Okay, here we go again. What was most likely a joke has continued to get more ‘serious’ exposure. Last week we reported the news that a petition had surfaced to rename the film ‘The Two Towers.’ The reason: “(The Two Towers) is clearly meant to refer to the attacks on the World Trade Center.” If that nugget of lunacy wasn’t enough, The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) and MSNBC picked up the story and posted it in their movie news section yesterday, further propagating this completely off-base allegation. Worse yet, the reports claim the petition has 1200 signatures. Now, we understand the petition page does ‘say’ that 1200+ people have signed it, but come on folks, do the research! As a public service to both major media outlets and fans out there, we’ll give you the facts. 80% of those signatures are marked as ‘false entry voided.’ Of the other 20%, the majority are fans, like us, mocking the stupidity of the petition. I’m getting a little worried. We are quickly running out of clue bus tickets.
Now, what can we do about this? Sign a counter-petition? Nah. Lets just remind the news sources they need to do a little more research. Don’t get nasty or anything, but just a friendly reminder to check their facts will help. Email the authors of the MSNBC story and the folks at IMDB. The links to their email can be found at the bottom of the following pages. [MSNBC article] [IMDB article]