Industry NewsOpinion

How Liberal Media Bias Extends to Arts Coverage

That bias seeps into other sections of the news, particularly entertainment coverage.

Consider a recent essay in The Hollywood Reporter: “Surviving Holiday Screeners. And Your Family. At Once.” Writer Gregg Kilday shared which Oscar-season screeners industry types can watch with their extended families. Here’s Kilday’s recommendation for “Uncle Jack,” a Fox News devotee:

” … you definitely don’t want to be sitting next to him if you’re watching Truth, starring Robert Redford. He’ll never buy the movie’s sympathetic treatment of Dan Rather and producer Mary Mapes. Instead, why don’t you set him up in the back den with Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario? He’ll probably miss the fact that it points to the futility of battling drugs on the U.S.-Mexico border, but it will fuel his Trump-stoked paranoia about the need to build a wall. If you’d just as soon drive him out of the house altogether, pop in Straight Outta Compton and turn up the volume — director F. Gary Gray’s re-creation of the early days of the California hip-hop group N.W.A should send him to the nearest exit.

Truth Official Trailer #1 (2015) - Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford Drama HD

So Fox News watchers won’t cotton to the “Truth” because it’s sympathetic to Dan Rather? How about the story’s alienation of the facts in the journalism scandal?

And why would Uncle Jack not enjoy “Straight Outta Compton,” an engaging look at a critical moment in rap history? Is he a racist because he watches Fox News? Or is it that the presumably white uncle can’t stand watching people of color for two hours?

What about “Cousin Cecilia,” a loyal MSNBC viewer?

She … won’t stop talking about what a great job Rachel Maddow did interviewing Hillary — while refusing her serving of white meat because the turkey isn’t free range. She’ll be happily outraged by Trumbo‘s look at the injustice of the Hollywood blacklist and Spotlight‘s exposé of Catholic Church pedophiles, and Beasts of No Nation probably will send her into a diatribe about how the Western nations have ignored the horrors taking place in Africa.

A gentle jab at liberal stereotypes, little more. And certainly nothing hateful aimed at poor Cecilia. How did this bias get past the editors? Kilday isn’t writing for The Nation or Rolling Stone, magazines with an overt, and long-standing, liberal bias. Readers plunge into their stories expecting a certain perspective on the news.

Think this is a petty example? How about the way entertainment outlets greeted this week’s news that a Ted Kennedy biopic focusing on his 1969 accident at Chappaquiddick was in the works? Here’s TheWrap.com’s description:

Kennedy was famously involved in a car accident that left campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne dead, jeopardizing the Senator’s political ambitions.

The Hollywood Reporter was the first to break the item, and here’s how the august publication spread the word:

On the eve of the moon landing, Senator Kennedy becomes entangled in a tragic car accident that results in the death of former Robert Kennedy campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne. The senator struggles to follow his own moral compass and simultaneously protect his family’s legacy, all while simply trying to keep his own political ambitions alive.

Struggles to follow his own moral compass? Given his personal history he was very likely drunk, but after leaving the scene he didn’t report the accident for 10 hours. Meanwhile, his companion drowned in the car he drove off of a bridge, while some experts suggest she could have been saved had Kennedy found immediate help.

Doesn’t that context matter here? Here’s Variety’s take on the project:

The script, written by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan, tells the true story of what is described as the most dramatic week of Senator Ted Kennedy’s life. Kennedy was famously involved in a tragic car accident in 1969 that resulted in the death of former campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, thwarting his political career.

These are just anecdotes, right? What about how mainstream entertainment sites spread every last “Jon Stewart Destroys…” or “Stephen Colbert Taunts” video over the past decade without mentioning the duo’s hard-left tendencies?.

Remember all of the above the next time a film critic raves about a Michael Moore movie or dubs an anti-abortion documentary sheer “propaganda.” Liberal media bias is as big a problem within the arts community as it is on the front page of your local cyber-paper.

Photo by Will White

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button