Hollywood Reporter Admits the Ugly Truth

Roughly once a year a major media outlet corroborates every conservative’s fears about La La Land.

The industry actively discriminates against the Right, and the problem is only getting worse.

You’d think an industry stung by the McCarthy era, a time when Communist sympathizers faced career suicide, or even jail time, might be wary of a historical reboot.

And you’d be wrong.

The same holds true for the reporters covering Hollywood. They also look the other way as the industry mistreats people based on their political ideology.

A hyperbolic charge?

If that isn’t the case, where’s the outrage? Show us the countless think pieces about the horrors of the new blacklist, and how wholly un-American it is. If an august body like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association lacks diversity, you’ll find plenty of articles bemoaning that state of affairs.

When Gina Carano dared to think for herself on social media, countless movie sites cheered on her possible dismissal from “The Mandalorian.” (And it worked…)

Agree or disagree, but the HFPA is but a tiny slice of the Hollywood pie. An industry treating roughly half the country like second-class citizens, and that’s being kind, seems a far bigger story.

And reporters don’t care.

A few years back The Hollywood Reporter let this paragraph slip in a story about the Trump Effect in La La Land.

While THR spoke to dozens of Trump voters, few wished to announce their support, citing their desire to avoid backlash from co-workers. One makeup artist, for example, says longtime clients stopped hiring her after learning she was a Republican.

The latest proof is an equally revealing morsel in a thoughtful Hollywood Reporter feature. The story takes a microscopic bite out of a much larger issue, but it’s one that has profound consequences.

When Filmmakers Ignore the Political Right, Is That Financially Wrong?

The article explains how a select number of right-leaning projects are cleaning up in the marketplace, from The Daily Wire’s “Run Hide Fight” to Amanda Milius’ terrific documentary, “The Plot Against the President.”

THR argues, with little proof against it, that Hollywood is leaving piles of cash on the proverbial table by ignoring right-leaning audiences. It’s a question every studio and network executive should be asked, but we’ll give the far-left THR credit for simply mentioning it.

That’s not the buried lede that matters most, though:

Daily Wire isn’t alone in chasing the politically right-leaning movie audience, which is distinct from but can overlap with the lucrative faith-based film market. More than 70 million Americans voted for Donald Trump in the November election. And, at the moment, there’s little Hollywood content that directly appeals to them. That leaves a big opening for those willing to risk ostracization from the rest of the industry. [emphasis added]

Yes, by entertaining 70 million Americans you might hurt, if not crush, your Hollywood career.

Let. That. Sink. In.

There’s another nugget to be found in the piece, one supplied by a savvy conservative just entering the film marketplace — Milius herself. It points to a wave of new content aimed at a niche audience starved for attention – all 70 million of them.

“If Hollywood is going to make an ideological business decision to not produce content that the majority of America wants to see, I don’t have any problem with that,” Milius tells THR. “Because they’re leaving a giant pile of money on the table, and my company has no problem taking that.”

Photo by Max Bender on Unsplash