If you want to understand why some people violently loathe the Star Wars films, look no further than the Detroit News' "examination" of Episode II. Josh has already made many excellent points (and be on the lookout for his editorial coming soon) but there?s something I (Chris) felt led to add in response:

This is a media-driven story. It's a non-story. Only people who are intentionally looking for divisiveness are going to find it and make a fuss about it. And the only reason they would be looking for it to begin with is if they want to gain something from it.

Star Wars is about people indivisible along lines of race or language or creed. The only ones in the saga who couldn?t be content to "live and let live" were the ones who found a way to divide others before conquering them... just as it happens in our world. No one wakes up one morning hating a people enough to strap on a bomb and blow up a pizzeria. They?re only convinced to do that by others who want power (who are also too cowardly to strap on a bomb themselves).

So does the Detroit News consider this movie ? and anyone else it deems unfit ? cannon fodder. It will do whatever is necessary to justify its existence... especially if they can manufacture a controversy that divides people all the more. And it probably hates AOTC because this movie seriously calls their bluff! With everything else that's gone mad in this world you would think their staff would be hard on a real beat. Instead they sit around a room deriving slavery from the Spanish word for "walking". They?re taking the easy way to power and letting us do their dirty work for them.

Understand this about the mainstream press: they don?t simply report the news, they have to invent it. Newspapers like the Detroit News are losing readers (and more important to them, advertisers). They don?t have the power they once enjoyed. The only reason they?re doing this now is because AOTC is fresh in our minds and they smell an opportunity to stake a claim.

What the Detroit News is doing is what the power-mad have done throughout recorded history. Their only claim to "legitimacy" is a printing press and a few thousand gallons of ink. They want you hoodwinked into believing they?re "sincere" because they have a flashy masthead.

Don't get conned... by them or anyone.