Reporter Michael Calleri wrote film reviews for the Niagara Falls Reporter for several years. He told jimromenesko.com that it was “a wonderful experience,” until this year when the paper was sold to Frank Parlato. Parlato soon implemented his own vision of the paper. He sent an email to Calleri to clarify this vision, saying:
“I don’t want to publish reviews of films where women are alpha and men are beta. where women are heroes and villains and men are just lesser versions or shadows of females. i believe in manliness. …If you care to write reviews where men act like good strong men and have a heroic inspiring influence on young people to build up their character (if there are such movies being made) i will be glad to publish these.”
Calleri went on to explain Parlato’s instructions, adding:
The new editor-publisher wanted to approve the movies I reviewed, which had never happened before. Worse, there would be a litmus test. If the movie featured strong or empowered women, I would not be allowed to write about that film. I checked my calendar. No, I hadn’t traveled back in time. It wasn’t the tenth century, it was still 2012. Relieved about the date, I asked him if he was serious. He was.
Calleri has since left the Niagra Falls Reporter, prompting Parlato to fire back with a response of his own:
If I knew Calleri was going to publish my off-the-record and, in parts, tongue-in-cheek email, I would have added capital letters and a couple of commas, but I wouldn’t have changed what I wrote. In fact I might have made the language even stronger. In any event, this is, in many respects, much ado about nothing. The Niagara Falls Reporter is geared toward local news and not reviews of big-corporate Hollywood.
While the paper may be smaller, and geared towards local news, Parlato’s sexist remarks are definitely not much ado about nothing. As a commenter on jimromenesko.com stated, “When did Vladimir Putin buy an American newspaper? But seriously, real news is looking more and more like The Onion each day…”
[Via Niagara Falls Reporter and jimromenesko.com]
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Claudia McNeilly writes for the Toronto Standard. You can follow her on twitter at @claudiamcneilly
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