The beauty of a documentary is that it conveys the message that it’s serious, it’s real, it’s legitimate.  That it also is crafted to convince its viewers that it reveals a secret truth that powerful forces are trying to conceal isn’t considered a flaw, but a feature.  After all, if these forces were being honest, then there would be no need for some independent film maker to speak truth to power.

Unless, of course, the “truth” was born of paranoia or an agenda, and the documentary was nothing more than propaganda.  Robert De Niro fell victim to this problem.  In selecting films to be viewed at the Tribeca Film Festival, De Niro’s pet project, he decided to include “Andrew Wakefield’s antivaccine propaganda- and conspiracy-laden quackfest of a documentary entitled Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe.”

What made De Niro decide to include this controversial film?

Grace and I have a child with autism and we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined. In the 15 years since the Tribeca Film Festival was founded, I have never asked for a film to be screened or gotten involved in the programming. However this is very personal to me and my family and I want there to be a discussion, which is why we will be screening VAXXED. I am not personally endorsing the film, nor am I anti-vaccination; I am only providing the opportunity for a conversation around the issue.

It’s touching that Bob and Grace have a child with autism. Lots of people do, as autism has become a plague of rather devastating proportions.  And indeed, it is certainly worthy of “a discussion,” as children with symptoms on the austism spectrum are going to be a terrible problem when society comes to grips with the fact that we have no clue how to “fix” them, and they aren’t going away as they grow older.

But then, what does any of that have to do with vaccinations?  Well, some people believe it does. Not scientists. No competent physicians. More like people who wear tin foil hats and feel very passionately. And a lot of them seem to make a living from acting.  Who doesn’t turn to actors for valid scientific beliefs? Heck, if we trust them to inform us about politics, why not science?

The trailer for the film, filled with dramatic music, opens with the words “Are Our Children Safe?” on a black screen with billowing smoke that appears to be coming from a syringe. The trailer includes the suggestion that a “whistle-blower” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would say that the organization “had committed fraud” and “that they knew that vaccines were actually causing autism.” Mr. Wakefield appears in the trailer saying, “Wow, the C.D.C. had known all along there was this M.M.R. autism risk.”

Except there’s a downside to heeding the advice of paranoid nutjobs, that parents are refusing to have their children vaccinated, which means they are getting the childhood diseases the vaccines exist to eradicate. So too are other children with whom they come into contact, such that one parent’s paranoid delusions result in another parent’s child suffering disease.

M.M.R. stands for the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella that children 12 to 15 months old are supposed to receive. Scientific evidence has repeatedly shown the vaccine to be safe, highly effective and having no connection to autism. In recent years, serious outbreaks of measles have erupted, including one at Disneyland, partly because many parents have refused to vaccinate their children.

It’s not that the idea was so inherently crazy from the outset that no one bothered to research it, but that an enormous amount of research has been conducted, none of which provided any support for the claim.  Sometimes, the answer is that a cause that seems promising just isn’t the case. That’s when you let it go.

That’s also when you don’t try to make it “part of the discussion,” because insane beliefs do not further a discussion, but just make people stupider. When it comes to something that results in children suffering disease, the “maybe” argument doesn’t cut it.

De Niro, because he’s a terrific judge of scientific merit, was subsequently convinced that his request to include this propaganda film in his festival might not have been his best choice. It was pulled from the TFF.

“We do not believe it contributes to or furthers the discussion I had hoped for.”

Surprisingly, it was not replaced with a documentary about how autism was caused by space aliens, and the documentary about sexual assault on campus, The Hunting Ground, has aged out of TFF with its Oscar nomination for best cartoon.  But De Niro’s “start a discussion” pitch, then withdrawal, opened the door to the next set of accusations. This time, censorship.

“To our dismay, we learned today about the Tribeca Film Festival’s decision to reverse the official selection of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,” said director Andrew Wakefield and producer Del Bigtree.

“It is our understanding that persons from an organization affiliated with the festival have made unspecified allegations against the film,” the statement continued. “We have just witnessed yet another example of the power of corporate interests censoring free speech, art, and truth. Tribeca’s action will not succeed in denying the world access to the truth behind the film Vaxxed.”

De Niro is such a corporate tool.  On the other hand, Wakefield brings you secret hidden truth.

Since that time, Wakefield’s work was disavowed by medical journal The Lancet, which first published his study. After further investigation, Wakefield was stripped of his medical license.

Studies –including one paid for by anti-vaxxers — show no link between MMR and autism, with the medical establishment asserting that denying children the vaccine puts the whole population at risk of contracting childhood diseases that are close to being erased.

See?  See what they did there? Through the carefully orchestrated chicanery of misdirected manipulation by the Trilateral Commission, they created an argument designed to deflect attention from the true cause of autism: sexual assault on campus. Now you know the real truth. You can take my word for it.