Catholic and Enjoying It!
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOT MUCH
For the second time, Bob Sungenis and Rick DeLano appeared on Michael Voris’s “Mic’d Up” program to talk about their film “The Principle.”
DeLano, at his blog, had done his best to hype this evening’s show, but in …his promo he pretty much said what ended up being said on “Mic’d Up”: that the film’s producers had in their possession signed releases from those whose interviews are in the film and that the film has been taken on by a distributor.
I don’t remember anyone claiming that those interviewed, such as Lawrence Krauss and Michio Kaku, hadn’t signed releases, so that always was a non-issue. Krauss claimed a lack of memory of having been filmed, but a clip shown by DeLano on “Mic’d Up” made it clear that Krauss was aware that he was on camera.
What wasn’t made clear tonight–and apparently it wasn’t made clear to Krauss or Kaku prior to the interviews–was the undergirding argument of “The Principle,” that geocentrism is true.
The real issue never was whether those interviewed had signed releases but whether they had been told what the film was intended to argue toward. Nothing in tonight’s program would lead one to believe that Sungenis and DeLano had been up front with the interviewees.
(The signed releases were shown on screen, to prove the interviewees had been paid for their time. The amounts paid were redacted except in one case, where the release showed that the interviewee was paid $1,500.)
As in the earlier edition of “Mic’d Up,” Bob Sungenis said very little. Most of the words came from DeLano, secondly from Voris.
The two of them posited the existence of a concerted effort by what Voris has dubbed “the Church of Nice” to undercut the film. Three people were named as ringleaders: Mark Shea, David Palm, and me. My name was mentioned just once in passing;* more or less the same for David Palm’s. But Mark Shea got considerable attention.
DeLano showed on screen a tweet that Shea had made on Krauss’s Twitter feed in which Shea asked Krauss whether he knew that “The Principle” actually was made by people backing geocentrism. In DeLano’s opinion, it was this query from Shea that made Krauss–and later the film’s narrator Kate Mulgrew–go public against the film.
Considerable time was spent on promoting the idea that Shea, Palm, and I have been trying to undercut the film by claiming it promotes anti-Semitism. This was an argument Voris repeatedly made, but none of us ever alleged anything of the kind about the film. We never have said or even implied that there is a hint of anti-Semitism in the film. We presume there isn’t.
What we have said–repeatedly, over many years–is that Bob Sungenis wrote many dozens of articles, at his website and elsewhere, against Jews, accusing them of being responsible for manifold political, social, and cultural evils. For instance, he argued that Jews were responsible for the destruction of the Twin Towers.
I more than once noted that Sungenis seemed obsessed with Jews and that he freely and uncritically reproduced statements that placed Jews in a bad light–going even so far as to quote a high Nazi official against the Jews.
On tonight’s program Sungenis didn’t refer to any of his tens of thousands of words written against Jews. He just claimed that in his writings he criticized Catholics twice as often as he criticized Jews. No doubt a word count of the articles that appeared at his website would show that this is a grotesque exaggeration.
A puzzler: Voris said that he didn’t know Mark Shea. Strange. They had a public debate at the Argument of the Month Club in St. Paul last October. Hundreds of people were in attendance. Has Voris forgotten that encounter already?
At the end of the program Sungenis and DeLano announced that “The Principle” would have its theatrical release on September 9. It will be shown, apparently, at one theater in one (unnamed) “major city.” The distribution is being handled by Rocky Mountain Pictures.
According to the website Box Office Mojo, this two-man organization has promoted 24 indie films. Five of them grossed more than a million dollars, the two best known being “2016: Obama’s America” ($33.4 million) and “Expelled” ($7.7 million). But 12 of the films brought in less than $100,000, the least bringing in $2,000.
The two big-grossers had famous names (Dinesh D’Souza and Ben Stein, respectively), which no doubt accounted for much of their box-office success. “The Principle” features no one of comparable fame.
Of the 24 films handled by Rocky Mountain Pictures, 15 appeared in 30 or fewer theaters–hardly enough to cover costs of production.
Box Office Mojo lists the production budget of only two of the 24 films. “The End of the Spear” brought in $12 million and cost $10 to produce, so it made a profit. “Atlas Shrugged: Part I” brought in $4.6 million but cost $20 million, so it had a big loss–surprising, perhaps, for a film based on a best-selling novel.
What can one expect for a documentary based, if it’s based on anything, on the non-seller** “Galileo Was Wrong”?
The bottom line is that Sungenis and DeLano didn’t announced what, months ago, they promised to announce: Opening night in multiple cities with a major distributor handling their film. Rocky Mountain Pictures is a small outfit, and “The Principle” will open in just one city, presumably at just one theater. It will have to do very well there to go on the road.
(*I think my name was mentioned just once. The sound was off during a good portion of the program–there was a glitch at the studio–so it’s possible I was referred to more than once.)
(“Galileo Was Wrong” has an Amazon best-sellers rank of 7,874,135 among books.)
Actually John Farrell did most of the heavy lifting bringing it to Krauss’ attention, since he seems to know the guy a bit. I don’t know the man, so he never responded to me. I am quite happy to acknowledge that I did what I could to make sure that the people who got lied into participating in it were alerted to the lie (which wasn’t much on my part) and that viewers were warned that it is out and out quackery. I’m also happy to acknowledge that I was critical of CMTV for throwing Sungenis softballs and never questioning his history of nutty Jew-hating commentary (a pattern repeated here). But again, much of the heavy lifting in chronicling Sungenis’ Jew-hating work was done by the redoubtable Karl Keating, whom I am proud to call a friend. I did do what I could to make sure that people were forewarned what an incredibly dodgy and discreditable thing it was to back this piece of junk, but I don’t think I did all that much. I wish I could have done more, but I didn’t want to draw more attention to this project than was necessary.
What’s funny is that I am also being informed that, thanks to me and my awesome satanic power, the film is on track to make millions due to my foolish attempt to stop the Work of God. We know this because the ever-reliable trifecta of DeLano, Sungenis and CMTV have declared it so–and when have they have been radically out of touch with reality? And when none of this happens, that will be my fault too. Wonderful to live in the Bubble of Denial and Unreality.
Meanwhile I am already getting email demanding I repent and make reparation.
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