Journalist Doug Ireland calls The Aviator a mendacious film that "glorifies the odious Howard Hughes. Scorcese [sic], of all people, ought to know better than to have done so." His objections are the non-treatment of Hughes' blacklisting of Hollywood writers accused of Communist activities in the 1940s, his challenging of the Writers Guild, his work with the CIA and being what Ireland calls "a notorious anti-Semite...as well as a briber of politicians."