Tag: Ted Cruz

Netflix Descends into the Child Porn Business

The giant streaming company Netflix acquired a French film at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. It turned out to be a very bad purchase.

The film is the debut work of a French director who won a best directing award at Sundance. The truth is, the film should never have won any kind of an award or ever have made it to the screen in the first place.

Why? Because it is actually child pornography.

The movie features a main character named Amy, who in a rebellious act against her Muslim parents joins a school dance troupe of 11-year-olds known as “Cuties,” hence the title of the film.

Among other sordid things in the film, young girls dressed in provocative outfits are shown engaging in highly erotic dance moves known as “twerking.”

During the lead-up to its release, the movie’s promotional materials included a poster that displayed the pre-teen dancers in various exploitive poses. Backlash to the movie poster on social media and elsewhere was immediate and explosive.

In August of 2020, Netflix apologized and quickly tried to switch tracks. It came out with a revised film poster that displayed a colorful backdrop and cast members who were more appropriately attired.

Netflix’s apology was largely an admission that the movie poster had crossed the line. Still, the company continued to insist that there was no problem with the film itself.

This would turn out to be a blatant lie.

The Internet Movie Database puts out a guide for parents that warns of sexual scenes in “Cuties,” which, among other things, luridly expose parts of the children’s bodies.

The public has now been left with the impression that a portion of the entertainment industry and news media is attempting to mainstream this form of sexualized content.

The Telegraph has awarded the film four out of five stars. And the New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum is claiming that the movie has been taken “out of context.” In her words, it merely “critiques just what its haters think it supports.”

Meanwhile the film has triggered an online petition as well as a trending Twitter hashtag, #CancelNetflix.

The salacious nature of the movie has prompted a bipartisan group of federal lawmakers to call for the Justice Department to take legal action against Netflix for its streaming of the film. Included in the congressional group are Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.

“Like any parent, I find ⁦@netflix⁩ decision to peddle child pornography disgusting. And it’s criminal. ⁦@TheJusticeDept⁩ should take swift action,” Sen. Cotton tweeted.

Sen. Cruz joined the group with his own letter to Attorney General William Barr, noting that the film “sexualizes young girls, including through dance scenes that simulate sexual activities and a scene exposing a minor’s bare breast.” The Texas senator urged the Justice Department to find out whether the company, its executives, or other involved individuals violated “any federal laws against the production and distribution of child pornography.”

Sen. Hawley sent a letter to Netflix Co-CEO Reed Hastings requesting the removal of “Cuties” from the on-demand platform. He noted that “depicting children being coached to engage in simulated sexual acts, for cameras both onscreen and off…raises major questions of child safety and exploitation, including the possibility of copycat behavior and exploitation of child actors.”

Rep. Banks told the Daily Caller, “Not only is this movie fodder for pedophiles, it encourages very young girls to defy their parents’ wishes and share pornographic images of themselves with strangers.”

Banks added that the“DOJ should be readying charges against Netflix for distribution of child pornography.”

Rep. Gabbard indicated on Twitter that the film could “whet the appetite of pedophiles & help fuel the child sex trafficking trade.” She additionally posted, “Netflix, you are now complicit. #CancelNetflix.”

There has been a long-held belief in our country that the physical and psychological well-being of our children must be protected. As a result, we have passed laws to shield children from being used to produce sexually provocative materials.

It is important to distinguish, however, the manner in which adult pornography and child pornography have been and still are being treated by the courts.

Adult pornography is generally protected speech, unless it is ruled to be obscene.

Child pornography is in category all its own. The first law to ban commercial child pornography was passed in the late 1970s. Subsequently, in 1982, the Supreme Court held child pornography, even if not deemed to be obscene, is not worthy of First Amendment protection.

During the 1990s, nineteen states had laws on their books prohibiting child pornography possession. Today every state in the country has such a law.

According to law, any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor is child pornography.

“Cuties” fits the description completely. The film features scenes depicting children in ways that are nauseatingly explicit.

Unfortunately, Netflix persists in trying to justify the unjustifiable. The streaming service is attempting to put forth the argument that “Cuties” is somehow a “social commentary” that is just trying to alert people to the issue of the sexualization of young children.

This is duplicitous and only serves to further endanger children while filling the company’s wallet with the filthiest of profit.

“Cuties” remains on the streaming service but is currently accompanied by footage that features the director explaining why it was made.

Netflix is defending the film and urging critics to watch it.

Don’t do it. The viewing of child porn can make one an accomplice.

