Once upon a time viewers trusted documentaries to tell the unvarnished truth.
Audiences assumed their stately manner and serious gaze meant you could take their facts to the bank.
That was never true, of course. Filmmakers bring their own biases to the table, then and now. Even well intentioned storytellers leave their mark on the truth.
Michael Moore officially ended that state of affairs. His hard-left films showed the genre’s limits while earning raves from progressive critics.
Now, we’re regularly treated to documentaries leaning to the Left and Right, assuming viewers will do their homework after the movie ends.
Which brings us to “Fauci.”
RELATED: Did Michael Moore Make Up Those Attempts on His Life?
The new National Geographic documentary covers Dr. Anthony Fauci’s noteworthy career, from battling the AIDS crisis to leading the national fight against COVID-19.
The film’s glowing reviews suggest the film offers a fawning portrait of the publicity-starved doctor.
Here’s how the far-left Daily Beast framed the feature, while acknowledging the film “skews a bit too heavily toward lionization.”
it’s an insightful portrait of a man who’s dedicated his career to helping solve some of the world’s most serious disease-related crises, as well as a celebration of the selfless courage, compassion, and open-mindedness of a physician who’s stood tall in the face of unjust vilification and threats.
A rare, right-leaning review dubbed the film “agitprop” in no uncertain terms.
Sadly, examining the truth behind the infectious disease expert’s reign is officially a Left/Right affair. Liberals genuflect to “St. Fauci” while conservatives demand he step down and/or pay for his crimes.
Rep. Gallagher demands Fauci resign, saying he ‘lied to the American people’ about Wuhan lab https://t.co/Hnhtz8PWwb
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 8, 2021
The latter crowd has plenty of facts to back up its claims.
National Review, a sober and straight-shooting conservative news site, pummeled Dr. Fauci earlier this year. So has The Federalist on a regular basis.
Why?
His extreme mask flip flops, for starters. His willingness to call certain events “super-spreaders” and ignore the medical ramifications from very similar events that skew to the Left – the porous U.S.-Mexico border, BLM protests, etc.
His doom and gloom prognostications and unwillingness to even consider the costs associated with lockdowns – drug abuse, broken businesses and suicides, to name just three. Let’s not forget the infamous email dump from a few months back further highlighted his contradictory advice for all to see.
The Fauci emails just show that Fauci consistently took the path of least resistance: downplaying the Wuhan lab leak theory, flip-flopping on masking, militantly fighting Rand Paul over post-covid immunity even though he knew better (Paul was right).
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 2, 2021
The biggest blow to Dr. Fauci’s name, and brand, may have come this week.
New details to emerge surrounding Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) grant approval for high-risk experiments overseas contradicts the agency director’s repeated denials under oath about whether the NIAID had funded “gain-of-function” research.
The news, from the Left-leaning Intercept, came the very week the documentary debuts, meant the filmmakers couldn’t predict, or include, the material in the finished feature.
Still, the timing could not be worse from a marketing point of view.
The silver lining for Team Fauci and the propagandists behind “Fauci?” The mainstream media is covering up the scandal as much as it can.
Will the damning revelations impact the film’s box office? It might. Plus, those who worship “St. Fauci” will likely be too frightened to sit in a public theater to honor their hero.
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