Christian Toto — the right-wing film reviewer who thinks he’s a political pundit — wrote his final column for the Media Research Center on Sept. 20, and he went out on that same attitude.
In his Aug. 9 column, Toto claimed that Jimmy Fallon was “extending an olive branch to the half of the country” by having Greg Gutfeld as a guest, cheering it as a sign that “Fallon actually wants Red State America to tune in.” But he barely identified Gutfeld as a right-winger, nor did he complain that Gutfeld excludes “half of the country” with his right-wing attitudes.
Toto used his Aug. 16 column to hype the film “What Killed Michael Brown?” and groused that Amazon “initially rejected” it, going on to praise “the film’s measured tone and solid craftsmanship.” He didn’t mention that the film is a right-wing take, as suggested by the title itself implying that Brown deserved to die and that the police officer who actually killed him had no responsibility.
Toto’s Aug. 23 column touts the film “The Elephant In the Room,” aboug “a dyed-in-the-wool liberal” who falls for “a handsome MAGA man.” He cheered that the liberal woman is depicted as “still too smug by half,” but lamented that the MAGA buy was softened, “a sop to audiences who wouldn’t accept an “election denier” as a leading man.” He didn’t explain why anyone should have to accept an election denier who denies facts.
In his Sept. 6 column, Toto whined about “British comic Graham Linehan’s arrest this week over allegedly anti-trans social media posts” — but failed to mention that those posts threatened violence against transgender people.
Toto’s Sept. 13 column complained about a “blacklist” of “industry professionals boycotting Israeli-linked film organizations” because they are companies “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” He played lazy whataboutism in response: “We didn’t see any such list demanding the release of the hostages in the last year. Hollywood did initially rally, to a degree, against Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 atrocities.”
Toto’s final column on Sept. 20 whined that Rolling Stone dared to defend “ghouls who publicly cheered on the assassination of conservative icon Charlie Kirk” who were losing their jobs, snarking that “it’s what the Left once called Consequences Culture.” But has Toto ever demanded that conservatives suffer consequences for their inflammatory speech?