Originally published at: The Oscars Academy said it doesn't "condone violence" even though it did nothing after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock | Boing Boing
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Is the statement basically saying that the position should be that Will Smith should not have gotten an oscar for his code of conduct breach and that he should be banned from the oscars and ejected from the academy?
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As I understand it, Rock declined to file assault charges , so I’m not sure what anyone expects the Academy to do, besides give meaningless lip service.
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The Academy would let anyone sitting in that exclusive VIP section of its already exclusive VIP event murder someone on live TV.
An organisation truli committed to those values would at the very least have ejected Smith from the rest of the event and let someone else accept the award on his behalf.
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Yeah, they don’t “condone” violence, they wholeheartedly support and reward it.
Smith got commit assault live on camera and then later go up on stage and get a big award, give a speech and get lots of applause.
I guess the Academy feels that Will Smith is too rich and famous to escort out of the building and/or that Chris Rock is too punchable to care about. He was their host and they did nothing when he was assaulted. Completely unacceptable.
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Let’s blame the Academy!?! /s
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Sure, because it’s such an institution of impeccable character and ethics…
/s
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Like you said, I’m not sure what people expect them to do here… 
Plenty of shitty people have oscars, people who did things far worse than what Smith did…
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They care about $$ and ratings. Ratings for the Oscars have continued to go down every year, so I’m sure they were secretly thrilled to have such a high-profile incident all but ensure they will get higher viewership next year.
I’m giving ~30% odds this whole incident was a work, but I’m still willing to 70% believe it was a legitimate shoot.
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If it was a work, the Oscars didn’t know about it. Imagine, people saying “fuck” on over the air broadcasts? The pearl clutching would just be too immense. These people can cope with all the violence in the world, but the moment Will Smith said “fuck” was the moment I was convinced this wasn’t a work.
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I don’t condone violence either, but an open handed slap and some shouting isn’t murder. There’s no reason to resort to hyperbole.
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Isn’t box office performance a better metric than back pats by anonymous people, anyways?
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Something controversial happened. You don’t know exactly what the details are. You need to decide in the next 30 seconds whether to do something incredibly dramatic about it in front of a billion people, all of whom are opening Twitter as we speak, or let things play out.
Also, your organization has been mercilessly (and justifiably) roasted for years for excluding Black people. This incredibly dramatic thing you’re contemplating will involve you sending rent-a-cops to put hands on a Black man.
Also also, in five minutes he’s due back on stage to give an acceptance speech.
I could not possibly care less about the Academy or its constituent muckety-mucks, but I am really not inclined to judge them for what they did in that specific moment. For that matter, maybe Chris Rock and Will Smith don’t need me opining on them either.
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After making a shitty joke, Chris Rock ends up looking classy by not pressing charges. The Academy, in contrast…what exactly would Smith had to have done to get kicked out of this party and been denied an award?
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I suppose they could have escorted Smith out of the building immediately after the incident, but at this point it’s pretty late for anything other than a public finger wagging. I guess they could disinvite Smith from future academy events but there’s probably some kind of formal process for that.
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I’m truly not the person to ask; if it were left up to me, there would be no ostentatious awards shows.
They waste vast sums of money and resources which could be better spent on fixing some of society’s real problems, like homelessness.
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I’m not comparing the two. I’m pointing out the general attitude of the organisation when it comes to industry royalty.
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Awards Season is California’s worst season, and that says a lot because we also have Fire, Earthquake and Flood.
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Well all I know is if anyone wanted to cancel the academy awards the only people I’d feel sorry for are the younger fashion designers.
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