Netflix is an internet based company. Its leaders know that people who wish to harm children operate online.

In its doubling down on this vile piece of cinema, here’s hoping that Netflix has just cancelled itself.

Ted Cruz’s Legislation Could Halt China’s Censoring of Hollywood

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Texas Senator Ted Cruz may really be on to something big.

Sen. Cruz plans to introduce legislation soon, which will address a critically important issue involving the rights of Americans, as well as folks in other nations, to enjoy entertainment product that is free from Chinese communist censorship.

The former 2016 GOP presidential candidate has, in accordance with modern congressional practice, affixed a clever acronym to his new bill, SCRIPT, which stands for the “Stopping Censorship, Restoring Integrity, Protecting Talkies” Act.

The legislation seeks to deter a current practice of Hollywood studios in which, prior to release, they submit movies to Chinese censors. The proposed law would cut off any assistance given by the Department of Defense to those film studios that allow the communist regime to alter cinematic content.

With regard to many a film and television production project, Hollywood has often requested help from the Pentagon. It has been this way for years. In each branch of the military, there is actually a liaison office that aids filmmakers with consultation, personnel, equipment, and access to military installations.

“For too long, Hollywood has been complicit in China’s censorship. The SCRIPT Act will serve as a wake-up call by forcing Hollywood studios to choose between the assistance they need from the American government and the dollars they want from China,” Sen. Cruz recently said in a statement.

The truth is Hollywood is in need of a wake-up call. China was set to surpass the U.S. box office of 2020 just before the coronavirus shutdown occurred.

Hollywood executives are well aware of the fact that the Chinese regime limits the number of foreign films that can be released annually in its country. Additionally, many Chinese companies provide considerable amounts of capital for Hollywood productions.

The Chinese regime is preoccupied with projecting a false image in order for it to continue to maintain its power. As a result it has frequently injected itself into creative aspects of American entertainment production and oftentimes altered content to fit its own agenda.

Back in 1997, Martin Scorsese’s film “Kundun” was banned, because it appeared to be sympathetic to the Dalai Lama. Scorsese and other members of the production team were literally banned by the Chinese regime from ever entering the country again.

China also took the dramatic step of banning Disney films and television shows. Disney actually apologized in 1998 for releasing “Kundun.” Eventually, though, the company was able to make a deal in 2016 to open Shanghai Disneyland.

In 2006, creators of “Mission Impossible III” were required to remove part of the film’s opening sequence in which underwear hanging on a clothesline made its “undesirable” appearance in a Tom Cruise chase scene in Shanghai.

The following year, creators of “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” were evidently persuaded to edit out footage of the character Chow Yun-fat, because it offended the Chinese powers that be.

In a 2012 reboot of “Red Dawn,” the original plot featured an invasion of the United States by China. The storyline was dutifully altered to depict the invading enemy as being from North Korea. Since the initial filming had already been completed, this feat was accomplished via re-shoots and digital alteration. It would be to no avail though, because the movie still ended up in the position of being unable to obtain a China release.

The James Bond 2013 installment, “Skyfall,” was released only after scenes that included Chinese police using torture tactics and prostitution occurring in Macau were edited out.

That same year the Brad Pitt film “World War Z” was banned by the regime in Beijing, because the plot of the film had the origin of the zombie outbreak kick off in China. Interestingly, Chinese officials also had a grudge against Pitt for his audaciousness in having starred in the movie “Seven Years in Tibet.”

As a condition of the China release of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” creators of the 2018 Queen biopic had to redact any references to lead singer Freddie Mercury’s sexual identity and the cause of his passing. The Chinese censors even removed part of star Rami Malek’s Oscar acceptance speech from the streaming Academy Award ceremony.

During the same year, Disney’s “Christopher Robin” was banned by Chinese censors, because activists had noted on the internet President Xi Jinping’s resemblance to Winnie the Pooh.

In the movie trailer of the yet to be released “Top Gun: Maverick,” missing from Tom Cruise’s iconic leather jacket are the Japanese and Taiwanese flag patches, which appeared on Maverick’s original coat. The patches have been replaced by two non-descript, similarly colored symbols.

Sen. Cruz’s SCRIPT Act would be a great first step in trying to address China’s egregious pattern of modifying U.S. entertainment product.

Now if only Hollywood could lend its support to the cause embodied in the legislation — that even in the entertainment industry, artistry and its dual pursuits of truth and self-determination, still reign supreme over profit.