Wednesday, July 09, 2014

THE THIRD REICH 'N' ROLL SWINDLE.

Dinesh D'Souza, his publicists, and their factota think, or pretend to think, that D'Souza's new movie is being suppressed by Google. The Hollywood Reporter:
Lawyers representing Dinesh D’Souza’s newest film, America, have fired off a letter to Google demanding that the search engine correct problems that they say are hampering the ability of consumers to figure out where the movie is playing. 
The letter claims that Google has been confusing America with 2016: Obama’s America, which was D’Souza’s first movie and has been out of theaters for two years, while Lionsgate released America on July 2 and it is currently playing in about 1,100 theaters nationwide.
This is my favorite part of the whole thing:
While Google did not respond to multiple requests for comment, some potential moviegoers are accusing the search company, or others, of engaging in a plot of misinformation. "This mixup is likely being coordinated by those in the film industry who hope the film fails at the box office," one wrote at the film’s Facebook page.
Say this for D'Souza's team: Getting mainstream press to take this seriously is impressive, but getting The Hollywood Reporter to put Facebook comments by "potential moviegoers" in their story is even more impressive. Best of all, they got action from Google:
“Our systems have unfortunately confused the title of the movie America, because it’s a common term and appears in many movie titles,” a Google spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. “We’ve updated the Knowledge Graph, our database that stores this type of information, but it will take some time to display showtimes and other details for this movie. We’re always working on improving our systems, and we appreciate the feedback.”
The squeaky wheel gets the publicity!

The complaint is of course bullshit -- any "potential moviegoer" who can't remember the full name of the movie he wants to see, nor think to check with his local theaters, is probably too developmentally disabled to go outside alone. And you can imagine what kind of "update" Google is doing based on one complaint, even one sent by lawyers.

But for D'Souza's purposes it doesn't matter: If box office receipts go up, the D'Souzans can say it was because they broke the Google-Commie logjam; if they don't go up, they can claim Google is stonewalling them, just like the IRS!

As anyone can see by the steady stream of paranoid emails (and Reason videos) that they churn out, pitchmen for conservative products believe their audience are suckers for anything that stokes their persecution mania. On the evidence, it seems they have assessed that audience correctly.

76 comments:

  1. XeckyGilchrist11:36 AM

    Important safety tip: give different titles to all your movies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Megalon11:47 AM

    The Kenyon has gone to far! Deviously trying to suppress D’Souza’s constitutional right to having his movie be popular by taking advantage of his fans being unable to remember a complex title like "America"! What is this, North Korea!?

    Remember "An American Carol"! Never Forget!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Formerly_Nom_De_Plume11:51 AM

    have fired off a letter to Google demanding that the search engine correct problems

    Like when you type "Dinesh D'Souza A" it auto-completes it with "arrest". That's bullshit. Everyone knows that he's already been sentenced.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Megalon11:52 AM

    Also, I'm sure that "those in the film industry who hope the film fails at the box office," have enormous clout with the people running Google.

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  5. I can't believe that beats out "Dinesh D'Souza asshole".

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  6. Dr. Hunky Jimpjorps11:54 AM

    I feel for D'Souza here because Google is also discriminating against my movie, "Funny Kitten Pictures".

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  7. Well yeah, they're all liberals. They're all in collusion, don't you know that? < /wingnut>

    ReplyDelete
  8. Giant Monster Gamera12:04 PM

    Don't miss D'Souza's recent successful attempt to bully Costco into carrying his latest screed because CENSORSHIP!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice to see he's getting his money's worth out of his defense team. Has he started shaking the McDonald's coffee cup of charity under his fans' noses yet?

    While I don't think it is impressive that shitty reporters will treat Facebook statements as reliable, I do think it is delightful that Google has now laid out the Vilkommen mat for every rabid squinty-eyed bigoted paranoid right wing shriekbat (but I repeat myself, a lot) who is convinced that the Great Liberal Search Result Suppression Conspiracy is an actual thing.

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  10. As an artist, none of my failures are my fault. If a project fails, or even underperforms, it can only be due to a nebulous yet monolithic group of powerful people conspiring against me. Even if I generate some confusion by giving my project a common name - one which is similar to a recent project - it is still not my fault. The system should have been designed specifically with me in mind.


