Latest news with #RaymondArroyo
The Independent
a day ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Mel Gibson calls for his fellow Angelenos to overthrow Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass
Mel Gibson issued an astonishing call for the residents of Los Angeles to overthrow California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass in response to the recent anti-ICE protests. Gibson, an outspoken conservative best known for starring in the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon franchises and directing Braveheart (1995) and The Passion of the Christ (2004), issued the call during an appearance on Raymond Arroyo's podcast, which the host then previewed on Fox News on Monday. 'Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass have already proven their incompetence and poor leadership during the Los Angeles wildfires,' the actor declared with his trademark intensity. 'Now, as we experience rampant lawlessness and civil unrest, it's never been more clear: California is in a state of turmoil. And I ask my fellow Angelenos why Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass are still in office. How much more of their destructive decision-making masquerading as leadership are we going to tolerate? 'It's time to take back our community and our state and put the power and the privilege in the hands of competent leaders whose goals are to protect us and the way of life this nation was founded upon and promises to offer.' Moving swiftly to make light of Gibson's dark pronouncement, Fox host Kayleigh McEnany, a former White House press secretary to Donald Trump, cheerily responded: 'I can just hear him shouting, 'Freedom!' Like from Braveheart, right?' Arroyo chuckled before launching into a rant of his own, sympathising with Gibson's suggestion that the public should overthrow their democratically elected leaders, on the grounds that the demonstrations had inconvenienced local motorists. 'They are infuriated because… their roadways had already been impeded because of those fires,' the pundit began. 'Now, you've got parts of the 101 that go to downtown, the ramps were closed all weekend because of these protests and the LAPD sent out an alert: 'If you need a paramedic, if you need a cop, they may not be able to get to you because we're occupied trying to take care of these protests.'' Arroyo continued: 'This is a dereliction of duty by Karen Bass and Newsom. I mean, Newsom's out there saying that Donald Trump, I'll quote, 'is an authoritarian, a threat to democracy.' 'No, lawlessness and anarchy that you're fuelling, that is a threat to democracy. That is indeed the ultimate undermining of democracy when you can't protect your people. And, you know Kayleigh, these protests in L.A., are now targeting specific businesses and the country as a whole.' The duo went on to scoff at protesters' criticisms of 'American imperialism' and show footage of some of the demonstrators burning a U.S. flag before redirecting their outrage towards the new Luigi Mangione musical opening in San Francisco.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fox News Pundit Names 1 Holy Reason For New Pope's 'Potshots' At Trump Administration
Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo on Thursday explained why the newly named, U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV has criticized the Trump administration's policies over the years, particularly the president's stances on immigration. 'Look, all popes are going to support migrants, support the poor, support peace. Their heart goes out to humanity, that's with the job. Jesus would do the same,' Arroyo told Fox News' Will Cain, who had asked how Pope Leo XIV's 'vision' for the Roman Catholic Church could compare to Pope Francis. Arroyo — a host on the Catholic-focused Eternal Word Television Network — also weighed in on the new pope taking 'potshots' at Vice President JD Vance on social media. In February, after he reshared an op-ed that said the vice president was wrong for ranking his 'love' for others. The pontiff has also reshared posts signalinghis opposition to President Donald Trump's bans on refugee admissions in 2017. Most recently, he reshared a post knocking Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's response to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly sent to a Salvadoran prison. The new pope has already taken heat from right-wing media figures, muchlikeFrancisdid in his years leading the church. Sean Hannity claimed the new pope has perhaps been 'indoctrinated into the liberal way of thinking' for not seeing anything 'remotely Christian' about warehousing immigrant children in cages, Media Matters for America noted. Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) also slammed him for using what Santorum called 'buzzwords of the left.' Earlier in the program, Cain noted that the papacy isn't a 'political office,' so it may be 'inappropriate' to ask whether the new pope is liberal or conservative. 'But is he progressive in the vein of Pope Francis? That seems to be the great question,' said Cain, adding that the new pope's stance on issues ranging from climate change to diversity, equity and inclusion will raise questions over the 'new vision' of the church. Arroyo noted that the pontiff's appearance with a traditional mozzetta on Tuesday is a 'cry back to the past' and made traditionalists as well as conservatives feel as if he was 'dressing like a pope.' 'We frankly haven't seen this in 12 years with Pope Francis. So, maybe Leo will be as he mentioned in his speech today, a bridge-builder,' he said. H/T: Mediaite New Pontiff Gets 'American Pope' Trending On Social Media What's In A Name? Pope Leo XIV's Choice Signals Commitment To Social Justice Americans In St. Peter's Square Were Stunned By Choice Of New Pope
Fox News
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Oscars are over, 'out of touch with the audience' and saddled with DEI requirements: expert
