As the documentary movie “Sound of Freedom” turned out to be the surprise box-office hit of the summer, liberals and the media that represent them are calling child trafficking, as represented by the film, a “QAnon-worthy theory.”
Even the Anchorage Daily News had to sideswipe the movie as a “faith-based child trafficking film,” instead of saying it is a film exposing crimes against children.
The ADN also gave a stink-eye to Attorney General Treg Taylor for offering to buy tickets for anyone on his staff to see the film. Instead of pursuing the success of the film, the newspaper focused on insinuating that Taylor made an ethical blunder.
The blunder? The state’s top law officer offering movie tickets for his employees to see a film about …. wait for it … law and justice.
This, from a newspaper that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the difficulty of justice in rural Alaska, which it labeled “Lawless.”
Rural Alaskan Native girls are known to be targets of sex traffickers in Anchorage and the world beyond, because they can be marketed as various races to pedophiles. But the newspaper finds fault with the film because it is faith-based.
Mexican Eduardo Verástegui is the producer and Jim Caviezel plays the lead character in “Sound of Freedom,” which tells of the real-life story of Tim Ballard, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent who is credited with saving numerous children from traffickers who control prostitution rings that service pedophiles. Most of these children were rescued in other countries, where child trafficking is known to be lucrative. The storyline in “Sound of Freedom” involves a rescue in the jungle of Colombia.
Thousands of Alaskans have seen this non-Hollywood movie that reaped $19.7 million last weekend, according to tracking site Box Office Mojo, and has now crossed over the $50 million mark. It’s the third-most popular movie in the country currently, after “Insidious: The Red Door,” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”
But many in the media have targeted the film and labeled it QAnon, a conspiracy theory dreamed up by conspiracy theorists on the Left.
The media doesn’t just say it’s a “conspiracy theory,” but decides for viewers that the film is “controversial.”
“The anti-child sex trafficking film that’s faced criticism over its QAnon ties has grossed more than $50 million at the domestic box office, Deadline reported, making it one of the top 25 highest grossing domestic films of 2023 so far,” Forbes wrote.
“The idea that elite cabals of child sex traffickers lurk everywhere is a core QAnon idea. But the company behind the film denies it’s fueling conspiratorial thinking,” wrote the BBC.
“It should be noted that the real-life Ballard has been accused of exaggerating his rescue narratives,” wrote the New York Times, quoting the aptly-named “Vice” publication.
“A partially crowdfunded religious drama has become an unlikely summer hit among moviegoers (at least, among those who can contend with its ingrained QAnon conspiracies),” wrote the culture reporter for The Daily Beast.
Why does the Left and the media hate the movie so much?
Ballard, who started Operation Underground Railroad, was an informal advisor on sex-trafficking issues to President Donald Trump in 2019. Ballard’s organization has been targeted by left-stream media, which had taken no notice of Operation Underground Railroad before, ever since Ballard advised Trump.
On Fox News, Ballard addressed the multiple instances of the media linking the film to QAnon:
“I can’t explain, and neither can they. They just like to throw the word out, QAnon. They make zero connection to the actual story. It’s very difficult to make that connection when it’s actually based on a true story.”
The filmmaker Verástegui says that child trafficking is the fastest growing illegal trade in the world: “You can sell a bag of cocaine one time, but a child five to 10 times a day.”
“Sound of Freedom,” which premiered on July 4, is showing in several places in Alaska this week, including multiple showings at Cinemark Century Anchorage on 36th Avenue, Regal Totem on Muldoon Road, and Valley Cinema in Wasilla.
In Juneau, it’s playing at Glacier Cinema on Cinema Drive, in Kenai it’s still listed at the Kenai Cinema, and in Fairbanks it is on the screen at the Regal Goldstream.
Angel Studios, the production company behind “Sound of Freedom,” reports that more than 450 new theaters would screen “Sound of Freedom” starting July 14.
