Overshadowed by Controversy: Difference between revisions

Standardizing the redlinks to "COVID-19 pandemic" to match Wikipedia's name
(if we're going to have redlinks for the COVID-19 Pandemic, let's at least make them consistent with each other)
(Standardizing the redlinks to "COVID-19 pandemic" to match Wikipedia's name)
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* Not only was ''[[Saving Christmas (film)|Saving Christmas]]'' derided as a hammy Evangelical Christian film for its [[Anvilicious]] premise, its reputation soured even further when [[Kirk Cameron]] vainly called for netizens to add positive reviews in an attempt to save the film's positive ratings from the "haters and atheists"; Cameron instead got the opposite response, with trolls review-bombing the living daylights out of ''Saving Christmas''.
* The 2014 FIFA biopic ''[[United Passions]]'' had the misfortune of being released just as when the 2015 FIFA corruption scandal was taking place. Director Frédéric Auburtin lamented about how he was commissioned to direct a propaganda piece on behalf of a corrupt organisation, adding that he tried to strike a balance between "a Disney propaganda film [and] a Costa-Gavras/Michael Moore movie" only for [[Executive Meddling]] from FIFA to prevail which further skewed the film's tone in their favour, and both Auburtin and the cast described it as a disaster, especially as Sepp Blatter was sugar-coated as a heroic figure vowing to stamp out corruption in the association (Spoiler alert: he isn't). A bemused [[John Oliver]] lampooned the film in a segment on his show ''Last Week Tonight'', wondering "Who makes a sports film where the heroes are the executives?"
* Former MMA fighter-turned-actress [[Gina Carano]] became the subject of controversy when she made no secret about her political and social views online, which leaned towards the alt-right movement. Said statements - e.g., her gross downplaying<ref>[https://medium.com/afrosapiophile/gina-carano-the-alt-right-arent-in-danger-they-are-the-danger-a97d5d4a8668 Gina Carano & The Alt Right Aren’t In Danger—They Are The Danger]</ref> of the [[COVID-19 Pandemicpandemic]] and denigrating messages at the expense of transgender people - both left her fans divided over her views and forced [[Lucasfilm]] to drop her from ''[[The Mandalorian]]'' cast. Carano would later sign up for a film project with conservative figure [[Ben Shapiro]], but not without hitting back at those who criticized her for her views. (In a somewhat ironic twist, Carano previously played the role of a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] commando in ''[[Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3]]''.)
* Fellow ''Red Alert 3'' alumna Jenny McCarthy would also share a similar fate with Carano as McCarthy became more infamous for her promotion of the conspiracist anti-vaccination movement, particularly the discredited belief about theomersal and its link to autism, than for her stint on ''Playboy'' and later theatrical appearances.
* The 1946 Disney film ''[[Song of the South]]'' based on the equally controversial ''Uncle Remus'' stories became better known for its racist caricatures of black people in a plantation than for "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah", the film's animated sequences and Splash Mountain. Such was the film's notoriety that Disney, in an effort to maintain its family-friendly image, wanted little or nothing to do with the film. It permanently locked it up the Disney vault as well as outright declining to release it on their Disney+ service; said animated portions from the film were however made available in their ''Disney Sing-Along Songs'' releases, and the film as a whole is released on home video in various European and Asian countries. The controversy also spilled over (pun not intended) to the [[Splash Mountain]] ride, which will be retooled into a ''[[Princess and The Frog]]''-themed ride amid the George Floyd protests as many have came to view the ride's theme to be of poor taste in light of civil rights and racism controversies.
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* [[Frank Sinatra]] became a staple of [[FBI]] investigations due to his ties with [[The Mafia]], something he vehemently denied. He did however state that he would've taken up a criminal career it had not been for his interest in music.
* [[Kanye West]]'s association with [[Donald Trump]] made him a pariah among the African-American community, whose view of Trump is nothing short of disdainful. West did at points backpedal on his pro-Trump sentiments, though his sincerity was also put into question, with some viewing these bombastic and/or eccentric statements as a possible result of a mental illness or as part of an elaborate publicity stunt.
