Whoever Erik Lundegaard is for MSNBC, he's seriously pissed off:
There are rumors that older Academy members shied away from even viewing Brokeback Mountain for the usual homophobic reasons. Lionsgate also pushed Crash on Academy voters; it handed out a record number of DVDs and advertised heavily. I don’t know which explanation bothers me more. All I know is I feel sick. It feels like the ’72 Olympic basketball finals, when the Russians cheated and won; it feels like the ’85 World Series when a blown call in game six tilted the balance towards the Royals. It feels like the good guys wuz robbed.
Then the New York Daily news says:
N.Y. Daily News critic Jack Matthews speculating why Crash won and Brokeback didn't. (1) "Enough Academy voters found the gay subject matter of Brokeback Mountain too uncomfortable to sit through, meaning they abandoned their professional responsibility and didn't watch all five nominated films"; (2) Lionsgate "simply bought the grand prize by outspending everyone else in a $4 million campaign that included mailing DVDs to each of the 130,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild" and thus "a combination of everybody seeing Crash and some refusing to watch Brokeback Mountain"; and (3) Crash's subject matter -- racism, fear, and intolerance on the streets of L.A. -- "hit Academy members where most of them live." I think all three of these reasons were factors.
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