Goldberg: Hollywood Conservatives Live in Fear
Bernard Goldberg blew the whistle on mainstream media bias long before casual observers could spot it a mile away.
His groundbreaking 2001 book “Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News
He followed “Bias” with “A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media
Now, Goldberg is turning his attention to Hollywood. And what the veteran news man has to say should shock you. Only we’ve seen evidence of what he reveals for quite a while now.
Call it hiding in plain sight.
Goldberg’s newest column, available to premium members of his web site, shares his recent trek to Hollywood. He chatted with the locals, from agents to actors, producers to publicists. He found an industry willing to hear only one side of the political aisle. Hint: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls it home.
It doesn’t end there, though.
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Once again we learn that conservatives in Hollywood mostly stay silent on the issues of the day. To do otherwise could cost them their next gig, or even their career.
Goldberg spoke to shy Hollywood conservatives as well as their ideological foes – Tinsel Town progressives. Like the best reporters, he doesn’t just engage one side of the aisle. What he found, though, should be alarming to anyone who clings to this country’s core principles.
“If you’re a conservative in Tinsel Town, it’s best to fly under the radar,” he warns. It’s why Goldberg doesn’t “name names,” affording his sources a measure of protection. It’s the kind of protection no Hollywood liberal asks for, or requires.
Today’s talent can share the most hateful, biased commentary and not fear a single repercussion. Just ask Tom Arnold, Joss Whedon or Jimmy “Blackface” Kimmel.
Director Joss Whedon Admits Hes More Upset About Trump Than His Mother Being Dead https://t.co/zi48JGsuIi pic.twitter.com/EyvN4LUCft
— Zesty Right Wing (@zesty_rightwing) May 16, 2017
A Hollywood conservative, by comparison, must stay in the ideological closet lest he or she incur the industry’s wrath.
A few exceptions to that rule exist. Clint Eastwood shares the occasional right-of-center view, but he’s an icon and someone who speaks sparingly on the issues. Tim Allen also leans right, but the bulk of his banter centers on his career and current projects.
He bent that rule after his highly rated comedy “Last Man Standing,” inexplicably got the ax.
Goldberg shares some other smart thoughts in his new column. They include the kinds of stories Hollywood could crank out if it were actually interested in fresh, challenging voices.
Those points hit home. Goldberg won’t leave the column’s critical points behind, though. He shrewdly compares the current climate to the Hollywood Blacklist era. Back then, industry liberals fought for artists to speak out sans fear of reprisal.
“Liberals were the courageous ones who stood up to the right-wing forces that wouldn’t let actors and directors and screenwriters work if they were so much as suspected of having communist sympathies,” he writes.
That was then. Today, the Hollywood Left stands down rather than defend their conservative peers. That’s wrong.
They’re equally silent on conservatives getting pummeled, sometimes literally, on universities nationwide. This reporter once quizzed “Avengers: Infinity War” star Josh Brolin about the campus fight for free speech.
He had no idea what I was talking about. Surely some of his peers do, though. And, so far, they’ve remained silent on the matter.
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Every few months a media outlet will dance around the truth. The Hollywood Reporter recently shared all the problems the folks behind a new movie “Roe v Wade,” endured for embracing a pro-life theme.
That same outlet casually mentioned how Hollywood conservatives consider the current climate “toxic” for their livelihoods, which Goldberg dutifully reminds us.
Once again, Goldberg raises a critical issue in our culture, one most news outlets happily avoid.