Loving America

Brent Bozell's latest article shows his inability to honestly critique media. Which is a bit problematic since he tries to function as a Conservative Media Critic (fortunately for Bozell, all his readers want to hear is how bad and out of touch Hollywood is). His latest target is Oliver Stone.

Sadly, that [World Trade Center] was but a brief hiccup in Stone's career, a befuddling, out-of-character career move. In most of his movies, Oliver Stone is clearly not a fan of America, both her leaders and her policies. Think "Born on the Fourth of July," "Platoon," "JFK," "Nixon" and "W."

See Bozell doesn't undersand criticizing harshly something you love. H edoesn't understand how someone like Stone can love his country and wish it well, while also being discouraged at the choices it makes.

Which is odd because one presumes Bozell has no trouble understanding how a conservative could be disgusted with President Obama or with the sexual predillictions of some Americans while still loving America. But the thing about it is that Bozells image of America is tied up almost entirely with his conservative ideology; in his mind, to a great extent, to really be American is to be conservative. So criticizing libertines or progressives, even if they happen to be U.S. Citizens, isn't criticizing America because libertians and progressives aren't really Americans.