The 97th Oscars will be awarded on Sunday, but the road to the golden statue has been a bumpy one, marked with controversies and a lack of breakout frontrunners to draw audiences' attention. "I feel really underwhelmed by this year's nominations, wins at other award shows (such as the Golden Globes) and predicted wins at the Oscars," a Reddit user said on a forum dedicated to the Oscars. Another agreed, writing, "I'm just not all that excited about most of the films this year. Bit of a meh year especially after last year. And the constant drama this season has been annoying, I don't care about that." "So many Oscar voters have told me the Oscars jumped the shark. They feel this is the end of Oscars in some ways," Fox News' contributor and host of the "Arroyo Grande" podcast Raymond Arroyo told Fox News Digital. "I think most people haven't seen any of these movies to be excited about them," he continued, citing films like "Emilia Perez," "Anora," and "The Brutalist" as some of the contenders bringing in awards at other shows this season that haven't drawn the kind of excitement from regular viewers. "'Wicked's' really the only movie that's been a box office success that's nominated for best picture. All these other films, they're small arthouse movies at best," Arroyo said. Per BoxOfficeMojo, only two of the best picture nominees, "Wicked" and "Dune: Part Two," cracked the top ten in ticket sales last year. "Inside Out 2," and "Deadpool & Wolverine" took the top two spots, with a raft of franchise sequels rounding out the top ten, like "Moana 2," "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," and "Twisters." "They are not taking into account popular tastes when making these choices," Arroyo explained of the nominees. "And you have a group of people acting in isolation from their audience, which is a huge problem. When you claim to speak as the cultural mouthpiece and center of the country, it's a huge problem. And I think many people in Hollywood are acknowledging it and realize maybe they're out of touch, and maybe the Oscars aren't what they used to be." "If they were in touch with the average moviegoer, you would have seen 'Deadpool [& Wolverine]' nominated. They didn't go for that." "So many Oscar voters have told me the Oscars jumped the shark. They feel this is the end of Oscar in some ways.' Arroyo has also spoken with several Oscar voters, some of whom are Oscar winners themselves, who appear to share audiences' lack of enthusiasm for some of the nominees. "One said, 'I'm not even voting. The Oscars is over.' And the other said, 'It just doesn't mean what it used to.'" He continued, "They're reflecting an industry that's being, it's been so shattered. You know, it's sort of what happened to us in television. You went from three channels to a cable universe. Now it's the wild west of the internet and every streaming show you're competing with. The world is changing, and it's changed a lot for people in the film industry. These streamers are taking over. But the collective audience doesn't necessarily gather around it. So, we're in a new day. And film is no longer the defining touchstone of the culture that it once was. And that's what I got from these voters, an acknowledgment that the ground has shifted, and maybe it's time for [the Oscars] to shift with it." WATCH: OSCARS 'AREN'T WHAT THEY USED TO BE' BECAUSE THEY'RE OUT OF TOUCH WITH AUDIENCES: EXPERT One of the suggestions from his conversations was to allow for an audience award to vote on their favorite movie "so that you'd get more popular films in the mix." Arroyo also mentioned a possible hurdle for some productions to be considered is meeting The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' "representation and inclusion standards." Instituted in 2024 for the 96th annual ceremony, AMPAS now requires films in consideration for best picture to meet two out of four possible categories worth of criteria, focused on underrepresented groups, including women, racial or ethnic groups, LGBTQ+, or people with disabilities. The representation can come onscreen through casting and storytelling, creative leadership behind the scenes like directors, cinematographers, makeup artists and more, internship and training opportunities for underrepresented groups, or representation in the marketing, publicity and distribution of the film. "One of these Oscar winners pointed out to me, he said, 'You know, my film probably wouldn't qualify for an Oscar now because there's so many boxes you have to check,' many of them DEI-related,'" Arroyo said. WATCH: OSCARS' DIVERSITY RULES MAY BE 'DISQUALIFYING' POPULAR OPTIONS BECAUSE OF DIVERSITY RULES He continued, "You have to have so many nontraditional casting here and so many non-White people working on this part of the film. So it's an interesting thing that we're seeing that I think is disqualifying to a lot of films that we'll never hear of at the Oscars, because they just couldn't check those boxes. They didn't have the creative staff or the casting that could accommodate them." Another factor that may shake up the Oscars and its future is the ratings from Sunday's ceremony, hosted by Conan O'Brien. Last year's ceremony, which started an hour earlier than usual, drew 19.5 million viewers in the 18-49 adult demographic, up 4% from 2023, per Variety. The outlet also reported that it was the third consecutive year of viewer growth since 2021, and the most watched since 2020. Of the ratings, Arroyo said, "They'll bump up and down, depending if there's a big movie that year. But this year you get the feeling, aside from 'Wicked,' there was really nothing that captured the zeitgeist or that people were really inspired by or moved by or even went in droves to." "I'm not sure if it has that same power any longer, given the rules, given the times, and given the isolation that the Academy works in," added. "Assuming everything that we are accessing in our daily lives. I mean, there's some great television that rivals, you know, the best films that they're nominating this year, and there's great television shows out there. So the creatives have moved on, and maybe the Oscars need to broaden what they're doing and make it a little more democratic and allow the audience a voice." Fox News Digital has reached out to a rep for the Academy for comment.
