MSNBC/Newsweek tackles the matter of nominating Fahrenheit 9/11 or The Passion for an Oscar. Given that they are the two most talked about movies of the year, it seems like both should be recognized by the Academy.

Look, Hutton Gibson’s an anti-Semitic nut, I’ll grant that…but The Passion is not anti-Semitic. If the Academy doesn’t recognize The Passion, they’ll have to explain why a director’s father’s nutty politics in a newspaper interview are relavent but a director’s child molestation charges don’t stand in the way of his netting an Oscar for The Pianist.

As for Michael Moore…frankly, I’d rather see his movie running as a film than as a documentary, since it plainly isn’t a documentary. But if it isn’t nominated, I won’t shed a tear.

Of course, if F9/11 wins and the Passion isn’t even recognized, it may cement the way the Oscars are viewed by the public for the next few decades. Indeed, this article is worth reading just for the insight it gives into how Academy voters view the public.