    Hey, this is easy! So, conservative moneymen, care to finance my documentary? It'll be a lot cheaper than D'Souza's, and I promise I'll whine way more.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Giant Monster Gamera12:14 PM

    Hey, that's the name of MY movie!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Giant Monster Gamera12:23 PM

    I'm wondering if, when that blessed day finally comes, and D'Sousa is perp-walked into his prison cell, he'll cry "discrimination" and "conservative victimhood!" when he doesn't have a view or a private restroom?

    ReplyDelete
  13. mortimer200012:32 PM

    Holy crap. The film is now the #1 and #2 results for a Google search for "America", the word not the movie. Mission fucking accomplished. Gotta feel bad for that Vespucci guy or anyone looking for the lyrics to A Horse with No Name.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Susan of Texas12:39 PM

    I suspect he thinks he'll never be sent to prison.

    ReplyDelete
  15. thimker312:47 PM

    So D'Souza wins no matter what happens at the box office? Sounds like good news for John McCain to me! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Derelict1:04 PM

    I gather from this that D'inesh D'dummy is already laying the groundwork to explain the abject failure of his film. I guess that conservative movies are like conservatism itself: They cannot fail, they can only be failed. So the fact that people stay away in droves is just more evidence of liberal something or other.

    Meanwhile, we can all miss what Variety might have done with this:
    Conservative Flick Gets Google Pic Kick

    ReplyDelete
  17. Derelict1:10 PM

    "If you liked my last movie, United States, you'll absolutely adore my latest movie, United States. In fact, I think you might be interested in getting on board with my next project, which I'm tentatively calling United States. I'll be working on that just as soon as I finish my novel called "United States."

    Did I mention I have a music CD coming out? Yeah, it's called United States. How did you know?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Megalon1:19 PM

    I seem to remember once upon a time that some morons were seriously claiming that "An American Carol"'s failure was due to ticket sellers conspiring to intentional sell it's many fans the wrong tickets so it would APPEAR to be a box office failure, while actually being secretly being a huge hit. Because there's so much more plausible than clumsy, witless propaganda pieces just not being popular with the movie going public.

    So, yeah I'd guess he is.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Derelict1:23 PM

    It couldn't possibly be due to the invisible hand of their vaunted free market giving them the finger!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Glock H. Palin, Esq.1:40 PM

    You think you've got it bad? Google really has it out for my forthcoming YA novel XXX Hot Naked Schoolgirls.

    ReplyDelete
  21. XeckyGilchrist2:06 PM

    He's probably right. Hard to imagine a less-enforced set of laws than those governing campaign finance shenanigans that benefit Republicans.

    ReplyDelete
  22. BigHank532:09 PM

    My debut single, I Liek Pokemon, currently languishes on page 641 of the Google results.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Why would anyone hope for something that they know is going to happen?

    ReplyDelete
  24. Bethany Spencer2:10 PM

    It's always win-win for these clowns. Or dumb-dumb.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Bethany Spencer2:11 PM

    Do not want.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Bethany Spencer2:12 PM

    I wanna see some D Johnston stuff at Liberty Island.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I suspect Google won't be the only one who "has it out" for your forthcoming novel.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Well, Didi has every right to be angry at Google. He's not even on the first page of "chinless, clueless dork." Not on "chinless, clueless doofus," either. The nerve!!

    ReplyDelete
  29. This. Exactly. Everyone knows the invisible hand only gives the finger to struggling families, minorities and women. RealCons get the hand job and anything else is the sign of liberal shenanigans.

    Of course, if D'vorce D'Convict was a liberal the right wing response would make a buzzard puke.

    ReplyDelete
  30. GeniusLemur2:34 PM

    And they're also grumping about how Costco removed 'America: Imagine a World Without Her' from their shelves.
    Why? Well the right-wingers say it's because the owners of Costco are liberals. Costco says it's because the book doesn't sell.


    Of course, right-wingers are willing to go to the supreme court to let a pharmacists not fill a prescription because they have personal objections, so even if their version is right, they still shouldn't object.


