In Hollywood, being a conservative is the kiss of death. — Jonathan Kahn
Today’s entertainment-industry conservatives can only wish they lived under the same type of blacklist practiced in the 1950s. As terribly misguided as that was, there was at least an honesty to it. There was an actual list and when you were on it you were told you were on it and understood why your phone had stopped ringing. This gave its victims something to fight against and better yet, no one tried to stereotype them as untalented, paranoid whiners for daring to mention its existence.
Today’s Progressive Hollywood Blacklist is a much more insidious thing. By design it functions in a way that still punishes those who stray from the ideological plantation but like the elephant behind Jimmy Durante, remains hidden well enough in plain sight so that when you try to point it out, the progressive blacklisters can say, “What elephant?” even as they laugh in your face.
As we witnessed with Jonathan Kahn’s coming out in the Wall Street Journal last week, the Progressive Hollywood Blacklist is a system upheld with no small amount of help from the entertainment media. They are Leftist Hollywood’s professional character assassins specialized in the dark art of keeping the industry ideologically pure through the stereotyping of conservatives.
As you’ll see from the examples below, the new blacklist works in small ways and large, against big stars and those on the rise. Regardless, the entertainment media’s role is always a huge win-win for the intolerant Hollywood left. First, this dishonest stereotyping (usually through ridicule) of conservatives as no-talent malcontents makes them much less attractive to work with in any capacity — thus creating another excuse to keep conservatives away from the powerful and influential levers of our popular culture. Second, media’s cruel game of Conservative Whack-A-Mole is deliberately designed to send an intimidating message to anyone else thinking of declaring themselves as right-of-center. The more isolated industry conservatives are — the more alone they feel, the less likely they are to attempt to form the kind of alliance that wields any kind of influence.
Patrick Goldstein
Patrick Goldstein of the L.A. Times:
Patrick Goldstein has been a senior film writer at the L.A. Times for decades. He’s also one of Hollywood’s chief ideological enforcers, constantly using his high-profile perch at the Incredible Shrinking Newspaper to run interference for any conservative criticism that comes Tinseltown’s way. As we demonstrated last week, when it comes to investigating a story that might derail the leftist narrative, whatever journalistic gene Goldstein might possess is completely smothered by the butt-boy one that keeps him in good stead with those he’s charged with covering.
But Goldstein is worse than just a denier/excuse-maker, he is a bonafide progressive blacklister doing his part to make conservatives unemployable in Hollywood.
Last week, in his savagely dishonest attack on Kahn, Goldstein used provable lies to smear the man. So effective was this hit job that any industry-insider who read Goldstein’s column would be perfectly in their rights to write Kahn off as something he is not — an untalented, has-been whiner.
In his article titled, ‘Tea party’ troubadour says: ‘In Hollywood, being a conservative is the kiss of death’, this is how Goldstein, one of the entertainment industry’s highest profile writers, described Kahn to industry insiders everywhere. Please read closely:
However, like so many other conservatives who have made “kiss of death” claims, Kahn can’t back it up. In the entire Journal story, he didn’t come up with even one tiny specific example of liberal bias against his work. Born into a wealthy Pacific Palisades family, the 42-year-old writer earned good reviews for an early 30-minute short, 1993’s “Chili Con Carne,” but in the ensuing years, according to IMDB, he’s only managed to direct one film, the 1998 teen drama, “Girl,” about groupies and rock stars in the Seattle music scene, which earned lukewarm reviews and barely got a release.
Based on that very limited output, it’s seems like quite a stretch to say that Kahn’s politics have held him back. But that’s what all too many conservatives do. They put the blame for their stalled careers on liberal Hollywood, when lack of marketable talent might be a far more likely source for the problem.
1. Goldstein lumps all conservatives into the unattractive caricature he dishonestly paints of Kahn. This is how the blacklist works.
2. Goldstein scrounges the Web and focuses only on what he calls “limited output” to paint Kahn’s career as a has-been relic of the early nineties. This is how the blacklist works.
