Oscars: With the academy at a crossroads, critics should be more thoughtful in their complaints

I come not to bury the academy, but not necessarily to praise it either. Rather I come, with a nod to Jonathan Swift, with a modest proposal for people to cut it a little slack.

I know, I know, mistakes, as the saying goes, have been made. But exactly what were they? What circumstances influenced the decisions? And more to the point, did the severity of the punishment fit the crime?

Or does the savageness of the anti-academy response, the waves of rabid protesters attacking the institution like it was a Taliban stronghold and they were tireless "World War Z" zombies, have more to do with the piling-on culture