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Perceptions and Reality
By Ed Driscoll · March 25, 2005 04:09 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted

Ed Morrissey writes that Dan Glickman, the new president of the MPAA, and probably someone who would consider himself part of the "reality-based community", has a problem with, well, reality:

The new president of the MPAA met with Christian Toto of the Washington Times to discuss the challenges of replacing the only other man to hold that position, Jack Valenti, in the changed political climate in which Hollywood finds itself. Dan Glickman, former Agriculture Secretary under Bill Clinton, acknowledged that working with two Republican-controlled branches of government would present some difficulties, but it seems the first hurdle for Glickman might be reality instead:
The president of the Motion Picture Association of America says Hollywood must build a bridge to the Republican-controlled Congress in order to deflate perceptions of a liberal bias. ...

"There's no question in the general world there's the perception that the entertainment community is to the left of the country as a whole," Mr. Glickman told editors and reporters at The Washington Times yesterday. "I've got to build bridges with the people who run the show."

The former congressman dismissed the notion that the movie industry acts as one entity, but admitted that's precisely how the public reacts whenever a handful of liberal actors back Democratic candidates.

No sir, that is how the public reacts when it is given a steady diet of films and television entertainment which relentless portrays Republicans as Snidely Whiplash characters and Democrats as the heroes. Watch such highly-regarded fare as West Wing, The American President, and The Contender -- all well-financed and A-list productions -- and tell me that Glickman can't see a trend. Michael Douglas provides the stirring climax at the end of TAP by loudly proclaiming every leftist talking point known to mankind in response to Richard Dreyfuss' one-dimensional portrait of a comic-book Republican attack dog. Gary Oldman -- who later complained that his attempts to moderate his portrayal were edited out of The Contender -- gets to play a creepy, loutish, and hyopcritical GOP leader while Joan Allen portrays a martyred VP nominee and Jeff Bridges plays a courageous, cigar-chomping Democratic president in one of the most politically biased A-list dramas I've ever seen. And those are just the political dramas. Let's not forget last year's The Day After Tomorrow, with its ridiculous disaster-flick treatment of global warming, complete with its own eeeeeevil Dick Cheney clone.

And Glickman ignores completely where the power brokers in Hollywood put their money. We're not talking about a "handful of liberal actors" supporting Democratic candidates. People like Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and others who have the money and power to get films made put big money into Democratic coffers while Hollywood Republicans have to hide in the shadows to get work. Michael Moore strings together a series of lies and dishonestly edited clips to make his paean to Leni Riefenstahl, Fahrenheit 9/11, and the Hollywood community hails him as a hero, while conservative Mel Gibson makes an apolitical movie about Jesus Christ -- and gets figuratively crucified for it.

Meanwhile, Brent Bozell reads this week's Time magazine cover story (which is titled, "Has TV Gone Too Far?") so you don't have to:
Parents across America should thank Time magazine for putting the issue of indecency in broadcast and cable television front and center this week, asking the question, "Has TV Gone Too Far?" The poll commissioned by Time suggested the majority of Americans believe this to be true. Most Americans want a change.

Time’s poll found more than half of America's TV watchers — 53 percent — think the Federal Communications Commission should place stricter controls on broadcast-channel shows depicting sexual content and violence. An imposing 68 percent believe the entertainment industry has lost touch with the moral standards of the audience.

So much for Hollywood’s cushiest defense: We only reflect society. Society is now responding, loudly and unambiguously: No, you’re dramatically out of touch.

The numbers condemning Tinseltown cascade: 66 percent said there is too much violence on open-air TV, 58 percent said there’s too much cursing, and 50 percent found too much sexual content, the Time poll said. So upset is the public that about 49 percent, agree that FCC regulation ought to be extended to cover basic cable, which includes raunchy reality shows on MTV and the over-the-top FX shows "The Shield" and "Nip/Tuck" on many cable systems.

Bozell adds, "This is no fluke. Other polls have found similar results", and provides examples of them.

One reason why Hollywood has gotten so far out of touch with the families and reasonable people that make up the bulk of its audience is that its undelying core of modern liberalism itself has as well, to redefine "the reasonable man" to champion the farthest elements of society.

And of course, Hollywood's Ponzi-style accounting helps to cushion its many bombs, but sooner or later, as the record industry has found out the hard way, film and television's lack of touch with its audience in middle America has to start rebounding.



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