cut IMO...

But we are only getting one side of this - I would like to know what the other side says.

If it is as described - the principle should be fired, but I like to hear both sides.

cnredd · #7 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coyote

But we are only getting one side of this - I would like to know what the other side says.

If it is as described - the principle should be fired, but I like to hear both sides.

Well these two statements are in the article...

Quote:

Stack did not return several calls seeking comment, nor did representatives from the Ronan School District.

...Molen wrote about being disinvited, and his story was published in the Montana newspaper, The Daily Inter Lake. Now, several Ronan citizens are demanding details.

“It’s shocking,” said Colleen Adler, a resident with three children in the school district who has been trying, unsuccessfully so far, to get an official explanation for the cancellation. “It’s very frustrating.”

...so there's no deception going on...People WANT to know the other side of the story...and are getting obstructed so far...

saltwn · #8 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 03:17 PM

Here it is:

Dinesh D'Souza - Obama & 2016 - YouTube

I knew I heard the name. He produced the propaganda excerpted above.
I suspect this OP article is a promotional scheme for his movie.

Comet · #9 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 04:11 PM

Once again the kids end up the losers over silly, partisan, adult politics.

saltwn · #10 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Comet

Once again the kids end up the losers over silly, partisan, adult politics.

I don't think they lost anything not hearing from one who would produce such propaganda films. In fact what a stroke of luck.

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