PETA or PITA (People Inciting Trouble for Attention) as it’s known in the Frenz household, is up to their usual silliness and media whoring. A tad harsh and unsubstantiated you might say? Oh, I don’t know. It seems the stories from the Associated Press may be unsubstantiated. Of course I couldn’t help wondering about my friend Heidi (a former AP reporter) who swore up and down to me that the AP always gets two reliable sources before running a story. Are you sure about that Heidi? Wait! She’s written a piece about her bafflement over this:

Libeling “The Hobbit” – A Former AP Reporter’s Take

I don’t pursue stories about movies or celebrities, because it’s too close to my personal interests and quite frankly would be a conflict of interest for me to cover.

But this week when a story broke about animals being mistreated on the film set of “The Hobbit,” I raised an eyebrow and put my coffee cup down on the table, a little stunned.

The first part of the problem was that the source for the information was the animal rights group PETA. The second part of the problem was that the news organization that broke the story was where I used to work in the mid- to late-’90s: The Associated Press.

Understand this…

Read the rest here.

And now a little something for Sir Pete:

Dear Sir,

I know you don’t like to come stateside too often. Having looked around at photos and video of New Zealand, I don’t blame you. But your lack of exposure to some of our buffoons (lucky you) may be showing. I’m talking about PETA. Any Yank with half a brain knows they’re a joke, and their media whoring is legendary and would be offensive if it weren’t so funny. Unfortunately, the Associated Press chose to give them credibility. I think I know how that happened.

A writer from “The Onion” infiltrated the AP’s ranks and started making wild accusations. Of course it was all intended to be a harmless joke, but sadly, it went awry. What else to explain the idiocy of running a story that trusts PETA to come with something valid?

Okay, so I don’t know what happened. I’m just making that up. Maybe I should call the AP. They might take me seriously.

Okay, okay, I’m being serious now. Whatever the case with the animals and The Hobbit production, I’m inclined to believe you, and no, it’s not because you have that devastatingly handsome British actor playing Thorin. It’s because you’re not stupid. I’m having a hard time thinking you would have been dumb enough to jeopardize the production for something so easily remedied.

And when I think of how PETA has conducted themselves in the past, well, it’s pretty easy to come down on your side. Earlier this year they cited Sea World as violating the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The allegation hinged on the definition of ‘slave’:

PETA’s attorney Jeffrey Kerr told HuffPost that the animal rights group’s argument was based on the belief that “slavery doesn’t depend upon the species of the slave, any more than it depends upon the race, gender or ethnicity of the slave. SeaWorld’s attempts to deny [orcas] the protection solely based on their species is the same kind of prejudice used to justify any enslavement. And prejudice should not be what determines constitutional rights in this country … Because they can suffer from the prohibitive conduct of being enslaved, the 13th Amendment protection against that conduct should be extended to them.” source

Thankfully, the judge wasn’t an idiot and threw out the suit and thereby kept ‘slave’ from being redefined to something that would have minimized the very real struggle of people who were enslaved.

And now PETA may be trying to redefine ‘died’ since it seems the horses in question are not only alive but according to their owners came to no harm.

So I’m sorry you had to mess with all of this silliness, and I believe, as it is with almost all of PETA’s claims, this too shall go into the annals of their lunacy. Until then, take care.

Sincerely,
A ridiculously sane person, who on the side happens to be a crazy fan of that Brit actor

P.S. I was tempted to apprise you of PETA’s hypocrisy, but I think I’ve made my point.

edit: since the people at PETA don’t have enough real issues to pursue, I’ve got one for them. They need to find out what animal had to die so Phil Spector could look insane at his trial:

November 21, 2012
Categories: Movies, The Hobbit . Tags: Associated Press, Associated Press ain't what it used to be, candid shots, fake fan letters, people who don't have enough to do, PETA, Peter Jackson, Phil Spector, Richard Armitage, Thorin Oakenshield . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 27 Comments