    Once again, the right-wing version of freedom is clear: those in the tribe have the inalienable right to whatever they want (including shelf space at Costco). And the rest of us? We have the right to be persecuted by the right-wingers.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Helmut Monotreme2:34 PM

    Dinesh D'Souza has made a career out of being another voice in the echo chamber. By reflecting and amplifing the prejudices of his patrons. It seems like every time he screws up, it's because he thinks he's part of the ruling elite to whom the rules don't apply. If instead of being the president of some fly by night christian college, he had been a member of evangenical christianity's top tier, like Orel Roberts or Billy Graham, all it would have taken would have been a televised tearful apology and he would have kept his job, and there would have been praises all round.
    In his little stunt with illegal campaign contributions, if he had just followed the freaking rules, he could have shoveled all the cash he wanted and more at his preferred candidates. But he couldn't even recruit enough dupes to be his financial catspaws and decided to cheat in the most incompetent fashion of the post Citizens United era. His political allies don't appear to have lifted a finger to help him, unlike for example Scott Walker who has courted the sleaziest donors and employed the most ham handed political operatives, all of whom are apparently loyal enough to shut up when a prosecutor comes knocking.
    When he gets out of prison, it will be a matter of months before he steps on another metaphorical rake. He makes Mr. Bean look like a model of omnicompetence and efficiency.

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  32. gocart mozart3:09 PM

    Google is a well known part of the liberal conspiracy along with science and universities. This is why conservatives never Google stuff to find out if it is true or not. To do so would be palling around with the enemy.

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  33. gocart mozart3:15 PM

    Liberal = anyone not insane, hence Costco and Google are now liberal.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Gromet3:22 PM

    I prefer the sequels, Mechagodzilla vs Godzilla and Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Derelict3:22 PM

    And the rest of us? We have the right to be persecuted by the right-wingers.

    If they're not allowed to persecute us, then ispso fatso, we're persecuting them!

    ReplyDelete
  36. Helmut Monotreme3:24 PM

    'Google agog at GOP goober's Boondoggle'?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Derelict3:28 PM

    I just wanna see D Johnston get the fat publishing contract we all know he deserves. A talentless hack like D'Zaster gets published, and our own D Johnston does not: Proof the universe has no taste.

    ReplyDelete
  38. PersonaAuGratin3:49 PM

    Well the right-wingers say it's because the owners of Costco are liberals. Costco says it's because the book doesn't sell.

    So it's even worse than right-wingers think....liberals who know how to make money!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person3:55 PM

    Google kinks dink's links

    ReplyDelete
  40. Derelict4:04 PM

    I thought that's what his mistress was doing.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person4:14 PM

    Google smirches movie searches
    Ticket seekers left in lurches
    D'Sousa: sad
    D'Lawyers: glad
    D'Parrots: on their perches

    ReplyDelete
  42. Remember "An American Carol"!


    Just don't try to Google it using the "American" part.

    ReplyDelete
  43. and I promise I'll whine way more.


    Be careful writing checks your gallbladder can't cash.

    ReplyDelete
  44. BG, dismayed leftie5:01 PM

    Dear Mr. D'Souza,

    I typed "america dinesh d'souza locations" into Google and easily found the home page for your movie. If you want people to know where it's playing, HOW ABOUT LISTING THE LOCATIONS ON YOUR FUCKING WEBSITE???


    Tempest in a Tea Party Pot.


    Bite me,
    BG

    ReplyDelete
  45. TGuerrant5:45 PM

    Amazon will be next. In 2009, Rosie O'Donnell produced, wrote, and starred in a film called "America." Potential Amazon instant video customers will find their D'Souzan urges hampered yet again and, worse still, will potentially see scenes in which a psychiatrist helps a bi-racial boy named America deal with his not-white-enough-for-the-White-House life.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person6:42 PM

    "New Dinesh D'Souza movie" gets 3,336,000 hits.
    "Fucking Dinesh D'Souza" only gets 72,200. This look backwards to anybody else?

    ReplyDelete
  47. Plenty of titles for D'Souza's next one!

    America Raids Again
    Son of America
    America's Revenge
    America on Monster Island
    America vs. Mechamerica
    America vs. Spaceamerica
    The Return of America
    America: Final Wars

    And of course, due to a liberal media conspiracy, the original America was released in America (with additional Raymond Burr footage) under the disrespectful title America, King of the Monsters!

