George Clooney On Innocence of Muslims Makers. Does NOT call the first amendment 'unfortunate'

Good article---GC has a point:


George Clooney On Innocence of Muslims Makers: Freedom of Speech Means 'The Idiots Get To Have Their Say'

To be honest, I came up with this idea before I actually saw Argo on Tuesday night, but now that I have seen Ben Affleck's gripping, well-directed film, I can't let it go. When I learned about the plot of the movie — in which a CIA agent (Affleck), a Hollywood make-up artist (John Goodman) and a movie producer (the wonderful Alan Arkin) — gin up a fake movie to rescue a group of diplomats trapped in Iran during the hostage crisis — it struck me that Argo was the inverse or the flip side of another fake movie that got a lot of press this past summer: Innocence of Muslims. Argo is about the power of film harnessed for humane reasons — specifically, to extract American diplomats who would have probably faced grisly, public executions had they been caught after slipping out of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran when it was taken over by militants in 1979. Innocence of Muslims is about the dark side of that equation. It's the power of film — still potent even when the so-called movie is little more than a collection of half-assed scenes cobbled together and thrown on YouTube — misused to incite violence and stoke mistrust and anger between Muslim nations and the United States. Argo, which is based on a true story, is about saving lives. Innocence of Muslims was linked to violent attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Libya on Sept. 11 that left four Americans dead, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. When I saw George Clooney, who is one of Argo's producers, at a private screening and dinner for the film at the Time Warner Center on Tuesday night, I ran my idea by him. Was there any lesson, I asked, to be learned from the controversy and the tragedy that Innocence of Muslims provoked? I'm not a big fan of asking celebrities their opinions about international or national affairs, but I've come to admire Clooney's political activism and his understanding of the way the world really works, as well as his humanitarian spirit. (In March, he was arrested outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington for protesting the country's blockage of food and aid to its own starving people.) After listening to my take on Argo and Innocence of Muslims, Clooney suggested that I was making a bit of a leap, but he did answer my question. For one thing, he said, "I'm not quite sure that those diplomats did die as a result of that movie. It seems more like that was a coordinated effort by Al Qaeda" to make a statement on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. soil. But getting to the root of my question, Clooney told me: "Freedom of speech means you have to allow idiots to speak, and that’s the unfortunate thing." "This guy clearly wanted to create problems," he continued referring to Nakoula Basseley, the Egyptian immigrant who appears to have masterminded the making of Innocence of Muslims. Clooney added that he saw part of the YouTube video: "It made me mad and I’m not Muslim," he said. "It made me mad for the quality of film that it was, more than anything. But the simple truth is that in order to make [democracy] work, the idiots get to have their say, too. And that’s unfortunate." I agree.

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Good points, George!

Yes good points!

Haven´t seen the flick and certainly not interested in it or anything that has anything to do with x (I am afraid the use the word, I don´t mean AlQaeda).

Freedom of speech, yes it applies in western civilized countries, but go eg, Saudi Arabia and make a joke about Allah – and see what happens to your “freedom of speech”. There is no embassy in the world that can help you at that point!

What´s democracy? To x people democracy is the freedom to elect their own dictators.

Long time ago read a book by Oriana Fallachi: the force of reason. “Eurabia” is a good read too.

George is brave, really brave having answered the question because x people do not care about our compliments or opinions…

I got the impression that this was a private conversation between
the writer of the article and George Clooney.

Would he have had to obtain George's permission to reproduce it on the internet, knowing the sensitivity of the subject concerned ?

Good question, Jo. I would guess George knew the man was a journalist before speaking to him.

The first thing they teach you in media relations is that nothing is ever truly 'off the record'. If you don't want to see it in print, you don't say it out loud.

Best in Category wrote:Freedom of speech, yes it applies in western civilized countries,

Freedon of speech applies only in countries that have a freedom of speech act in their laws. And don't forget that those laws dictate how free (or not) that speech is.

According to wikipedia, Australia "does not have explicit freedom of speech in any constitutional or statutory declaration of rights, with the exception of political speech which is protected from criminal prosecution". I doubt that's a huge problem as they're kind of covered by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in any case I've yet to meet an Australian who has difficulties in saying exactly what they're thinking!

In Italy "Vilication of religion is illegal in Italy under Section 403 of the Criminal code" so technically you don't have to travel anywhere near the middle east to insult God and get into trouble for it. Technically, anyway.

When it comes to the freedom of press, neither the UK nor the US make it into the top 20 according to reporters without borders: Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

George's opinion will carry some weight. He works for the aid of ppl like the Nubians in Sudan and does care about things that go wrong on a big scale. His opinion about that video is one shared by many. The only innocent muslems are the ones being victimized by their own ppl. Or wish for peace.

Yes, his opinion will carry some weight. Just that this particular topic is probably not worth it...IMO.

I believe you actually have to travel to middle east to get in trouble making jokes about certain things, like religion. In Italy they can take a joke about pope or catholic double standard. Little humor doesn´t rock their boat.

Press was interesting statistic, just leaves me wondering how the press in north can be so free as most of the news they get nowadays comes from US, United Kingdom, France…

I am getting a bit upset with people on twitter. They are all tweeting that GC has said the "first amendment is unfortunate"....that is not what he said. He said "Freedom of speech means you have to allow idiots to speak, and that’s the unfortunate thing."

Totally the opposite of what they are saying he said. I truly hope he comes out with a statement about this because I happen to agree with him on this subject. We have rights in this country and some people abuse those rights. My thinking is "just because we can do something doesn't mean we should". It is like the amendment that says we have the "right to bear arms"...but that doesn't mean anyone should own an AK47. I a very irritated about this right now....

me too!
I also hope he will soon make some statement
to make things
CLEARER!!!!

Unfortunately this is being mis-reported all over the internet:

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George Clooney Calls First Amendment 'Unfortunate'

by Christian Toto

11 Oct 2012

The Hollywood community has been mostly silent about the anti-Muslim filmmaker whose work the Obama administration blamed on the recent surge of Middle Eastern violence.

Bette Midler actually wanted the filmmaker charged with murder for his actions. Few of her peers stood up for the filmmaker and, by extension, an artist's right to free speech no matter how offensive said speech might be.

Now, arguably the biggest name in film, Oscar-winner George Clooney, is weighing in on the subject.

"Freedom of speech means you have to allow idiots to speak, and that’s the unfortunate thing." "This guy clearly wanted to create problems," he continued referring to Nakoula Basseley, the Egyptian immigrant who appears to have masterminded the making of Innocence of Muslims.

Clooney added that he saw part of the YouTube video: "It made me mad and I’m not Muslim," he said. "It made me mad for the quality of film that it was, more than anything. But the simple truth is that in order to make [democracy] work, the idiots get to have their say, too. And that’s unfortunate."

Note: Clooney used the word "unfortunate" not once but twice in his answer.

I can only marvel at this. Are the Republicans so terrified of democrats that they have to do this???

Y.E.S.

Well, the only thing we can do is tweet and retweet the real story. Everyone with a twitter account, get to it!

Hope he lets this pass
It´s a swamp
Journalist set a loaded question
He was polite and nice and gave an good answer , only that people are not necessarily media reading skilled who will forward "the message".