The website Awards Daily is one that needs little introduction if you are a movie blogger/critic/pundit/obnoxious awards fanboy. As one of the premier websites that took Oscar watching seriously (the sight was originally called Oscarwatch before the Academy sued her), Sasha in many ways created the Oscar blogging business we know today. I myself tried to copy her style (very unsuccessfully, I might add) before I decided YouTube and print reviews were more up my ally (though if an Oscar site needs a writer for animation...).
Aside from writing about movies, Sasha is very vocal about her political beliefs. Having read the site for many years, she has been known to openly discuss her political, spiritual (or lack thereof) beliefs, and movements that she both agrees and disagrees with. This is partly because she is aware of something that some Oscar bloggers still overlook: that the political climate at the moment can create shifts in an Oscar race that are not always apparent (Donald Trump winning the 2016 election is likely one of the reasons why frontrunner "La La Land" was upset by "Moonlight" at the Oscars; at that point, it felt more important to highlight under-represented voices rather than a Hollywood love letter to itself).
Sasha Stone, owner of Awards Daily
Doing this also means that your own personal opinions come out in your writing, and it seems that is where the problem lies. See, Sasha has for many years been a liberal. It's not too surprising when you consider the industry she is a part of and the people who she likely rubs elbows with, but for decades she proudly proclaimed herself to be a feminist who championed liberal causes. She was in support of gay marriage being legalized, openly opposed George W. Bush and the war in Iraq, and pushed hard for Obama to become the first black president. In terms of the movies she advocated hard for women to be recognized in the Best Director category and wrote many pieces (correctly) pointing out that it was ridiculous that for 94 years only one woman of color had won Best Actress up to that point (Halle Berry for "Monster's Ball").
That stat was finally broken when Michelle Yeoh won the prize for "Everything Everywhere All at Once," but even as recently as last year, she pushed for Lily Gladstone to win the prize for "Killers of the Flower Moon" when everyone else was gushing over Emma Stone in "Poor Things" because of what such a win would have meant to Indigenous people. Also (and I speak this as someone who took the following personally) she REALLY seemed to hate Christians! The reason I discuss all this is because none of this mattered too much at the time. Sure, some conservative Christians likely didn't visit her site, but she was ok with that. If people were offended by what she said, there were other Oscar sites to visit. And most would agree that they visited her site because her writing was high quality and she told it how she saw it. Isn't that what makes the best bloggers bloggers?
I kept reading the site because I respected her analysis on film despite how much she openly mocked my beliefs. I understood that not everyone can agree with what I believe and that this was a good thing because we all become better thinkers when faced with opposing ideas that can challenge (and in some cases strengthen) our beliefs. It seems not all of her audience believes in this philosophy. For a variety of reasons (which she writes about on her personal Subreddit), Sasha has become an ardent Trump supporter and plans to vote for him in the 2024 election. Some of her pro-Trump views have appeared in her Awards Daily blog posts and social media posts. Most of her concerns revolve around what she sees as the Democrat's dangerous push of gender transitioning, the government overstepping its bounds, and the fact that most people on the left are calling for more censorship.
To be clear, I do not agree with all of her points of view (nor do I disagree with all of them either). Except for a shift in politics though, she is the same writer as before, willing to passionately write about movies she truly falls in love with as well as willing to call out injustices in Hollywood as she perceives. This is how she has always been. Interestingly, when she was raving against Bush, the Republicans, and essentially telling her Christian readers to go have intimate relations with themselves, no one in the media seemed to care. They invited her to press screenings, gladly quoted her in their trailers, and used her site as a respected source when it came to the Oscar campaigns that have become so important since the battle of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Shakespear in Love."
But now, there is an article on her by The Hollywood Reporter that basically is calling her out on her supposed newfound Republican leanings. Sasha has claimed that her views haven't changed so much that the views on the Left have changed (there may be truth to that: when I was younger the Left advocated against censorship in media and how seems to openly call for it to spare people's feelings). Still, the situation is strange enough that I felt the need to write this editorial. THR article doesn't appear to be a serious news story so much as it is a vindictive hit piece, written not because some grave wrong has been committed but because Sasha has the "wrong thoughts" on her X account.
Now, yes, I will agree that her "white power" post was extremely ill-thought-out at best (outright offensive at worst), and some of her statements are a bit extreme. That being said, extreme verbiage to make a point is part of what made her writing catch everyone's attention all those years ago. And the thing about this article is that it seems to suggest (if you read between the lines) that this was fine when she was praising Obama and Hilary, but now that she is using her gift of gab in the other direction there is now a serious problem. The article goes on to claim that her readership has drastically changed, but isn't that what happens when politics are discussed: that certain political views will attract others with those views?
This is what was going on fifteen years ago. Why is the writer of the article (who I should mention is a VERY good journalist otherwise) suddenly surprised by this? Now, I must stress this again: this is not a piece where I defend everything she writes (I certainly don't). But one of the points she has made is that she feels the Left is an establishment that seeks to silence voices that don't conform with the cult that has been formed around their "religion." Whether this is a correct assumption or not, it certainly helps her case that THR reporter is so offended by her personal points of view that they are writing stories about her rather than...well, basically anything else that is more worthy of being reported on in this industry.
In fact, to me, it seems more or less classless for a fellow entertainment publisher to be writing "exposes" on colleagues in your industry. Unless said person has a history of sexual misconduct that has yet to be reported on or has found themselves in serious legal trouble, the personal opinions people write about on their own blog and social media accounts are their own business (literally in this case). No, I don't have to like what Sasha writes. I can personally question why she uses the official Awards Daily X account to share her personal opinions (I feel that is more suited for her private, locked account). But at the end of the day, we live in America and she is allowed to share whatever opinions she wants to so long as she isn't saying anything illegal. The fact that publications are trying to tear her down for what appears to be "thought crimes" is disturbing and (dare I say it?) a little Orwellian.
In fact, if you want an example of how to properly co-exist, all you have to do is listen to the "All this And the Oscars Too" podcast, in which she has movie discussions with her website editor Ryan (and other contributors from time to time). Now, Ryan's X account looks the exact opposite of Sasha's. One can tell that they have VERY different ideas on what the election means to them! Yet not only do they work together, but they can still have chats that are fun and cordial where they even agree to disagree once in a while. So honestly, if there IS something to be learned from this whole situation, it is that politics are ugly but people don't have to be ugly with each other. If there was a story to be told, I believe this was the one to tell.
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