3. To make Kahn look like a complainer, Goldstein writes, “it seems like quite a stretch to say Kahn’s politics have held him back.” Huh? Where did that come from? Certainly not from Kahn. The point of the article is that Kahn, who seems perfectly happy with his career, has been undercover all this time. This is how the blacklist works.
4. Though Goldstein was obviously eager and willing to Google-Google-Google to find the cherries necessary to pick Kahn apart, he willfully ignores — LIES through the sin of omission — the information that blows his caricature to pieces. From the WSJ:
One person stunned to hear of Mr. Kahn’s double life as a tea-party troubadour is top Hollywood record producer and Grammy Award-winner Walter Afanasieff. The two have worked on projects for years and are now midway through writing and producing an album for a young singer.
Goldstein Googles his way to a foregone conclusion, but the most relevant information about Kahn’s career — found in the exact same WSJ article that inspired Goldstein’s hit-job in the first place — is intentionally ignored.
This is how the blacklist works.
Progressive Kryptonite
The fact that Jonathan Kahn has had a years-long working relationship with a top Grammy Award-winning record producer (who was kind enough to go on the record) wasn’t lost on Goldstein. He didn’t miss that. It just didn’t fit the unspoken mission statement to use his high-profile blog to dishonestly twist conservatives — and Kahn in particular — into someone no one would hire.
This is how the blacklist works.
How do you think Goldstein felt when he read this:
After digesting the news [Kahn is a conservative], [Afanasieff] adds, “It’s very wise he’s going incognito.”
On the record, that’s a top Grammy Award-winning producer saying entertainment industry conservatives would be wise to stay in the closet. Well, if you re-read Goldstein’s blacklisting smear-job you’ll know exactly how he felt when he read it — like he better cover it up.
Goldstein uses his entire piece to mock Kahn’s suggestion that being a conservative in Hollywood is “the kiss of death”, even as he proves Kahn 100% correct.
Kyle Buchanan at Movieline:
Movieline is a fairly new filmsite but don’t underestimate their influence. Their corral of superior snarksters enjoy all kinds of access to big name stars and directors. In other words, the industry reads them.
Kyle Buchanan chose to headline his piece about Kahn’s coming out this way:
Director of Obscure Dominique Swain Movie Refashions Himself as Tea Party Martyr
Like his fellow traveller Goldstein, Buchanan proves that he has plenty of time to Google up snark-worthy material, but quite intentionally he also refuses to mention Kahn’s years-long working relationship with a Grammy winning producer — or that producer’s statement about how it might be a good idea for industry conservatives to keep their mouths shut.
This is how the blacklist works.
Then, even as Buchanan effectively blacklists Kahn through full-throated ridicule and lies of omission, he tosses out another maneuver straight from the Progressive Blacklisters Playbook: He trots out the openly-conservative Kelsey Grammer, Jon Cryer and Patricia Heaton as proof that there’s no blacklist (Goldstein’s pulled this ploy, as well).
This is obviously the bringing of oranges to an apple party. Comparing those who came out after they had already become famous to those like Kahn who who aren’t famous, is absurd on its face. And both Buchanan and Goldstein know this. But this is what dishonest leftists (did I just repeat myself?) do; they try to wear you down with nonsensical soundbite arguments.
Speaking of Patricia Heaton….
Mark Harris
Mark Harris at Entertainment Weekly:
In Gary Graham’s thoughtful piece on the blacklist he mentioned an article about Patricia Heaton written by Mark Harris, no less than the former Executive Editor of Entertainment Weekly. In an otherwise glowing review of Heaton’s latest sitcom “The Middle,” Harris dropped this warning about the two-time Emmy winner:
The Middle, ABC’s beautifully written and acted, underheralded family sitcom — and a show that, to admit my own bias, I expected to hate, since many of the political views of its star Patricia Heaton are about 8,000 light-years to my right. I’m not sure exactly how Heaton and the show’s creators — veterans of the lefty-populist ’90s classic Roseanne — found common ground.
