Obamas catching heat over Netflix ‘child porn’ film

FPI / September 21, 2020

Barack and Michelle Obama are being pressured to use their influence at Netflix to pull the film "Cuties" which has been accused of glorifying the sexualization of children.

The Obamas, who signed a reported $50 million production deal with Netflix last year, have yet to comment on the controversy surrounding the film. Former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, who is on the streaming media company’s board, also has not commented.

Radio host Larry O’Connor said the Obamas “are enriched by the company that has presented this trash to the world,” but they “refuse to say anything … anything at all about this horrible issue.”

“They are the tip of the spear in demanding that every day Americans disrupt their own lives and their family harmony on the most divisive and controversial political topics,” O’Connor said Friday in an op-ed on Townhall.com. “Yet, on this fundamental, non-controversial and unifying idea that children should be protected and sexual exploitation of minors should be universally condemned, they can’t say a word.”

The Federalist ran an article by Fox News contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy headlined, “Michelle Obama is Complicit in Netflix Child Porn Film ‘Cuties.’ ”

“At a time the left has declared that ‘silence is violence,’ Michelle Obama’s silence on Netflix’s controversial movie ‘Cuties’ has not gone unnoticed,” read the op-ed, co-written with Evita Duffy. “It is also undermining her brand as ‘America’s mom’ and chief defender of female empowerment across the globe.”

Before the film’s release, Netflix removed a poster of the film which featured close-ups of scantily clad girls twerking and writhing. Conservative commentator Tammy Bruce said the actual film makes the poster look tame.

“They said that the poster that caused outrage didn’t reflect the film. They were right. The film is worse. It is beyond what we would have imagined,” Bruce told Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “The fact is, it is awful. It is the exploitation of children. This is not an indictment; it’s a celebration.”

She added that “curiously silent are the Obamas” as well as Rice.

“A word from any of these people could stop this in its tracks,” said Bruce, “and they should say something.”

Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, and Rep. Jim Banks, Indiana Republican, on Friday called on the Department of Justice to prosecute Netflix for trafficking in child pornography, while Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, sent a letter to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings asking him about the “exploitation of child actors.”

Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii tweeted that she had canceled her Netflix subscription over “Cuties,” which she described as “child porn.”

Christine Pelosi, daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a former San Francisco assistant district attorney, tweeted that the film “hypersexualizes girls my daughter’s age no doubt to the delight of pedophiles like the ones I prosecuted. Cancel this, apologize, work with experts to heal your harm.”

Netflix has defended the film.

“ ‘Cuties’ is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children,” a Netflix spokesperson said in an email. “It’s an award-winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up — and we’d encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie.”

Live Action’s Lila Rose tweeted: “You don’t fight child exploitation by exploiting children. You don’t stop child pornography by creating, selling and distributing child pornography.”

Leftist media figures are also defending the film.

The New Yorker’s Richard Brody said “Cuties” had become “the target of a right-wing campaign,” while the Verge’s Julia Alexander blamed a “QAnon conspiracy theory”.

Free Press International