* Another musician associated with Trump and the Republican Party, [[Ted Nugent]] is a psychedelic rock and hard rock musician known less for his music than his controversial views and misogyny; it seems he never met a right-wing controversy he wouldn't promote. Although, this is indeed reflected in his music, including some notorious songs that portray rape and statutory rape in a positive light. He has so many albums with [[Contemptible Cover]]s that [https://www.houstonpress.com/music/ted-nugents-top-10-tasteless-album-covers-6782331 at least one newspaper] was able to compile a top 10 list of them. (Be warned, this link has no illustrations, but looking up the covers may require Brain Bleach.) A gun rights activist, he has spoken out against the survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting who became gun control activists, calling them "mushy brained children" and stating that "the evidence is irrefutable: They have no soul.” He has been in trouble for poaching more than once, is believed to hold [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canned_hunt “canned hunts”] on his own estate, referred to Heidi Prescott of the Fund for Animals as a "worthless whore" and a "shallow slut", asking "who needs to club a seal, when you can club Heidi?" (This resulted in a lawsuit ruled in Prescott’s favor where he was ordered to pay $75K in damages.) A staunch conservative and [[Conspiracy Theorist]], he claimed President [[Barack Obama]] and his Secretary of State [[Hillary Clinton]], "should be tried for treason & hung”. Among other attacks directed at the, he shared a video of Facebook with depiction of Clinton being shot by her 2016 Democratic presidential primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, commenting "I got your guncontrol [sic] right here bitch.” (At least one of these comments also got him in hot water with the Secret Service, and caused Fort Knox to cancel one of his concerts scheduled to be held there.) Recently (as of 2020) he claimed the [[COVID-19 Pandemicpandemic]] was a hoax and a lie, recanting this opinion only after ''testing positive for it himself'' in April of 2021.
* The Welsh metal band [[Lostprophets]] saw its reputation plummet to the ground when former lead vocalist Ian Watkins was charged with possession of child pornography and attempted rape of an ''infant'' in 2012. As a result of this disturbing felony, not only were the band's works pulled from circulation, the remaining members left the group as [[Old Shame|they wanted nothing to do]] with Watkins, later reforming as [[No Devotion]]. The ensuing controversy spilled over to the pop band [[Steps]] when a member [[Name's the Same|whose name is also Ian Watkins]] (though he goes by the stage name "H") was mistaken for the now-disgraced Lostprophets vocalist and began receiving hate mail from those who blindly accused him of paedophilia as a result of his name.
 
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* Fashion designer [[Coco Chanel]] is arguably the most famous couturier in history, having popularised the little black dress, Chanel No. 5 and a few others. She was however known for her alleged anti-Semitism and collaboration with the Nazis, which unsurprisingly soured her reputation post-mortem, particularly when more details about the less-savoury aspects of her life were declassified in the 2010s. The company which now bears her name tried to refute and downplay her role as a Nazi agent, though the stigma still remains.
* Same goes with Hugo Boss, whose eponymous founder designed the uniforms worn by Nazi officers and utilised slave labour (from concentration camp inmates no less) in producing them.
* The teleconferencing platform Zoom received a surge in popularity during the [[COVID-19 Pandemicpandemic]] where people are forced indoors to prevent the spread of the virus and are thus restricted to remote meetings. This however turned to infamy when numerous security and privacy issues with Zoom surfaced, one such incident with Pasig City, Philippines mayor Vico Sotto having his meeting raided by an errant troll who shoved in what appears to be a sexually-explicit picture of a naked man sitting on a chair.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGkexC_x5zE Zoom conference ni Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto at mga journalist, nasingitan ng ibang litrato (in Tagalog)]</ref> These so-called "Zoombombing" incidents eventually led to both enterprises and schools banning the use of Zoom in favour of open-source alternatives such as Jitsi.<ref>[https://appfigures.com/resources/insights/jitsi-meet-zoom-alternative The Open Source Zoom Alternative with More than 1.4M Downloads]</ref>
* 5G cellular technology also had its reputation tainted no thanks to the above-mentioned pandemic. The reason? [[Cloudcuckoolander]] [[Conspiracy Theorist]]s accusing the radio standard of somehow facilitating the spread of the virus. This got to the point where paranoid and gullible people bought into the canard and left comments blindly accusing 5G for causing the disease (even though there's substantial evidence to the contrary, and 5G coverage hasn't been that widespread yet even in areas where it was deployed), and some took it [[Up To Eleven]] by [[What an Idiot!|raiding]] cell sites and firebombing the masts to knock them offline. Unsurprisingly, those who attempted to do such an imbecilic act were arrested for their antics, and social media users joked about how they were unable to get cellular coverage as a result of such idiocy-induced terrorism. Not helping matters are charlatans who are quick to cash in on the scare by selling (phony) deterrents against 5G radio waves in the form of USB-OTG devices to be plugged on a cellphone, and those spreading [[Chain Letter]]s on Facebook and elsewhere alleging a sinister scheme linked to 5G and vaccines against COVID-19, sometimes using the "satanic panic" canard for added shock value.
** Such mass paranoia over cellular technologies are nothing new, however. Back when cellphones and text messaging started gaining mainstream adoption in the late 90s to early 2000s, fears about electromagnetic radiation emitted by cellular towers and cellphones themselves started circulating on the internet and through word of mouth, and some cashed in by selling so-called "anti-radiation" decals meant to be placed on cellphones, purportedly to mitigate the radiation coming from said devices.