The fact that the former top guy at one of the most influential entertainment publications on the planet expects to hate anything outside of his liberal worldview is for another post. Look again closely at what Harris is doing here:
I’m not sure exactly how Heaton and the show’s creators — veterans of the lefty-populist ’90s classic Roseanne — found common ground.
The insinuation is obvious. Since it’s impossible for Harris to dismiss Heaton’s talent, all he has left is to express bewilderment over the idea that liberals can somehow work constructively with dreaded, difficult conservatives.
What a surprise! How unexpected! How uncommon!
Message: Bringing a conservative on board normally means tension, chaos and failure.
This is how the blacklist works.
By the way, Roseanne is as hard left as they come, and by all reports was a unholy terror to work with. My guess is that Heaton’s desire to see taxes lowered and terrorists killed would be a welcome psychological vacation for anyone who once found themselves in the orbit of She Who Dresses Like Hitler — which I guess is okay if you didn’t cheat on Sandra Bullock.
But Roseanne’s not as hard left as Tony Kushner, the playwright and screenwriter who wrote Steven Spielberg’s anti-Schindler’s List, the dreadful AIDS opus Angels in America, and who is probably most famous for trashing Israel at any given opportunity.
According to Wikipedia, Harris and Kushner are long-term partners.
Amazing the kind of people Harris can get along with, no?
Jackson Williams at The Huffington Post:
Matthew Marsden, an up and coming actor who’s costarred in Blackhawk Down and both Transformers films made the mistake of quietly attending a conservative gathering of Christians interested in the future of our country and the culture.
Williams outted Marsden on the front page of the Huffington Post with an article whose title must have made the young actor’s blood run cold:
And this is how Williams mischaracterized those “right-wing views”:
Last month, the handsome co-star of movies like Black Hawk Down, Rambo (2008 edition) and Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, appeared at a secret, far-right conclave in liberal Austin, Texas. How secret? It wasn’t even listed on the hotel’s public calendar.
The sponsor was an outfit called the “Council for National Policy.” According to a 2007 story in the New York Times, the conservative group was “founded 25 years ago by the Rev. Tim LaHaye as a forum for conservative Christians to strategize about turning the country to the right.” LaHaye was then-head of Jerry Falwell’s “Moral Majority,” and is co-author of the popular “Left Behind” series that predicts and then depicts the biblical Apocalypse from the specious Book of Revelation.
I don’t know Marsden’s politics. Maybe like some of those 1950s actors who found themselves hauled before committees to explain that they went to “a meeting” to impress a girl, Marsden was just curious about how the other side thinks. Or maybe he wanted to impress a girl.
No matter, HuffPo bagged and tagged the up and comer; and in doing so intentionally sent a chilling message to anyone else in Hollywood thinking about sticking their toe into an illiberal pool.
Even privately.
This is how the blacklist works.
This blacklisting also happens in small ways that are meant to accumulate over time. Because I can’t find the link I won’t name the site, but just before Big Hollywood launched, a pretty big film-site did a “Where Are They Now?” piece on “The Goonies.”
Everyone involved in that iconic film had their resume updated based on their show business accomplishments. But not Robert Davi. All the update mentioned was his political identity as a conservative Republican. No mention of his run on “Profiler” or the “The Dukes,” his feature writing-directing debut that was winning festival awards at the time. Nope, just a Big Red Bush-Lover Flag, as though his politics represented his entire identity.
Whether you’re a big star like Patricia Heaton and Robert Davi, a behind-the-scenes veteran like Jon Kahn, or a star-on-the-rise like Matthew Marsden — if you step out of ideological line the message is clear: You will pay a price.
And those in the entertainment media wielding the knives are nothing less than Blacklisters — partisan idealogues willing to do anything to retain Hollywood’s ideological purity.
In Hollywood, being a conservative is the kiss of death. — Jonathan Kahn
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