    ReplyDelete
  48. glennisw7:38 PM

    Oh, yes, of course, no doubt! Why, just yesterday I overheard Sherry Lansing get on the phone to Google demanding that they deep six Dinesh's movie.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Mooser8:11 PM

    Gosh, how many hits would "dinesh d'souza convicted felon" get?

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  50. Mooser8:17 PM

    201,000

    ReplyDelete
  51. BigHank539:25 PM

    Given the number of people who (a) want to fuck Dinesh or (b) watch Dinesh fucking, 72,200 looks really high.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Leave the quotation marks around it, and it drops to 5. One of which is your comment. Coincidence ... or conspiracy?

    ReplyDelete
  53. AGoodQuestion11:24 PM

    It'll be a lot cheaper than D'Souza's, and I promise I'll whine way more.
    Whine more than D'Souza? You could break something just trying to!

    ReplyDelete
  54. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:27 PM

    Dinesh, Ramesh, and "Bobby" don't realize they're being laughed at by the very people they'd like to empower, when they're not looking. AMMFSFEA
    (Almost Makes Me Feel Sorry For 'Em. Almost)

    ReplyDelete
  55. AGoodQuestion11:27 PM

    If I keep hearing about Dinesh's stupid movie that horseride to the desert is going to start looking pretty good.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:30 PM

    Well the right-wingers say it's because the owners of Costco are liberals.

    And how dare they act like Capitalists when it's us they're Capitalizing on...

    ReplyDelete
  57. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:31 PM

    Or deep doo-doo...

    ReplyDelete
  58. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:34 PM

    Well, to be fair, when Avatar was hot, it was probably the top 50 results. Same thing for Alien, if it was a Google-era movie. Anyway, that's how Google rolls these days. I'm so old I remember when it was an actual search engine...

    ReplyDelete
  59. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:36 PM

    One good thing, "Club Fed" is pretty much a thing of the past, what with the War on (some) Drugs (used by some people)

    ReplyDelete
  60. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:39 PM

    TBogg really went off the deep end the other day with hotnakedphyllisschlafly.com". I still feel unclean...

    ReplyDelete
  61. J Neo Marvin11:42 PM

    Transparent attempt to swindle Laurie Anderson fans.

    ReplyDelete
  62. J Neo Marvin11:45 PM

    Number 3 is a prominent one-star rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

    ReplyDelete
  63. mgmonklewis12:01 AM

    First 100 purchasers get a free trench coat!

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  64. Sure I'll pay extra for the transparent vinyl.

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  65. I have an old college friend who's a bit of a right- winger, and he found An American Carol too heavy-handed.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Halloween_Jack9:39 AM

    So close to limericity.

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  67. Halloween_Jack9:41 AM

    Don't forget Wet Hot American America.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Obviously Costco should force people to buy a copy every time they visit. Because Right wingers are also as exempt from being judged and found wanting by the Free Market.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Ellis_Weiner10:17 AM

    Although it's the same coat. You send it on like a chain letter--or like the Traveling Pants, but not as wholesome.

    ReplyDelete
  70. realinterrobang10:41 AM

    And so you had to share for those of us who missed it in its original venue.

    I'm at work, dammit! I can't go and shower!

    ReplyDelete
  71. Smarter than Your Average Bear5:15 PM

    So he could piss and moan about a liberal conspiracy when the inevitable happened.

    ReplyDelete
  72. Smarter than Your Average Bear5:17 PM

    the 3.3M hits are all bot link bait pages for SEO :)

    ReplyDelete
  73. Smarter than Your Average Bear6:14 PM

    oh god there simply isn't enough soap in the world to clean that away

    ReplyDelete
  74. AngryWarthogBreath1:29 AM

    Put that hit count down! Hit counts are for movies with unique names.

    ReplyDelete
  75. I know I'm late to the party, but I wrote a review of the movie because I'm kind-hearted.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Glock H. Palin, Esq.5:21 PM

    Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return
    of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien,
    Flesh Eating, Hellbound, Zombified America Part 2, in Shocking 2-D

    ReplyDelete